Starmer national security adviser accused of blocking spy case is senior member of shadowy lobby club China ‘uses to groom UK elite’

The senior government adviser at the heart of the espionage row in China was a member of a secret network Beijing used to groom Britain’s elite.

Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer’s national security adviser, was a member of the Group of 48, a lobby club founded by British communists that allegedly ‘groomed’ British politicians and businessmen into falling under the influence of the Chinese Communist Party.

Sources pointed the finger at Mr Powell for the Government’s failure to point out that China posed a threat to national security; This negligence led to the collapse last month’s trial of Chris Cash and Christopher Berry on charges of passing secrets to China between 2021 and 2023, the Director of Public Prosecutions said. Both men were officially declared not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.

The Conservative Party accused ministers of causing the collapse of a major espionage case because they feared naming China a national security threat could jeopardize trade relations.

The government denied intervening in the case.

The 48 Group, one of the most prominent pro-China lobbying organizations in Britain, says its aim is to improve trade relations between the two countries but has been accused of furthering the Beijing regime’s wider aims in Britain, as this newspaper first reported in 2020.

His bosses include Peter Mandelson, the Labor ambassador who was recently sacked as Britain’s ambassador to the US over his links to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Both Tony Blair and former Tory Chancellor George Osborne attended events hosted by the 48 Group in London.

Parliamentary aide Christopher Cash, 30, (pictured) and British teacher Christopher Berry, 33, have been charged with espionage under the Official Secrets Act.

Cash (not pictured) and Berry (pictured right) were due to go on trial this month, but their cases were halted after the Crown Prosecution Service said it could ‘no longer proceed with the trial’ due to lack of evidence

Another member of the Group of 48 is Yang Tengbo, 50, an alleged Chinese spy accused of developing business ties with Prince Andrew on behalf of the Communist regime.

Tengbo, 51, was banned from re-entering the UK on national security grounds in December.

Mr Powell is listed as a ‘friend’ of the Group of 48 on its website.

Lord Powell, 84, of Bayswater, former private secretary to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, is also among the group’s members, along with Blair, former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, former London mayor Ken Livingstone, former Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable and Labor leader Jack Straw.

Jonathan Powell, 69, was Tony Blair’s private secretary from 1997 to 2007 and joined banker Morgan Stanley shortly after leaving Downing Street.

He later founded a ‘conflict resolution’ think tank called Inter Mediate in 2011.

As part of this duty, he made several trips to China, where he held meetings with the Grandview Institute, which is called the ‘front’ of China’s main foreign intelligence agency, the Ministry of State Security (MSS).

A former diplomat, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘I was told before my visit to Grandview that it was an MSS cover. ‘I’ve been told this officially.’

Some of Grandview’s senior friends either worked as MSS intelligence chiefs or were in the People’s Liberation Army.

Mr Powell attended an event hosted by Grandview in September last year, titled the US-China Strategic Security and Stability Dialogue, a month before he became Sir Keir’s national security adviser.

On Saturday, Clive Hamilton, author of a respected book on China’s influence abroad called The Hidden Hand, said Mr. Powell could be compromised by his connections to both the 48 Group and Grandview.

He said: ‘Powell appears to have close ties to an organization in China full of senior intelligence officers. Grandview is a spy den.

‘This seems naive at best. For the prime minister’s national security adviser, this is beyond belief. I’m guessing he has no idea who his new friends are. He is either spying on them or is convinced of their view of the world.

‘Whatever the case, Powell’s position has become untenable, especially [the collapse of the spy case] with two Christophers.”

On Saturday, The Times reported that Cabinet ministers thought Mr Powell’s position was becoming increasingly unsustainable.

One of them said: ‘I am concerned that a narrative is being created that we are not strong enough against China. Our strategic approach [under Powell] a little blurry.

‘He’s almost become a Cabinet minister in the sense that the focus is on himself and his policy positions, which is never a great situation to be in as an unelected official.’

Mr Powell did not comment but a Cabinet Office source said he was not currently or had ever been a member of the Group of 48, although his name appeared as a member on its website.