Bombshell new details emerge in China spy fiasco | Politics | News

Britain’s attorney general is facing increasing pressure over the China spying debacle after a key witness removed his description of Beijing as an “enemy”.

National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell said in his statement that he was aware of the bombshell change made by Matt Collins, deputy of the Counter Terrorism Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.

According to Mr Powell, this means the CPS knew the word “enemy” had been removed before charging the two suspects.

Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry Accused of passing classified information to Beijing.

But the case collapsed because the government did not name China as a threat.

And two years before the case collapsed, they warned that they could not call China an enemy.

Prosecutors blamed Mr. Collins’ witness statements for dropping the case.

But the admission brought attention back to Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Mr Sunak was the only politician to see the original statement before ministers and advisers were blocked by the DPP.

Counterterrorism police asked the Deputy National Security Adviser on November 24 to provide “more details” about the threat posed by China and its spies.

The letter sent to the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy said: “He was also asked to comment on whether China was a State that posed an active threat to the national security of the United Kingdom in the period between 31 December 2021 and 3 February 2023, and to confirm whether this continued at the time of writing.

“Following CTP’s approach on May 10, 2025, a third witness statement was given on August 4, 2025.

“CTP has specifically requested that DNSA provide further details regarding the UK Government’s assessment of the nature and extent of the threat to the UK from China.

“Examples were sought to support the CPS’s finding that China was an ‘enemy’ under s.1 OSA 1911 at the time the offenses were alleged to have been committed.

“CTP made it clear that they were only asking for the government’s opinion on the threat from China at the time of the crimes.”

However, the Government failed to produce the evidence prosecutors had hoped for, leading to the collapse of the case.

China hawk Neil O’Brien said: “The Labor government knew – by their own admission – that this case was about to collapse because they had not identified China as a current national security threat for nearly two weeks.

“But they didn’t do anything because they wanted to suck up to China.”

Lord Hermer, the attorney general, said in a letter to the JCNSS that he had been informed on September 3 of the DPP’s decision not to give any evidence – crashing the case – and had discussed the decision with him but “did not intervene in the case or give any instructions to the DPP”.

He said he did not share the information with his Cabinet colleagues at Mr Parkinson’s “express request”.

“I was not consulted about the decision and it would not be appropriate for me to be involved in any way or object to the decision to stay the decision based on the evidence,” he said.

In his own letter, Darren Jones said Collins’ testimony from three witnesses released last week was “consistent” in their assessment of the threat posed by China under the current and previous governments.

But he stressed that “the position of this Government is irrelevant” as the prosecution’s case was based on policy at the time the alleged crimes were committed.