Pressure mounts on Labour over China spy scandal | Politics | News
Cases against former parliamentary inquiry Christopher Cash and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, collapsed after Labor failed to identify China as a “threat”.
Labor is also understood to have been accused of failing to pass on evidence from the security services regarding Chinese espionage activities in the UK.
It also included evidence of China’s hacking attempts and efforts to set up secret police stations to spy on dissidents.
Some believe this will be enough to convince a jury that China is a threat.
Ms Cooper told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I want to be clear that we know and have said that China poses threats to the UK’s national security, from transnational coercion to hostile cyber activity such as espionage.
“And of course they are a trading partner and a very important partner in the process of fighting climate change, for example. But I am deeply frustrated about this case because of course I wanted to see this go to trial.”
Ms Cooper this week repeated Sir Keir’s assurance that ministers had not interfered with any of the evidence presented to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
He added: “As the Prime Minister said, this was not just about the law in force at the time the crimes were committed, but also the government’s conduct at the time the crimes were committed. “And it’s not our job to say what that should have been in hindsight.
“So look, let’s be really clear, the activity alleged in this case must absolutely be illegal and face prosecution, and that’s why we’ve since supported changing the law, which makes it easier to prosecute these types of cases.”
The case against Mr Cash and Mr Berry, 30, was dropped in early September.
Mr Cash and Mr Berry were charged by the CPS in April last year with espionage under the Official Secrets Act 1911 and charged with collecting and passing on information “which might be of use to the enemy”.
Both denied the charges.
The Prime Minister argued that the last Conservative administration had not identified China as a threat to national security, so his Government could not provide evidence to that effect; Director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said this was necessary to meet the prosecution threshold.
Mr Parkinson said the CPS had been trying to collect material from ministers for “months” but this had not happened.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp, who served as Home Secretary between October 2022 and July 2024, said the UK had numerous documents and reports detailing the threat posed by Beijing.
He said: “The Government has a large number of internal documents and reports regarding the threat posed by China to national security in 2021-23. I spoke to colleagues who were relevant ministers at the time and they told me that these documents existed… The Starmer Government could disclose these documents privately to the CPS if necessary.”
“But he chose not to do so. Instead, he destroyed the prosecution by refusing to produce the evidence the CPS needed – evidence the Government clearly had.”
Chinese state-backed hackers targeted the Electoral Commission and accessed voting records of 40 million people as of August 2021. The breach remained undetected until more than a year later.
China was also accused of hacking the Department of Defense in May 2024, allowing hackers to access payroll information including bank details, names and addresses.
Ms. Cooper declined to ask whether China is “friend or foe.”
“Where there are national security threats, we need to take them extremely seriously and respond to them, and we continue to do that.”
A government spokesman said: “Keeping Britain safe remains our top priority. We face the complex and persistent challenges posed to the UK by China, cooperating where we can and challenging where we must, and always protecting our national security.”
