British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has faced severe criticism for the role of his aide, Jonathan Powell, in the collapse of a spy trial. The accusations emerged after a spy case related to China was halted due to lack of evidence.
It is reported that Powell decided that the government should not refer to China as an “enemy state” in court. As a result of this step, the rare espionage trial against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, whom official London accused of transmitting information to the Chinese Communist Party, collapsed. They were alleged to have collected information about state policy from parliament between 2021 and 2023.
Former conservative politicians and some MPs accuse the government of deliberately weakening the case to protect relations with Beijing. MP Iain Duncan Smith stated that if witnesses were forbidden from describing China as a “threat”, then the responsibility for the failure of the process lies directly with the government.
The incident has raised questions about the softening of policy towards China in the UK. In the Starmer government's national security strategy, China is described as a “geostrategic challenge”, but is not officially recognized as a “threat” or “enemy”.