LONDON — Keir Starmer has promised to publish government witness statements provided to prosecutors handling the collapsed case of two men accused of spying for China.
The U.K. prime minister told MPs on Wednesday there would be a “short process” before the statements are published in full.
Starmer’s government has been under pressure to explain its role in compiling evidence, after Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson stated that the case against the two men had imploded because the government refused to label Beijing a “threat to the national security of the U.K.”
Christopher Cash, 30, a former researcher for a Conservative MP, and Christopher Berry, a 33-year-old teacher, were due to face trial this month on charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act between December 2021 and February 2023, for allegedly spying for China, which they have strongly denied.
The charges were dropped last month after the Crown Prosecution Service said the “evidential standard for the offence indicted is no longer met.”
Conservative Leader Kemi Badenoch has repeatedly questioned how the government failed to produce the evidence needed for the CPS. She accused Starmer of a “cover-up” during weekly questions to the PM. Prosecutors had previously been satisfied with a decision to press charges based on where the law stood at the time, she said.
The government has repeatedly blamed the previous Conservative government’s stance on China – refusing to designate it as a threat to national security – for the collapse of the case because that was when the offenses were allegedly committed.
Starmer insisted in parliament that “no minister was involved, no special adviser was involved in this.”
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