The collapse of the China spying case has effectively “killed” some active operation in Beijing because details of the case have been made public, a UK intelligence source has told The i Paper.
The claims come as Britain’s top spy, MI5 chief Ken McCallum said he was “frustrated” at the failure of the case to go to trial and MPs heaped pressure on the Director of Public Prosecutions who pulled the plug.
“We’ve done our job and caught them red-handed, and it’s just been thrown under the bus,” the intelligence source said.
They added that the UK had been working closely with US intelligence on the operation — cooperation that could now be at risk.
“They’re now facing a battle with the US saying, ‘We can’t trust you anymore.’ Never release anything that reveals how you got it.”
The intelligence chiefs are referring to the witness statements released by the Prime Minister which contain a number of significant details about the intelligence operation which identified the two men accused of spying.
MPs demand answers from the DPP
It comes as MPs have demanded answers from the chief prosecutor over how the alleged Chinese spying case was allowed to slip through their fingers, despite apparently damning evidence.
Pressure is mounting on the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) after Downing Street appeared to lay the blame at his door over the handling of the case.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case against ex-parliamentary staffer Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry after concluding evidence did not show China was a threat to national security.
Both men, who deny the allegations, had been accused of passing information to the Chinese state.
But questions have arisen about how the case failed to proceed with claims that the government, and its Tory predecessor, failed to say China presented a threat.
But a statement by deputy national security adviser Matt Collins was published, acknowledging China’s large-scale espionage, which has been interpreted as presenting the necessary information, while stressing ministers’ desire for close economic ties with the state.
Senior parliamentarians have now written to the DPP, Stephen Parkinson, demanding to know whether ministers and officials knew the future of the case was hinging on their evidence.
Christopher Berry (left) and former parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash. Photographer: PA Provider: PA WireThey asked if Collins had been aware at the time that failure to deem China a “current threat” would allow the case to collapse.
The chairs of four Commons committees – covering national security, home and foreign affairs, and justice – told Parkinson the “seriousness of the allegations […] implications for UK national security […] and the need to support the integrity and independence of the criminal justice system” meant it was in the public interest for further details to be shared.
Dame Emily Thornberry, the Labour chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One she “really wasn’t impressed” by the reasons the CPS gave for dropping the case.
“I just don’t follow why we couldn’t have a [director of public prosecutions] who was a bit more robust and just put it in front of a jury,” she said.
“I just wish we had a Crown Prosecution Service that was a bit more robust and just went for it.”
No10’s spokesman said that, whilst he said Starmer “had confidence” in the DPP, but side-stepped questions about whether the PM had been happy with how the attempted prosecution had been handled – saying it was for the CPS to answer.
The official said the PM had “made his feelings known about how disappointed he is that the case did not proceed”.
Formal inquiry announced into the case
The Joint Committee on National Security has also announced it is launching a formal inquiry into the case.
Opposition politicians had pointed the finger at Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, and his officials – accusing them of allowing the case to collapse.
In a letter responding to questions from Tory leader Kemi Badenoch, Starmer defended Collins and his National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell – insisting he would “not stand for anyone being unfairly blamed” for the collapse of the case.
The PM also said: “I can confirm that no minister or special adviser of this Government placed any pressure on any witness that the CPS intended to call to trial, nor did they seek to influence the outcome of the trial in any other way.”
His defence of staff came amid concern across civil servants about Colling being publicly blamed by ministers for the furore.
Caption: Director General of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, Ken McCallum, delivers the annual Director General’s Speech at Thames House, the headquarters of the UK’s Security Service, in London Photo by Jonathan Brady / PA WIRE / AFP)“Whitehall is up in arms about how Matt Collins has been treated,” a Labour source said. “The permanent secretaries are all acting like shop stewards and are furious. This whole row is a strange mixture of incompetence and genuine mistakes.”
The No10 spokesman rebutted any suggestion the Prime Minister – a former DPP himself – would have stepped in to overrule the decision, saying it would have been “frankly absurd” for him to do so.
The spokesman repeatedly told journalists it was a “criminal matter” for the Crown Prosecution Service to handle independently.
“The suggestion that the Prime Minister should have stepped in at this point is frankly absurd. “If he was to do so he would have been interfering in a case related to a previous government, a previous policy, previous legislation,” the spokesman added.
“In a criminal matter it is the CPS and the DPP that, quite rightly, have independent responsibility for prosecuting cases in this country.”
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It came as the current head of MI5 warned “Chinese state actors” present a national security threat to the UK “every day”, with the security services having carried out an operation against a threat from Beijing within the last week.
“In a speech McCallum said: “Do Chinese state actors present a UK national security threat? And the answer is, of course, yes, they do, every day,” he said. But he the judgment on the overall balance of UK bilateral foreign policy relationships with China is “a matter for government.”
“Of course, I am frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security threatening activity are not followed through, for whatever reason,” he added.
China has also waded into the row accusing “British politicians” of “attempting to smear and defame China”.
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