Former civil servants find PM's China take 'puzzling'

Ex-national security adviser says superpower always a theat

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Britain's former national security adviser has become the latest senior civil servant to raise questions about Sir Keir Starmer's explanation for the collapse of a case against two alleged Chinese spies.

Mark Sedwill, who held the post between 2017 and 2020 and has also served as cabinet secretary, said he found the prime minister's position "very hard to understand".

He said "of course China is a national security threat to the UK", directly, digitally, through espionage and through the country's "aggressive" behaviour in the South China Sea.

"I'm genuinely puzzled, to put it politely, about the basis on which this trial has fallen apart. We introduced the National Security Act because the Official Secrets Act was not fit for purpose," he told The Crisis Room podcast.

Another former cabinet secretary, Simon Case, who was Britain's top civil servant when Sir Keir became prime minister, has also questioned the government's stance.

Lord Case told