MPs pressure top prosecutor over collapse of China espionage trial

“frankly absurd” for the prime minister to intervene when he was told a few days in advance that the case was on the brink of collapse.

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Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, also wrote to Parkinson demanding he release all the correspondence the CPS had exchanged with the government about its evidence.

The row concerns the decision to abandon a prosecution under the 1911 Official Secrets Act against Cash, a former researcher for Tory MPs Alicia Kearns and Tom Tugendhat, and Berry, a teacher, on 15 September. They have both denied any wrongdoing.

The CPS said previously it had dropped the case because the government had not provided sufficient evidence that China represented a “threat to the national security of the UK”, a definition required by espionage legislation, which has since been repealed.

On Wednesday, Starmer published the three witness statements submitted by Collins in an attempt to dispel claims the government had a hand in disrupting the trial. But the prime minister still faces questions over why he did not step in to stop the case from being dropped over the government’s evidence.