MPs press top prosecutor over collapse of spy case

The director of public prosecutions was under pressure last night to explain why the China spy trial had collapsed, as MI5 raised frustration over the decision and MPs launched a series of inquiries.

- Eleni Courea Dan Sabbagh

The chairs of the home affairs, foreign affairs, justice and national security committees together wrote to Stephen Parkinson calling on him to give “a fuller explanation for the dropping of charges”.

They asked the head of the Crown Prosecution Service “what steps did you take to make ministers aware” the case was at risk of collapse because of a change in case law that required China to be designated a “threat to the national security of the UK”.

The committee chairs also asked whether Matthew Collins, a deputy national security adviser and key witness, was warned his testimony might be insufficient and “what consideration was given to seeking evidence from other sources”.

Parkinson is expected to be summoned before MPs to explain why the CPS dropped charges against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, in September, a month before a trial had been due to start.

MI5's director general, Ken McCallum, said yesterday that he was disappointed by the decision and revealed that the security services had disrupted a threat from Beijing within the past week, though it was not related to parliament.

“Of course I am frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security-threatening activity are not followed through for whatever reason,” the spy chief said, emphasising he would “never back off from confronting threats to the UK”.

Chinese state actors, McCallum added, posed a national security threat “every day” - and he warned that the number of individuals under investigation by the spy agency over all state-based threats had risen by 35% over the past year.