Cooper says she was unable to prosecute China 'spies'

Yvette Cooper has claimed that she wanted alleged Chinese spies prosecuted when she was home secretary, but that her hands were tied.

- MILLIE COOKE, DAVID MADDOX

The case against Christopher Cash, 30, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, 33, a teacher, collapsed last month after the government failed to provide evidence that Beijing was a threat to national security.

But a row has erupted after shadow home secretary Chris Philp claimed that Sir Keir Starmer’s team had access to “multiple” documents that proved China was a national security risk before the collapse of a spying trial.

The shadow home secretary claimed the government could have handed these papers over to prosecutors, but it “chose not to”, and accused ministers of having “destroyed the prosecution” of two men accused of spying for Beijing.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today, Ms Cooper, the foreign secretary, who was in charge of MI5 at the time, said she wanted the case prosecuted and was “deeply frustrated” when it collapsed.

But she added that ministers were “not involved in any of the evidence that was put to the Crown Prosecution Service ... because this was a criminal case”.

A senior Whitehall source has told The Independent that “we don’t have national security. We have something much more dangerous: the illusion of national security.”

The source claimed that the “UK is at war but neither this government nor Rishi Sunak’s were prepared to go on a war footing.”