Cash and Berry The two friends accused of passing on messages

For Christopher Cash it was a job he adored. The young parliamentary researcher was a China specialist working successively for two influential backbenchers, Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, during 2022.

- Dan Sabbagh

At the same time, Cash was in close contact with a friend, Christopher Berry, a teacher in Hangzhou, eastern China. They discussed politics constantly, using an encrypted app. On 18 July that year Berry allegedly told him he had met a senior Chinese Communist party leader (though he now denies meeting anybody of that rank). Cash replied the next day that "you're in spy territory now". It was one of many messages between the two that were recovered by the Met’s SO15 unit, responsible for investigating spying threats to the UK.

Berry, it was alleged, had been tasked by a man known only as Alex, a Chinese spy with the state security ministry working for a front. Cash was Berry’s sub-source, passing on information from Westminster to Alex, who in turn shared it with Cai Qi, a member of China’s ruling politburo.