MPs demand chief prosecutor explain China spy case collapse

The head of public prosecutors is under growing pressure to comment on the failure of a lawsuit against two men accused of espionage for China. MPs are demanding that Stephen Parkinson provide a full explanation of why charges against parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and academic Christopher Berry, 33, were dropped last month. Both men deny the allegations. Parkinson attributed the failure of the prosecution to lack of sufficient facts demonstrating that China was a threat to the UK's national security. However, calls for clarification have increased since the government released witness statements on Wednesday outlining Beijing's danger.

Mr Parkinson, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), has been given until Friday next week to answer a string of questions about why the case collapsed. He is likely to be hauled before MPs to testify, as well as a joint national security commission of MPs and peers that has launched a formal investigation. Both Mr Parkinson and the government's committee chair, Labour MP Matt Western, said there are many questions to be answered by both Mr Parkinson's and the administration. As soon as possible, Western said that the committee will like to hear from the government and officials as soon as soon. The intelligence and security committee, another parliamentary group, has opened a separate inquiry into how classified information was used during the investigation.

Witness statements

Mr Cash and Mr Berry were charged last year under the 1911 Official Secrets Act, with the intention of gathering and publishing reports prejudicial to the state's safety and interests between December 2021 and February 2023. Prosecutors must demonstrate that suspects have passed on information that might be

directly or indirectly harmful to an enemy. Mr Parkinson said in a letter to MPs last week that a court decision in ancillary proceedings involving allegations indicated that these countries were

at the time of the suspected offences. After struggling to obtain sufficient evidence from the government to mention China, CPS lawyers dropped the case, he said. It sparked a controversy among ministers, with Sir Keir Starmer saying he was

that the trials did not proceed and publishing government witness statements submitted to the CPS. The three remarks, written by deputy national security advisor Matthew Collins, make it clear that the Chinese are operating intelligence operations against the UK. China was

he said in the documents, and he suspected China of

Criticism of Starmer

On Wednesday, Mr Parkinson met senior MPs and was reported to have told them that the government's records fell 5% below what would have been expected to ensure a conviction. However, some MPs have expressed doubt that the CPS did not have sufficient evidence to support the lawsuit. Mr Parkinson, who was named director of public prosecutors in September 2023 under the previous Conservative government, has been thrust into the center of an extraordinary public row with ministers. Mr Parkinson is himself a successor to Sir Keir, with the prime minister leading the CPS between 2013 and 2018, before entering Parliament two years later. Parkinson, a former partner of Kingsley Napley, started out as a barrister before deciding to become a solicitor in 2005. In a May 2023 interview with The Times, he had been critical of Sir Keir's time in the role before his appointment as director of public prosecutors, describing the now-prime minister as an average DPP. According to him, Labour chiefwas over-reliant on others' advice; he had no in-depth knowledge of suing. He was a defense and human rights advocate. Mr Parkinson recalled how he had initially declined to university due to poor predicted grades, but then decided to reconsider after his actual results turned out to be higher than expected in a interview in April. He took a year out to apply for a bachelor's degree, while working as a dustman on a kibbutz and as shilling pen salesman in South Africa.