MPs have announced a formal inquiry into the collapse of the case against two men accused of spying for China, after Downing Street published key witness statements in an attempt to draw a line under the row. Matt Western, the Labour MP and chair of the joint committee on the national security strategy, told the House of Commons there were “a lot of questions yet to be asked”.
The case against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher, collapsed last month when prosecutors dropped the charges, saying the government had not provided evidence that China represented a “threat to the national security of the UK”. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.
Ministers released three witness statements from the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, after accusations that they had interfered with the trial to protect trade relations with China. The statements, written in 2023 and 2025, said Beijing’s intelligence agencies “conduct large-scale espionage operations” that “harm the interests and security of the UK”. Chris Ward, a Cabinet Office minister, insisted the decision to abandon the trial was taken purely by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and that Collins had “taken significant strides to articulate the threat of China”.
Downing Street faced questions about why the prime minister did not intervene. Tom Tugendhat, the former shadow security minister who employed Cash, accused Sir Keir Starmer of hiding behind process. But the prime minister’s spokesperson said the suggestion he should have stepped in was “frankly absurd”, adding that doing so would have been interfering in a criminal matter relating to a previous government.
Stephen Kinnock, a health minister, said the government was “deeply disappointed” the prosecution did not go ahead and that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, was “the best person to explain” the CPS’s decision. Alicia Kearns, a Conservative MP who also employed Cash, said she would question Parkinson, adding: “In my view the CPS should have proceeded with this.”
