Sir Keir Starmer has insisted the previous Tory government is to blame for the collapse of a high-profile case against two men accused of spying for China.
The prime minister admitted he is “disappointed that the trial didn't proceed”, but said “all the focus” should be on the Conservatives who were in power at the time of the alleged offences.
His comments come after the chief prosecutor has blamed the government the collapse of the trial, writing that the Crown Prosecution Service had tried “over many months” to get the evidence it needed to carry out the trial, but was rebuffed by the Labour government.
Director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson did not say who was responsible for the decision, but it has raised questions about Britain’s willingness to confront China. The decision reportedly came after senior Whitehall officials met to discuss the trial, including national security adviser Jonathan Powell and the Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Oliver Robbins, according to The Sunday Times.
The Tories have now demanded that the prime minister explains himself to Parliament.
But Downing Street has denied Mr Powell, a former chief of staff to Sir Tony Blair, was responsible.
Speaking on a trip to Mumbai, Sir Keir said: “We were disappointed that the trial didn't proceed, but the position is very clear that the trial would have had to take place on the basis of the situation as it was at the time under the previous Tory government. So whatever their position was, was the only position that could be presented at trial.”
He added: “Now that's not a political to and fro, that's a matter of law. You have to prosecute people on the basis of the circumstances at the time of the alleged offense, and so all the focus needs to be on the policy of the Tory government in place then. That's the only place that the evidence could be focused on. And I think that provides a sort of ray of spotlight into some of the issues that have been swirling around.”
Luke de Pulford, the head of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said Sir Keir’s attempts to blame the last Conservative government for the collapse of the case “is ludicrous”.
He told The Independent: “At exactly the same time, the government had been providing evidence to the Intelligence and Security Committee to produce a report on China, which contained reams of government evidence showing that China was a threat.
“It is not credible at any level to try to claim that no evidence was available, so the government's failure to provide evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service in this case must have been motivated by something else, and it looks very much as if it was motivated by a desire not to upset China.
“So the government stands accused of deliberately collapsing the allegedly the most significant breach of parliamentary security in decades in order to maintain better relations with China, which is an appalling abrogation of responsibility around national security to the United Kingdom.”
Conservative former attorney general Dominic Grieve said “there seems to have been a muddle” over the case. He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There needed to be focus on whether, in fact, China was going to be described as an enemy or not, and it may matter less how you describe it in official government documents as to whether you're prepared to put the evidence forward at a court case.
“From reading what the DPP has said, and also from seeing what Keir Starmer has said is that the simply seems to have been a muddle.”
The case against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry was dropped on 15 September, sparking criticism from Downing Street and cross-party MPs.
To prove the case under the Official Secrets Act 1911, prosecutors would have had to show the defendants were acting for an “enemy”.
It comes after Mr Parkinson sent a letter to the chairs of the home affairs and justice committees, explaining why the case had been unable to proceed.
He wrote: “It was considered that further evidence should be obtained.
“Efforts to obtain that evidence were made over many months, but notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated that at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security, and by late August 2025, it was realised that this evidence would not be forthcoming.
“When this became apparent, the case could not proceed.”
Mr Parkinson added that a High Court judgment in a separate Russian spying case last year ruled that an “enemy” under the 1911 act must be a country which represents a threat to the national security of the UK “at the time of the offence”.
Since the alleged spying offences took place, the National Security Act 2023 has superseded elements of the Official Secrets Act, which require proof that someone is working for a state classed as an “enemy”.
The prime minister’s political opponents have suggested he has questions to answer about how the case ended.
Mr Cash and Mr Berry have denied all wrongdoing.
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