SIR Keir Starmer is facing tough questions over the collapsed China spy case after the UK’s terror law watchdog launched an investigation.
Jonathan Hall KC last night said Beijing was a “threat to national security” and confirmed he was investigating why the case against two alleged spies was dropped.
Jonathan Hall KC described Beijing as a ‘threat to national security’
Lord Sedwill, a Cabinet Secretary and National Security AdviserAlamy
He said the Government’s account was confusing and insisted the public deserved “a much fuller explanation”.
The UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism and state threat laws told LBC: “What’s going on with the prosecution is something that I’m investigating.
“I know quite a lot about it now and I don’t think that the public explanation that’s been given so far is at all adequate.”
His comments pile fresh pressure on Sir Keir, who is already facing a growing backlash from former senior civil servants and Tory MPs over the collapse.
Parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, were last month formally declared not guilty of spying.
The Crown Prosecution Service blamed ministers for failing to provide key evidence that China was a national security threat at the time of the alleged offences.
But Sir Keir blamed the Tories, saying his hands were tied as China had not been formally designated a threat under the last government.
The Tories accuse him of lying and putting “appeasing China for economic reasons above national security”.
Lord Sedwill, a Cabinet Secretary and National Security Adviser under the Tories, said he was “genuinely puzzled” by the Government’s explanation.
He told The Crisis Room podcast: “The truth is that, of course, China is a national security threat to the UK.
“Directly, through cyber, through spying and so on, and indirectly, because of some of their aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea and elsewhere, which potentially disrupts trade routes on which we are dependent.”
Lord Sedwill’s intervention came after Lord Simon Case — Sir Keir’s former top civil servant — also cast doubt on the PM’s defence, saying spy chiefs had for years warned of the danger from China.
At a press conference in India yesterday the PM insisted: “I can be absolutely clear, no ministers were involved in any of the decisions since this Government’s been in, in relation to the evidence on this issue.”
PM Sir Keir Starmer is facing tough questions over the collapsed China spy caseReuters Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
