Government foreign minister, Hamish Falconer, has described Conservative outrage over the collapse of a case against two alleged spies for China as "nonsense," claiming the trial collapsed due to the previous government’s position on Beijing.
Charges against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry, a teacher, were dropped last month, prompting consternation across the political divide. The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said the trial collapsed because the government refused to brand Beijing a threat to national security.
Falconer blamed the collapse of the trial on the “ropey” and “archaic” Official Secrets Act and echoed the prime minister’s view that the Conservative government at the time needed to have branded China a threat to secure a successful prosecution.
To prove the case under the Official Secrets Act 1911, prosecutors would have had to show the defendants were acting for an “enemy”.
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