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Senior Conservative MPs have called on two parliamentary committees to start an inquiry into prosecutors’ unexpected dropping of a case into alleged Chinese spying in parliament.
Alicia Kearns, shadow national security minister, and Tom Tugendhat, a former security minister, called on the home affairs and justice committees to probe the Crown Prosecution Service’s handling of the case.
MPs reacted with fury in a debate this week to the dropping of the prosecution. Politicians close to the case told the Commons they had been told the outcome of the two-year investigation was a “slam dunk” and questioned whether there had been political interference.
The CPS on Monday said it would not proceed with charges against Christopher Cash, 30, from Whitechapel in east London, and Christopher Berry, 33, from Witney in Oxfordshire, citing a lack of evidence.
The pair had been due to go on trial in October charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act 1911.
Kearns and Tugendhat wrote in a letter to the heads of the two committees that, given prosecutors’ failure to explain their change of course, there was “overwhelming parliamentary and public interest” in an inquiry.
An inquiry would no longer be subject to parliamentary restrictions on discussing cases that are before the courts or sub judice, they pointed out.
“Such an inquiry, protected by parliamentary privilege, would allow [MPs to look at] the full facts of the case which are now no longer subject to sub judice restrictions and can be properly examined,” the MPs wrote.
The move will increase pressure on Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to explain the case’s dropping more fully.
The Labour government has been accused of sometimes prioritising increased trade with Beijing over security, and in July left China off the top tier of the British government’s new register to track “covert foreign influence”.
The government said in an audit of China in June that instances of China’s espionage, interference in the UK’s democracy and undermining of its economic security had increased in recent years. But they said they still wished to increase trade.
Cash was previously director of the China Research Group, a hawkish Conservative campaign group on China-UK relations co-founded by Tugendhat. Kearns had been due to be called as a witness in the trial.
Security minister Dan Jarvis said this week that the CPS made the decision to drop the case wholly independently, and the Home Office said it was “disappointed” the case was dropped.
Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle on Monday said he was “very unhappy” and that MPs could not “let this go”.
Kearns and Tugendhat said the parliamentary select committees should use their powers to seek evidence from senior figures including the MI5 and MI6 security services and counterterror police.
“Throughout the inquiry, counter terrorism police and the deputy national security adviser consistently described the evidence as compelling, and the police have since told us they were confident of their case,” Kearns and Tugendhat wrote.
Some MPs have raised the possibility of trying to revive the case by bringing a private prosecution. But lawyers have said that would be unlikely to succeed.
Kate McMahon, a lawyer who specialises in private prosecutions, said decisions to prosecute under the Official Secrets Act 1911 were typically taken with great care and only after review.
“To restart [as] a private prosecution would be difficult,” she said.
Henry Blaxland KC, a barrister for Cash, said that there was an “absolute bar” to private prosecution because the court had acquitted the men by entering not guilty verdicts when the prosecution was dropped.
In general, a person cannot be prosecuted for the same offence twice.
A lawyer for Berry declined to comment.
The two men have always said they were innocent and on Tuesday Cash accused MPs of a “further campaign” to assert his guilt, which simply amplified the injustice he had already had to face.
Andy Slaughter, chair of the justice committee, did not immediately respond to a request to comment, while Dame Karen Bradley, chair of the home affairs committee, declined to comment
