13 hours ago
Good morning. Late last night No 10 finally released the three witness statements written by Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, for the Crown Prosecution Service to assist its prosection of the two men alleged to have been spying on behalf of China.
The first document is here. At 12 pages, it is the longest, it was written in December 2023, and it sets out in detail the case against the two accused. Collins admits that none of the material passed on was “protectively marked” (ie, officially classified as secret), and the document makes it clear that the spying allegations (that the two accused have always denied) are not remotely in the Philby, Burgess and Maclean category. But Collins says their alleged activities were “prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK”.
The second document is here. It is dated February 2024, but apparently that is a mistake and it was submitted in February this year. It runs to three pages and it gives more information about the Chinese threat to the UK, and the identity of the senior CCP (Chinese communist party) who was allegedly the ultimate recipient of the information.
And the final statement is here. It was submitted in August this year and it sets out the government assessment of the threat posed by China, mostly quoting from reports published by the last government (in power when the alleged offences were committed), but with a final paragraph that sets out the Labour government’s view on China. It quotes the policy using the language used in Labour’s manifesto.
The Tories are alleging that ministers and officials deliberately intervened to get the CPS to drop the prosecution – either by leaning on the CPS, or by withholding from them the evidence they needed. There is no evidence at all to support the first theory (Keir Starmer’s denial on this point at PMQs yesterday was forceful), and the government is also dismissing the second theory too. It is said that Collins believed his witness statements were strong enough to allow a prosecution to go ahead.
But Kemi Badenoch has cited the final paragraph of Collins’ final witness statement as evidence that her claims are right. In a statement, she said:
Yesterday the prime minister insisted that the deputy national security adviser’s witness statements reflected the last Conservative government’s policy towards China.
Now we discover that a witness statement sent under this Labour government included language describing the current government’s policy towards China, which was directly lifted from the Labour party manifesto. Did an official, adviser or minister suggest that this should be included?
The government’s story is falling apart under scrutiny, and the only thing that is clear is that the prime minister knew the spy case was collapsing but did not act.
In truth, the witness statements published last night raise more questions for the Crown Prosecution Service than they do for the government. Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions (ie, head of the CPS), met senior MPs last night and, according to a report by ITV’s Robert Peston, they were not convinced by his claim that the government evidence was “5% less” than needed to reach the evidence threshold for the case to go ahead. Peston says:
I am told that the director of public prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has just told some of parliament’s most senior MPs - chairs of home, justice, foreign and security committees - that the evidence provided by the government’s witness in the China spy case, the deputy national security adviser, was “5% less than the evidence threshold that was needed.”
Parkinson told the MPs that the deputy national security adviser, Matthew Collins, had made it clear to the Crown Prosecution Service he was not going to provide the additional 5%. Which is why Parkinson canned the case. And as I said earlier, he informed the Attorney General Hermer of his decision to kibosh the prosecution.
The MPs were surprised by what Parkinson told them, to put it mildly. They asked why Parkinson did not get a second expert witness, to fill in the small gap left by Collins. The DPP in essence said that is not the way the CPS operates.
Last night Dominic Grieve, who was a Conservative attorney general under David Cameron but who has now left the Tories (over Brexit) and who has no interest helping Badenoch’s Labour-bashing over this, told Radio 4’s The World Tonight that, having read the witness statements, he was “mystified” why the prosecution did not go ahead. He said:
I am a bit mystified, having read the statements, as to what the issue [that blocked the prosecution] actually is.
Although the first statement dwelt particularly on what it was alleged the two individuals had done, the later ones did set out pretty fully what I recollect was the then government’s position on China – ‘epoch-defining and systemic challenge, with implications for almost every area of government policy and the lives of the British people’.
So it didn’t mince words about the Chinese threat. It goes into considerable detail about how that threat had manifested itself.
It is also right, however, that nowhere does it say a threat to our national security. It says a threat to our security of one point, but not to our national security.
And that leaves me extremely puzzled. I am puzzled as to why, in the light of the case which further defined the word enemy, it was felt in those circumstances this prosecution couldn’t proceed … When you read the totality of these statements, you could be left in absolutely no doubt that China was a threat to our national security.
There will be a lot more on this as the day goes on. Opposition MPs ar likely to push for an urgent question in the Commons.
Here is the agenda for the day.
9.30am: Martin Hewitt, head of border control at the Home Office, gives evidence to the Commons home affairs committee about the work of Border Security Command.
09.30am: Quarterly homelessness figures are published.
Morning: Keir Starmer is on a visit in London where he is likely to speak to the media.
Morning: Kemi Badenoch is on a visit in Chelmsford where she is likely to speak to the media.
11am: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, gives a speech to Confederation of School Trusts conference.
11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
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