A parliamentary researcher accused of spying for Beijing was at the ‘heart of government policy on China’, it can be revealed today.
Chris Cash was privy to top-tier briefings from former MI6 agents, diplomats, and government officials, acquiring significant insights on China’s-related policies before his dramatic arrest for allegedly leaking this information.
However, the case against him and an acquaintance who taught English fell apart last month after the Government didn’t label Beijing as a national security threat.
Keir Starmer argued that his options were limited, attributing the issue to the previous Tory government’s failure to declare China an adversary at the time the incidents allegedly occurred.
The Daily Mail revealed that while the Government declined to support the Crown Prosecution Service with a corroborating witness statement, then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy openly called Beijing an ‘enemy’ of the UK during a parliamentary debate.
His remarks were made nearly a year before the prosecution against Mr. Cash and Chris Berry fell through, as the Government’s national security adviser hesitated to make a similar assertion in court. Both individuals have strongly denied any misconduct.
Today, shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns discloses that she had been informed of her targeting in the alleged espionage activity and shares her concerns stemming from the situation.
In one alleged spy dossier were details of the hotel where she stayed in Taiwan on a fact-finding trip as chairman of the foreign affairs committee. In an exclusive interview, Ms Kearns, 37, told how she worries she may have been bugged during the 2022 trip after China threatened that her visit would result in ‘repercussions’.
Chris Cash (pictured) received high-level briefings from former MI6 spies, ambassadors and ministers, gaining extraordinary intelligence on China-related policies before he was dramatically arrested on suspicion of passing on secrets
Shadow national security minister Alicia Kearns (pictured) has revealed she was told she was targeted in the alleged spying operation
She said: ‘They could have got in that room at any time. You can’t be sure that the room hasn’t got a bug or a camera somewhere. There could be photos of you walking around your hotel room naked.’
The mother-of-three fears others Mr Cash met through his parliamentary work may also have been exposed, including Chinese dissidents, victims of ‘transnational repression’, and those intimidated in secret Chinese police stations in the UK.
Mr Cash, with whom she worked for more than a year, was at the ‘heart of government policy on China’, gaining insight from the Foreign Office, Home Office, Treasury and Department for Business and Trade, she says.
In 2022, he was appointed director of the China Research Group, set up by Tory MPs to shape government policy on China amid concerns about Beijing’s attempts to extend its influence in Britain.
The 30-year-old worked on key decisions such as the TikTok ban on government devices and exposing covert Chinese police stations in the UK.
Over the year-long period he is accused of spying until February 2023, Mr Cash spoke to ‘every top China expert in the UK’, from academics and think-tanks to intelligence officials, civil servants and industry leaders in what Ms Kearns believes would have been ‘gold dust’ for Beijing.
The extraordinary revelations will raise yet more questions about why the case was ditched on the eve of trial despite multiple government ministers branding Beijing an enemy.
The Prime Minister has sought to blame the last government’s stance on China, saying the Tories did not designate China as a threat to national security at the time of the alleged offences.
Keir Starmer has claimed his hands were tied when refusing to class Beijing as a national security threat, blaming the previous Tory administration for not designating China an adversary at the time of the alleged offences
But his now deputy described the Chinese as ‘enemies’ of the UK and the US in a bid to defend Labour’s surrender of the Chagos Islands in a Commons debate last year.
Yesterday, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper admitted: ‘We know China poses threats to the UK national security,’ adding: ‘I am deeply frustrated about this case, because I, of course, wanted to see it prosecuted.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the Daily Mail: ‘The Labour Government themselves are describing China as an enemy, and yet at the same time refusing to hand over to the Crown Prosecution Service documents from 2021 to 2023 that demonstrate the threat China posed.
‘By refusing to do this, they’ve caused an espionage prosecution to collapse, undermining our national security and giving a green light to China to spy on the UK.’
He added: ‘It is a total disgrace that Mr Lammy was happy to describe China as an enemy of the UK to defend the surrender of the Chagos Islands, yet when it comes to defending our own national security, Labour is unwilling to do the same.’
Mr Cash and Mr Berry, 33, deny any wrongdoing, with their lawyers describing the evidence against them as ‘threadbare’.
Accused’s blog reveals China didn’t make a great first impression
By Chris Pollard
China’s president. Mr Berry and his friend Chris Cash, a parliamentary researcher, strenuously denied charges brought under the Official Secrets Act. The case collapsed last month after the Government refused to label China a threat to national security.
Mr Berry’s since-deleted travel blog, called With A Backpack, offers a tantalising glimpse at his early life in the Communist powerhouse.
Calling himself a ‘traveller, teacher, chopstick amateur’, the Oxford native documented his struggle to settle in the ‘distant land’ of Hangzhou, a city of 13 million in eastern China.
He had secured a teaching job at Dongfang Middle School through Opportunity China, a firm which helps students and lecturers find employment.
As well as English, he taught economics. In a cheerful profile on the school’s website, he said he wanted to make the subject seem a little less ‘dismal’, adding: ‘I hope students will learn something that can be applied in their real lives, whether they decide to study economics further or not.’
It is understood Mr Berry also found love in China, and went on to have a baby called Oscar with his partner.
The blog, updated regularly from January 2016, was closed in May 2018 – the year he and Mr Cash met in Hangzhou and three years before it was claimed he started communicating with the intelligence agent. When contacted, Mr Berry declined to comment.
