British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday promised to release evidence provided to prosecutors by a senior official, seeking to distance ministers from the collapse of a China spying case which has led to weeks of criticism.
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In an unexpected move last month, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped charges against two men who had denied passing politically sensitive information to a Chinese intelligence agent.
The CPS said the decision was made because the additional evidence it needed, clarifying that China was a threat to UK national security, had not been forthcoming from the government after months of trying.
Starmer said the fault was with the previous Conservative administration, which was in power when the men were charged and which had only described Beijing as an “epoch-defining challenge”.
The trial’s collapse has led to accusations from opposition parties that the government had been responsible because it did not want to jeopardise ties with China.
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