cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/4925575
Alicia Kearns, the Tory MP for Rutland & Stamford, was in her Westminster office with her researcher, Chris Cash, going over some amendments to a forthcoming bill when she received a telephone call asking her to go to the parliamentary security office.
It was March 3, 2023. Kearns, who then chaired the China Research Group, a group of Beijing-sceptic Conservative MPs, expected to be told about a new threat made against her.
However, she was met in the office by police — and potentially members of the security services — as well as parliamentary staff. They asked her to sign the Official Secrets Act again. Alicia Kearns MP.
She recalled: “They told me they were going to arrest Cash — and another man, Christopher Berry — in ten days’ time, who they believed had been spying for China.”
So began a saga that ended when charges against the two were dropped last month just before the trial was due to begin.
[An investigation] can shed light on the chain of events that led to that decision.
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Luke de Pulford of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said: “This is the most shocking abrogation of national security responsibility in recent memory. Collapsing of a case of this severity and importance to avoid upsetting China is unforgivable, and nobody involved should be within a barge pole of anything related to national security ever again.” The decision to drop the case at the 11th hour has angered ministers and MPs, as well as the police.
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Iain Duncan Smith [the former Tory party leader who has been sanctioned by China] added: “I think Downing Street is a risk to national security at the moment… I really am embarrassed about this British government. They’re on bended knees to China.”
He insisted China was indeed an “enemy” and that there were “many more” Chinese spies in the UK. President Xi was “out to destroy what we consider to be the key tenets of our system, which is the rule of law, free speech, democracy”, he said.
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‘Mega-embassy’ decision
The most generous explanation for the decision to withhold the most detailed intelligence is that evidence of the thawing relationship between the two countries would have undermined the case.
However, some cynics believe it shows that the government is willing to prioritise closer economic links to China over national security.
A decision on whether to approve China’s “mega-embassy” in London is expected within weeks. Beijing has been trying to redevelop the former Royal Mint buildings near the Tower of London since 2018. The plan was initially refused by Tower Hamlets council in 2022. It is understood that the Chinese foreign minister raised the issue with David Lammy, the former foreign secretary, during a visit to London this year. President Xi had earlier done the same in a call to Starmer.
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[Edit title for clarity.]