PM confronts China’s premier after arrest of parliament ‘spy’

Published

2 years ago

September 10, 2023

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Rishi Sunak has confronted China’s premier about Chinese interference in the UK’s parliamentary democracy.

It comes after two men were arrested under the Official Secrets Act amid reports a parliamentary researcher spied for China.

The researcher, who is in his 20s, is understood to have had links to security minister Tom Tugendhat, foreign affairs committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns and other senior Tory MPs.

Mr Sunak met Chinese premier Li Qiang, who is attending the G20 in place of president Xi Jinping, on the fringes of the summit’s final session on Sunday morning.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Sunak said he raised his “very strong concern” about interference with parliamentary democracy, which he said was “obviously unacceptable”.

It was the “right approach” to talk face-to-face with China’s premier, he said.

“Where there are areas of disagreement … I’d rather be in the room directly expressing my concerns, and that’s what I did today.”

The arrests were made in March and first revealed by The Sunday Times.

Mr Sunak has been clear China is an “epoch-defining” challenge, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk told Sky News’ Trevor Phillips on Sunday.

He defended security in parliament, saying a “rigorous approach is taken” in terms of who is given a parliamentary pass.

Asked if there are weaknesses in the security system that need addressing, he said: “I don’t think you should rule anything out”.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, which oversees espionage-related offences, are investigating.

Mr Chalk said the investigation must “play through” and police and security services are taking this “seriously”.

“Whatever lessons need to be learned by the parliamentary authorities I’m sure will be learned,” he said.

Asked about the view of some in parliament that China is a threat to the UK, Mr Chalk said “you can’t wish China away”, noting it is second largest global economy and key to tackling the challenge of climate change.

“We have to engage, but we do so with our eyes open,” he said.

Former cabinet minister and diplomat Rory Stewart told Trevor Phillips the UK needs to be “much, much more serious” about protecting itself against Chinese and Russian spies.

“It’s in the interests of authoritarian states to weaken countries like the United Kingdom, so we should be very, very cautious,” he said.

Both the allocation of parliamentary passes and the funding of MPs needed reviewing, he said.

“People with strong links to the Chinese Communist Party have been giving money to Labour MPs and employing former Conservative MPs,” he said.

One of the men, in his 30s, was arrested in Oxfordshire on 13 March, while the other, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh, Scotland Yard said.

“Searches were also carried out at both the residential properties, as well as at a third address in east London,” a statement from the force said.

The MPs he is linked to are privy to classified or highly sensitive information.

Both men were held at a south London police station until being bailed until early October.

Mr Tugendhat is said not to have had any contact with the researcher since before he became security minister in September last year.

Ms Kearns declined to comment, adding: “While I recognise the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardised.”

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China pressure group said it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the UK Parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China”.

Politics

China ‘enemy’ reference removed from key witness statement for collapsed spy trial

Published

3 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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China 'enemy' reference removed from key witness statement for collapsed spy trial

A reference to China being an “enemy” of the UK was removed from key evidence for a collapsed spy trial in 2023 as it “did not reflect government policy” under the Conservatives at the time, according to the national security adviser.

In the letter published by parliament’s Joint Committee on National Security Strategy earlier on Friday, National Security Adviser (NSA) Jonathan Powell said Counter Terror Police and the Crown Prosecution Service were aware of the change made by Deputy National Security Adviser (DSNA) Matt Collins.

This would mean the CPS knew the “enemy” reference had been removed before charging the two suspects, according to Mr Powell.

In another letter published on Friday, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson told the committee that it took DSNA Mr Collins more than a year to confirm to prosecutors he would not say China posed a threat to UK national security in court.

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The DPP said a High Court judge ruled in June last year that an “enemy” under law is a state which “presently poses an active threat to the UK’s national security”, prompting the CPS to ask the DNSA whether China fulfilled that criteria.

He added prosecutors did not believe there would be “any difficulty in obtaining evidence” from Mr Collins that China was a national security threat, but added: “This was a sticking point that could not be overcome.”

Mr Parkinson added that the DNSA’s “unwillingness” to describe China as an active or current threat was “fatal to the case” because Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry’s defence teams would have been entitled to call him as a witness.

The DPP added: “This factor is compounded by the fact that drafts of the first witness statement, reviewed by us in July 2025, showed that references to China being an ‘enemy’ or ‘possible enemy’ had been deleted.

“Those drafts would probably have been disclosable to the defence.”

A final draft of Mr Collins’ statement was sent to then-prime minister Rishi Sunak in December 2023, Mr Powell’s letter said.

“Drafts of a statement provided to DNSA included the term ‘enemy’ but he removed this term from the final draft as it did not reflect government policy,” the letter reads.

It comes amid a political row over the collapse of the prosecution of Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash last month, who were accused of conducting espionage for China.

Both individuals vehemently deny the claims.

Because the CPS was pursuing charges under the Official Secrets Act 1911, prosecutors would have had to show the defendants were acting for an “enemy”.

DPP Mr Parkinson has come under pressure to provide a fuller explanation for the abandonment of the case.

He has blamed insufficient evidence being provided by the government that Beijing represented a threat to the UK at the time of the alleged offences.

The Conservatives have accused Sir Keir Starmer of letting the case collapse, but Labour has said there was nothing more it could have done.

The current government has insisted ministers did not intervene in the case or attempt to make representations to ensure the strength of evidence, for fear of interfering with the course of justice.

The DNSA and DPP will face questions from the parliamentary committee on Monday afternoon.

The current attorney general, Lord Hermer, and the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, Darren Jones, will be questioned on Wednesday.

The PM’s spokesman reiterated the government’s position that “what is relevant in a criminal case of this nature is the government’s position at the time of the alleged offences”.

Politics

Who is Lindsay Whittle? The man who stood unsuccessfully in Caerphilly 13 times, then won on the 14th try

Published

3 hours ago

October 24, 2025

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Who is Lindsay Whittle? The man who stood unsuccessfully in Caerphilly 13 times, then won on the 14th try

Lindsay Whittle stood for election in Caerphilly 13 times since 1983 – and on the 14th attempt, he finally succeeded.

In the process, the 72-year-old local boy – nicknamed “Mr Caerphilly” – humiliated the Labour Party, which had held the Senedd seat since its creation in 1999 and the Westminster constituency for over a century.

Born in the miner’s hospital, Mr Whittle lived in a council house and grew up in the town, located to the north of Cardiff, that he now represents.

A lifelong Plaid Cymru activist, his interest in politics was first piqued in the 1960s. He said he even missed an O Level (GCSE) exam in the 1970s because he was out canvassing for the party.

Mr Whittle was first elected in 1976 to represent the Penyrheol and Trecenydd ward on Rhymney Valley district council, and he was re-elected repeatedly until the council was abolished in 1996.

He then contested the Penyrheol ward on the new Caerphilly County Borough Council, created in 1995, and was elected to represent it seven times. He served as the council’s leader for two periods between 1999 and 2004, and has also served as Plaid Cymru’s group leader on the council since 2022.

But, despite his success at the local level, Mr Whittle was only able to secure election to the then Welsh Assembly once in six attempts since its creation in 1999, becoming an MS on the South Wales East list 2011, before losing his seat in 2016.

In those five years in Cardiff, he was appointed Plaid Cymru’s spokesperson for Social Services, Children, and Equal Opportunities, and he was able to work on his key political interests of housing and local government, as well as combating homelessness.

Election by the people of his hometown of Caerphilly has always eluded him, however, having lost the 13 other elections for Westminster and the Senedd that he has stood in throughout a lifetime in Welsh politics.

But that all changed last night when he was elected with a majority of nearly 4,000 votes to take over from the late Hefin David, the beloved Labour representative to whom he paid tribute in his victory speech.

Speaking to our chief political correspondent Jon Craig as dawn broke over the town he was born in and now represents, Mr Whittle said: “I would need to be a poet to put into words how I genuinely feel about the honour that all the people of Caerphilly have bestowed upon me.

“Almost half of the people who went out to vote, just 2% short of half of the people, put their confidence in Lindsay Whittle and Plaid Cymru. I cannot tell you what an honour that is.”

He added: “Retirement is not for me. I’m not the sort of guy who relaxes on beaches. In fact, I don’t think I ever relax. It’s people. It’s people that make me carry on.”