A Labour minister refused to label China as “an enemy” of Britain amid accusations that the Government appears to be “cosying up” to Beijing.
Water minister Emma Hardy admitted dealing with the communist regime was “a challenge”, the day after the director of public prosecutions launched an astonishing attack on the government.
A Chinese spying trial collapsed after the Government refused to brand Beijing a threat to national security, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) Stephen Parkinson said.
He told how the Crown Prosecution Service had tried “over many months” to get the evidence it needed to carry out the prosecution, but it had not been forthcoming from the Labour Government.
The case against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry was dropped on September 15, sparking criticism from Downing Street and MPs from both sides of the political aisle.
The decision reportedly came after senior Whitehall officials met to discuss the trial, including national security adviser Jonathan Powell and the Foreign Office’s top civil servant Sir Oliver Robbins, according to the Sunday Times.
Ms Hardy told Sky News there was no plan to brand China an “enemy”.
She said: “China is a challenges and China is a country which we have a large trading relationship with. Sometimes we will be competing with China and sometimes we will be collaborating with China and sometimes we need to challenge China when it makes decisions that we don’t think are in our interests. But ultimately this government acts in the national interest.”
Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake said China is a “clear national security threat” and said it was worrying that the Government appears to be “cosying up” to Beijing.
He said: “I think it’s very, very disappointing and worrying that the Government seems to be cosying up to China, which is a clear national security threat.
“And we’re seeing this in terms of this particular case where the Government failed to declare the Chinese government a security threat,” he told Sky News.
He insisted that “in some areas, we’ve always seen China as a national security threat” when asked why the Conservatives had not deemed Beijing a threat while in government.
Mr Hollinrake said Sir Keir Starmer was “trying to blame other people for his failure”.
A Conservative government would continue to trade with China “where it’s in our interest to do that, but where it’s not in our national interest to do that we should not be afraid to call them out”, he said.
On a trip to India, Sir Keir, himself a former DPP, tried to lay the blame at the door of the previous Tory governmen.
He said: “As a prosecutor, I know that if you’re going to prosecute a case like this, it is what the situation was at the time when the offence was committed that matters.
“You can’t change the situation afterwards and then prosecute people on the basis of a changed situation.”