Sir Keir Starmer’s former top civil servant has cast doubt on the official story behind the collapse of a prosecution targeting alleged Chinese spies.

The Prime Minister declared on Tuesday that the Government lacked the ability to demonstrate China represented a national security threat when two suspected spies were detained in 2023.

Britain’s most senior prosecutor has pinned the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to abandon the case on Labour’s inability to supply such evidence. The news comes while Starmer is on the brink as odds on him resigning in 2026 shorten.

But Simon Case, who worked as cabinet secretary under both Sir Keir and his predecessor Rishi Sunak, has now spoken out publicly to dispute this version of events, reports The Telegraph.

Former Whitehall chief casts doubt on claims

Intelligence agencies have spent years openly warning about the threat China poses, he pointed out, indicating sufficient evidence existed to take the trial forward.

Lord Case told The Telegraph: “Going back over years, we have had heads of our intelligence agencies describing in public the threat that China poses to our national and economic security interests.”

A former chief prosecutor, three ex-Tory Cabinet ministers, a former MI6 chief and the Government’s counter-terror watchdog have all raised questions about Sir Keir’s version of how the case fell apart.

Pressure mounts over trade relationship fears

The Prime Minister now confronts mounting claims that the prosecution was deliberately torpedoed to safeguard Britain’s commercial links with China, which the Government views as crucial for driving economic growth.

Security experts have highlighted how officials have consistently warned about the threat China poses to national security.

Officials released a report on the very day Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were taken into custody, pledging to address areas where “Chinese Communist Party actions pose a threat to our people, prosperity and security”.

Ex-prosecutor baffled by dropped charges

Lord Macdonald, a former director of public prosecutions, said it was “difficult to understand” why the case had been dropped, as it was “self-evident” that China posed a threat.

Suella Braverman, who held the post of home secretary when the arrests took place, threw her support behind his assessment, branding Sir Keir “deluded” if he thought China had not been classed as a threat by previous governments.

Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, reveals in a piece for The Telegraph below that the country’s top security officials described the spy case to him as a “slam dunk” and that the only explanation for its collapse was that someone in Government “made a choice” that preserving good relations with China was more important than protecting national security.

Ministers make repeated Beijing trips

Labour has rolled out a diplomatic drive targeting China, dispatching Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, David Lammy, the Deputy Prime Minister, Ed Miliband, the Net Zero Secretary, and Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, on trips to Beijing. Sir Keir is due to visit next year.

Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, branded the Government’s explanation for why the case collapsed “a direct lie”.

Sir Richard Dearlove, who ran MI6 between 1999 and 2004, told Times Radio the collapsed case should “be reopened”.

He said: “It seems to me pretty straightforward. The idea that China is not a threat to national security when it’s acting in this manner is completely absurd. It’s sort of inexplicable.”

Ex-official slams baffling decision

Another former Whitehall official described Sir Keir’s claims as “madness” and said: “The whole thing is utterly baffling. The people who drafted the Official Secrets Act didn’t have in mind the suggestion that it would depend on the definition of who our enemies are in pamphlets published by the government.

“It has been perfectly clear that China has been acting as an enemy of the British state.”

Timeline of arrests to dropped charges

The Chinese spy saga began in 2023 when former parliamentary aide Mr Cash and teacher Mr Berry were arrested on suspicion of passing secrets to China.

Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser, agreed to give evidence in court about the threat to national security posed by China, and last year the two men were charged with offences under the Official Secrets Act.

Then, shortly before Labour came to power, a judge ruled in a separate case that spying constituted providing information to a state that posed a threat to national security.

The Crown Prosecution Service decided that it needed more evidence to prove that China was a threat, but this was not provided by the Government, despite repeated requests over many months.

At a meeting in September attended by Mr Powell, Whitehall officials were told that Mr Collins would not be describing China as an enemy in court. The case was then dropped.