Labour minister dismisses ‘baseless smears’ over spy case

A senior Labour minister has dismissed accusations that the government interfered on a Chinese spy case as a “baseless smear”.

A senior minister has dismissed accusations that the Labour government deliberately collapsed the Chinese spy case as being a “whole series of baseless smears.”

Security minister Dan Jarvis told parliament that the previous Conservative government’s failure to clarify definitions in the Official Secrets Act of 1920 led to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropping a Chinese spy case surrounding Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash.

In a statement before MPs, Jarvis said the current government’s policy approach towards China had had no bearing on witness evidence supplied for the case before it was dropped, with a senior civil servant being given “full free