The former MI6 chief says the US will be puzzled by the UK’s decision to drop the Chinese espionage case

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The former head of MI6 has questioned the UK prosecutors’ decision to drop charges against two British men accused of spying for China, saying it would leave Washington “perplexed”.

Sir John Sawers, the former head of the Secret Service, said China poses a “range of threats” to the UK including cyber threats, the potential theft of industrial secrets and its efforts to control the Chinese diaspora in Britain.

He told Times Radio on Sunday: “I think these two people accused of spying in Parliament… what they were doing, if the allegations are true, was certainly unlawful, and frankly I’m a bit confused and unsure why the trial was dropped.”

“I think Americans will be confused as to why the lawsuit was dropped when the issue seemed so clear-cut.”

Sawers said that although China is an economic partner of the UK, it remains an intelligence threat.

The Sunday Times quoted a senior Trump administration official criticizing the UK authorities for dropping the prosecution.

“The United States has been warning its allies about the Chinese threat to our shared national security since President Trump first took office in 2017,” they said. “The United States Government exercises extreme caution in sharing information with foreign governments subject to coercion and influence.”

The Trump administration had previously warned Downing Street of China’s attempts to build… A spacious new embassy In London at Royal Mint Court on the edge of the City of London.

Some security officials in the United States and the United Kingdom also expressed concern about the embassy plan due to the location’s proximity to a sensitive hub of vital communications cables.

Sunday Telegraph I mentioned MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the National Cyber ​​Security Center were banned from providing evidence to the planning process about national security risks at the site.

Sawers’ comments come just days after the former national security adviser Lord Mark Sidwell He argued that Beijing “of course” poses a direct threat to national security. Sidwell said he was “really baffled” by the collapse of the trial last month.

The prosecution said the trial collapsed because the government did not provide evidence to prove that China posed a threat to British national security at the time of the alleged crimes.

Sir Keir Starmer argued that the previous government did not classify Beijing as an enemy at the time of the alleged crimes between 2021 and 2023.

The Prime Minister, a former director of public prosecutions, said last week: “You have to prosecute people on the basis of how things were at the time the crime was committed.”

Christopher Cash, 30, a former parliamentary researcher at Westminster, and Christopher Perry, 33, a teacher who worked in China, were charged by prosecutors in 2024 with spying on Westminster parliamentarians for China.

Both men have always denied any wrongdoing and said the collapse of the case proved their innocence.

Starmer will come under fresh pressure to explain the background to the case when Parliament returns from its conference recess on Monday.

The saga has raised questions about the judgment of Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s national security adviser and Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, as prime minister.

Critics believe Powell, who was appointed by the government last November, is behind an approach that has seen ministers limit their public criticism of China at a time when Starmer has made economic growth his priority.

The Financial Times had previously published news of a dispute between Powell and the Interior Ministry shortly before prosecutors announced that they had dropped the case last month.

Bridget Phillipson, the education minister, was asked on Sunday whether Powell had taken part in discussions about the evidence presented in the case.

She said: “He did not have those conversations about the substance of the case or the evidence. These are matters for the relevant authorities, the Crown Prosecution Service, and they date back to 2023.”

In return, the Labor Party promised to conduct a “review of our bilateral relations” with China to “understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by China.”

But the full audit was never made public, but rather was included in a broader national security strategy that Powell oversaw in the summer.

She said the UK should seek a “trade and investment relationship” with China, while at the same time warning that there had been an increase “in recent years” in Beijing’s activity to undermine British democracy.