The White House has warned British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that refusing to prosecute two suspected "Chinese spies" could undermine the "special relationship" between Britain and the United States and threaten intelligence sharing. This was reported on October 11 by The Sunday Times newspaper, citing a source.
According to the newspaper, US President Donald Trump questioned London's reliability in security matters after charges against two Britons — former parliamentary researcher Chris Cash and academic Christopher Berry — were dropped.
Cash and Berry were charged in April 2024 after an investigation conducted by Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism unit. They concerned the receipt, collection, recording, publication or transmission of information that may be directly or indirectly useful to China, the material says. As indicated, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) claimed that a foreign intelligence agent ordered at least 34 reports from Berry on topics of political interest, ten of which were considered detrimental to the national security of the United Kingdom.
It is specified that the case was closed after the government failed to provide evidence of a threat to national security from the PRC.
A Trump administration official told the Sunday Times that the United States has long been warning allies about the threat to joint security posed by China since 2017, when Trump was elected to his first presidential term. The interlocutor of the publication added that Washington shares information with foreign governments with extreme caution, which may be influenced and coerced by opponents, especially in jurisdictions where "enemies act with impunity."
On October 5, the Financial Times newspaper wrote that the Royal Prosecution Service of Great Britain dropped charges against two citizens of the country who transferred confidential information to China because the authorities did not want to spoil diplomatic relations with China. During the trial, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's national security adviser Matthew Collins refused to recognize China as an enemy. This was the reason why the case collapsed, Izvestia reminds.