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Acquitted ‘China spy’: I was fall guy for security services
Chris Cash, a former parliamentary researcher acquitted of spying for China, says he was made a “convenient fall guy” by UK police and security services seeking to highlight foreign espionage threats. He says he would never harm British security, but accepts that sending informal messages about sensitive political matters was “unprofessional and naive”.
More than 6,000 messages shared with the BBC show Cash and his friend Chris Berry discussing UK political issues, including the 2022 Conservative leadership contest. Berry described meeting a senior Chinese official who was interested in closer co-operation and concerned about the possible promotion of a sanctioned MP. Both men denied wrongdoing; the prosecution collapsed after officials could not say China had been classed as an enemy at the time, prompting political controversy.
In short
- Chris Cash says he was used to publicise espionage concerns.
- Messages covered sensitive UK political matters.
- The case collapsed over how China was classified.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Cash’s account is that informal political conversations were treated as evidence of espionage despite the prosecution’s failure to establish that China met the relevant legal test at the time. He acknowledges poor judgement in discussing sensitive matters, but argues that this does not make him a spy and that security agencies used his case to publicise a wider threat.
The case against
The messages and Berry’s account of contact with a senior Chinese official could reasonably have raised serious security concerns, even if the prosecution could not meet the legal test for a conviction. From this perspective, investigating the exchanges was a legitimate response to possible foreign influence, while acquittal means the case was not proved in court rather than that the concerns were necessarily fabricated.