Overview
- Testifying to Parliament’s national security committee, Lord Richard Hermer called allegations that the Prime Minister and Jonathan Powell meddled in the case “disgraceful” and defended a 1 September officials’ meeting as proper.
- He argued the Official Secrets Act’s requirement to prove an “enemy” created a barrier prosecutors could not clear for the alleged 2021–23 conduct.
- He said the National Security Act 2023 shifts the test to passing information to a foreign power and asserted the case would have proceeded to trial under that framework.
- He stated he had no role in the decision to discontinue the prosecution, learned of it from the Director of Public Prosecutions on 3 September, and informed no other ministers until the CPS notified police and defendants.
- Prosecutors highlighted deputy national security adviser Matt Collins’ refusal to label China a generic threat, Lord Alex Carlile accused the DPP of misjudging the evidence, and MPs voted down a bid to force release of related correspondence.