Overview

• Media reports claim Labour ministers withdrew a senior civil servant witness who would have described China as an enemy, a move said to have led prosecutors to abandon charges against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry.
• The government and Crown Prosecution Service say the decision to halt the case was taken independently, with officials denying any outside pressure or limits on what witnesses could say.
• A Cabinet Office spokesperson rejected claims that top security advisers warned against calling China an enemy, describing those accounts as completely false.
• Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson has identified the Act’s 'enemy' requirement as a legal limitation and referred to an evidential failure that prevented the case proceeding.
• MPs including Alicia Kearns and Priti Patel demanded transparency over the withdrawn witness, while Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle voiced concern about Parliament’s vulnerability to foreign interference; both defendants deny wrongdoing.