Man acquitted of spying for China says he was 'fall guy' for security services

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Chris Cash, who along with his former friend Chris Berry was accused of passing state secrets to China, has alleged he became a ‘fall guy’

A former parliamentary researcher who was charged with spying for China has claimed he was a “convenient fall guy” for British police and security services.

Chris Cash said authorities had wanted to put espionage threats by foreign states “on the map” after the Government warned that UK officials were being targeted across politics, defence and business.

Prosecutors dropped charges of spying against Mr Cash and his former friend Chris Berry after concluding there was not enough evidence, sparking a major political row. Both man had maintained they had done nothing wrong.

The Government blamed the collapse of the case on “out of date” UK spying laws, which have been updated since the period of alleged offending between 2021 and 2023.

The case hinged on the evidence supplied by officials on the nature of the Chinese threat to Britain and whether it could be described as an “enemy”, to meet the tests of the 1911 Official Secrets Act.

In an interview with the BBC, Mr Cash, who previously worked for the China Research Group, suggested he believes the case was pursued as a warning to others.

“I understand that the police, the security services, want to put the China espionage or all state threats on the map but I became the convenient fall guy for everyone,” he said.

A series of messages shared with the broadcaster also appear to shed more light on an alleged meeting between Mr Berry and a Chinese official who allegedly sought information about the 2022 Conservative leadership race.

Mr Berry is said to have described in a voice note how the man who he later identified as Cai Qi, an influential aide to Xi Jinping, asked via an interpreter “about the situation in the UK at the moment, about the Tory leadership thing”.

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