THE Government has shown “huge amounts of transparency” in its response to the controversy over the collapse of the alleged China spying case, according to a government minister.
Stephen Kinnock told GB News: “There are government processes and protocols around this, of course, we have to be very careful about the information that gets released, because that can end up compromising our national security, which would obviously not be the right thing to do.
“The Government and the Prime Minister have shown huge amounts of transparency by publishing these three witness statements, and what I think they clearly show is the position of the government, indeed, from the Conservative to Labour transition, the broad position has remained the same, which is that you can’t boil the relationship with China down to one word of it being an enemy.
“You have to see it in the round in terms of all of the important cooperation we need to have with them on vital issues like climate change, competing on things like technology and foreign direct investment, but also, of course, being very clear-eyed and robust and strong when it comes to protecting our national security and promoting our national interest.”
Asked about a meeting involving Jonathan Powell, he said “Well, the first thing to say is the final submissions in terms of evidence were in August 2024 and this meeting apparently took place in September 2024 so the meeting has no relevance to the evidence that was submitted to the CPS, because it took place after the final evidence was submitted.
“In terms of the role of the Deputy National Security Adviser and of the National Security Advisor, as the Prime Minister made very clear in Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, no ministers or special advisers were involved in the submission of evidence. Only evidence that was submitted was by the Deputy National Security Advisor.
“The Prime Minister made that crystal clear yesterday, no ministers or special advisers were involved in the submission or provision of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.”
