'It's deadly serious!' Priti Patel lashes out at Labour for 'disrupting judicial process' to 'kowtow to China'

Dame Priti called the Minister's words "appalling", criticising a slew of senior Labour politicians, including the Prime Minister, for dodging accountability.

"We've got a scrutiny-shirking Government, and this is completely irresponsible when it comes to the national security of our country," the Shadow Foreign Secretary blasted.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the case saying that the Government had not handed over sufficient proof that Beijing could be dubbed a threat to national security.

As a result, Sir Keir Starmer has increasingly come under fire after the trial of parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and teacher Christopher Berry, 33, fell apart.

But the Prime Minister has insisted that the Conservative Government was to blame as it failed to formally label Beijing a threat, with Labour being unable to do so retrospectively.

Top Whitehall official and National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell has similarly had his feet put to the flames, facing accusations that he played a role in the CPS' move to drop the trial.

Dame Priti laid into this claim, saying: "The fact of the matter is Ministers do sit at the National Security Council. Ministers do read a lot of the classified information.

"So I'm afraid this Government is digging its hole even deeper right now by making these types of spurious remarks that Bridget Phillipson has done so this morning. This is deadly serious."

The senior Conservative raised the alarm that Britain's "closest ally on national security", the US, expressed concerns about the UK Government "when it comes to national security intelligence information".

"I can tell you now when your biggest ally is raising concerns, this puts us at risk now because they will not be wanting to share intelligence information with this country if we are not going to act upon it, and if we're going to make political judgments in the way in which this Government has done so.

She added that the trial's collapse "undermines our national security apparatus", taking the opportunity to oppose the new Chinese "mega embassy" that will be located in Tower Hamlets.

The approval of the plans are expected to be delayed further as increasing amount of criticism has taken aim at Labour's relationship with China, The Telegraph has reported.

As it stands, the deadline remains October 21.

Asked on how she perceives China, Dame Priti said: "They are a threat. And they are an adversary and they are an enemy. End of story."

Recalling her time as Home Secretary, she hailed the Tories as the Government that brought forward the National Security Act and a number of other Acts of Parliament, doing "a hell of a lot of work on national security".

"So I'm not going to take any lectures from anybody on this - a Labour government that, quite frankly, have been involved now in disrupting a judicial process, all because they're too busy bending the knee and kowtow into China," she added.

Last week, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) blamed the Government for the case falling to rubble when barrister Tom Little KC told the Old Bailey: "We simply cannot continue to prosecute this case."

Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson said the CPS had spent "many months" attempting to secure witness statements which confirmed China was a threat to the UK.

Writing to MPs, Mr Parkinson said: "Notwithstanding the fact that further witness statements were provided, none of these stated that at the time of the offence China represented a threat to national security, and by late August 2025 it was realised that this evidence would not be forthcoming."