The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
MPs’ aide out in the cold amid China espionage allegations
‘You must not enter any part of the parliamentary estate not contact MP or parliamentarian’
A FORMER parliamentary aide has been ordered not to contact MPs after being charged with spying for China.
Christopher Cash, 29, appeared alongside Christopher Berry, 32, in court for the first time yesterday, with each facing one charge under the Official Secrets Act.
During a five-minute hearing at Westminster magistrates’ court, the pair spoke only to confirm their name, date of birth and address.
They were granted conditional bail to appear at the Old Bailey on May 10. Paul Goldspring, the chief magistrate, told Mr Cash, from Whitechapel in east London, not to contact any MPs or parliamentarians, apart from his local MP.
Mr Cash formerly worked as a parliamentary researcher and previously worked with senior Tories including Tom Tugendhat – now security minister – and Alicia Kearns, chairman of the Commons foreign affairs committee.
He was director of the China Research Group, which was initially chaired by Mr Tugendhat and then Ms Kearns.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle previously told MPs two people had been charged on a matter “relating to national security”, one of whom was a parliamentary pass holder.
Judge Goldspring told Mr Cash: “You must not enter any part of the parliamentary estate, not contact any MP or parliamentarian, save for your MP on constituency matters.”
He added: “You must have no contact with any employee of the Houses of Parliament or the staff of Parliamentarians.
The charge alleges that between January 2022 and February 2023, Mr Cash, “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state, obtained, collected, recorded, published or communicated to any other person articles, notes, documents or information which were calculated to be, might be, or were intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”.
Mr Berry is accused of the same offence between December 2021 and February 2023.
China has dismissed the charges as “self-staged political farce”.
Mr Berry was ordered to sleep each night at his home in Whitney, Oxfordshire, and report once weekly to St Aldates police station in Oxford.
Meanwhile Mr Cash was ordered to sleep at his home in Shoreditch, except for a maximum of three consecutive nights with 72 hours’ notice, and report once a week to Bethnal Green police station in east London.
Mr Berry was ordered not to apply for a new passport, while Mr Cash’s passport is already in polices possession.