Top News

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson has responded to Keir Starmer's China spy scandal during an appearance on GB News. Host Ben Leo described Starmer as "Teflon" and asked how he manages to survive and remain in power when Johnson was "brought down by some M&S sandwiches" and ousted from the Conservative Party.

"The situation with Keir Starmer and the pressure he's under with this whole China story, and the case that's collapsed. You were brought down, arguably, by some crusty M&S sandwiches in Downing Street. How is Keir Starmer...I mean, he's like, Teflon. How does he survive?" Leo put to Johnson. "It's because of the deranged system we have in the Tory Party!" Johnson stuttered. "We have a system where it takes 15% of of your back benchers to write some letters, and then it all goes. That's the problem we have with it. But there's no use crying over spilt milk," he said before changing the subject bringing it back to Kemi Badenoch's recent speech at the Tory Party Conference.

The pair were speaking after the Prime Minister declared on Tuesday October 7 that the Government lacked the ability to demonstrate China represented a national security threat when two suspected spies were detained in 2023.

The cases against Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and 33-year-old Christopher Berry, a teacher, collapsed because Labour did not designate China a "threat".

Labour was also accused of failing to pass on a dossier of evidence from the security services over Chinese espionage activities in the UK, it is understood. The dossier also included evidence of Chinese hacking attempts and efforts to build secret police stations to spy on dissidents.

Starmer's former top civil servant also cast doubt on the official story behind the collapse of the prosecution.

Simon Case, who worked as cabinet secretary under both Sir Keir and his predecessor Rishi Sunak, disputed Starmer's version of events, The Telegraph reported.

Intelligence agencies have spent years openly warning about the threat China poses, he pointed out, indicating sufficient evidence existed to take the trial forward.

Lord Case told The Telegraph: "Going back over years, we have had heads of our intelligence agencies describing in public the threat that China poses to our national and economic security interests."

A former chief prosecutor, three ex-Tory Cabinet ministers, a former MI6 chief and the Government's counter-terror watchdog have all raised questions about Sir Keir's version of how the case fell apart.