AFP, London

A high-profile case against two British men accused of spying for China collapsed because of “systemic failures” and not a government conspiracy, a UK parliamentary inquiry concluded yesterday.

The handling of the case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry was at times “shambolic” and reforms are needed to prevent “similar issues” happening again, the cross-party committee of MPs and members of the House of Lords said in its report.

Ex-parliamentary researcher Cash and China-based Berry, both of whom deny wrongdoing, had been accused of passing secrets to Beijing between 2021 and 2023.

The inquiry was launched after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped the charges against the two men in September, saying the government had failed to provide evidence that China was a national security threat.