Spy scandal: what is Labour's policy on China?

Coffee House Shots

The Spectator

News, Politics, Government, Daily News

4.4 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 October 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

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Summary

It’s a ‘great and beautiful day’, as Donald Trump wrote in the guestbook at the Knesset, where he will address the Israeli parliament after the final hostages were handed back to Israel. It is, of course, a historic piece of diplomacy, and the conversation in Westminster has turned to the extent to which the UK was involved. Bridget Phillipson claimed over the weekend that Britain played a ‘key role’ in bringing about peace – much to the chagrin of Mike Huckabee, the US Ambassador to Israel, who called her ‘delusional’. Is she?

The government have more pressing issues, however, with the collapsed China spy case – the sudden abandonment of a case brought against two men (Chris Cash, a parliamentary researcher, and Chris Berry, an academic). National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell appears to be central to this decision, but the current government line is that Powell had no role in the ‘substance or the evidence’ of the case – a formulation which smacks of legalese. Will he be the next to go?

Oscar Edmondson speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale.

Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Summer's nearly over. It's time to get back to real life.
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0:29.3	exclusions apply.
0:42.4	Hello and welcome to Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. I'm Oscar Edmondson and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman and James Heel on a great and beautiful day,
0:47.7	as Donald Trump wrote in the guest book at the Knesset, where he will address
0:51.1	Israeli Parliament after the final hostages were handed back over to
0:54.7	Israel. James, the conversation in the UK has turned to the extent to which the UK can claim
1:00.0	that it was involved in this peace process at all. What do we know? Well, this all came about because
1:05.3	Bridget Phillips and the Education Secretary was sent out on the Sunday airwaves and she said that
1:10.1	the UK played a key role behind the scenes.
1:13.4	This immediately prompted a lot of criticism from people who scoff, for instance,
1:17.3	the suggestion that the UK's recognition of a Palestinian state was in any way responsible
1:21.6	for the decision to have a sort of ceasefire here. And I think it is fair to say that the America has really
1:28.9	been the one calling the shots on this. In terms of the peace plan that were set out on Friday,
1:33.0	it's clearly going to be the Qataris and the Egyptian to exercise leverage and both sides
1:36.9	and ensuring they keep to it. But I think it would be remiss to say the UK has not played
	...

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