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Newscast

The Collapsed China Spy Case

Newscast

BBC

Politics, News

4.46.4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, the government has  published witness statements related to a collapsed case against two people accused of spying for China. They deny all of the allegations against them.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister was questioned by Kemi Badenoch, who accused the government of “a cover-up”. Starmer pointed to the fact the Conservatives were in power during the period concerning the case. Adam and Chris discuss what’s in the statement, and what this means for the Prime Minister.

Plus, The Climate Change Committee has sent a letter to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State saying the UK should have contingency plans in case the UK sees 2C of global warming by 2050. Adam speaks to Emma Pinchbeck, CEO of the Climate Change Committee.

You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. 

  You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord

Get in touch with Newscast by emailing [email protected] or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480.

New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd   Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Rufus Gray with Anna Harris and Shiler Mahmoudi. The social producer was Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Gareth Jones. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:07.5

With American politics, everything seems to be changing by the second.

0:11.9

Yeah, sometimes the news does a full 180 while we're recording the podcast.

0:16.4

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0:19.9

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0:24.2

America's. Listen on BBC Sound.

0:27.7

It is two minutes to 11 on Wednesday night, and here is Chris Mason to apologise to newscasters

0:32.6

who like to get an early night while listening to this podcast.

0:35.6

Yes, hello. This is, we're in proper flashback to the sort of bonkers late nights of Brexit cast days, I think, here.

0:43.8

At 11 o'clock at night, after a mad scramble of an evening and ploughing through documents.

0:48.9

And yeah, I'm getting waves of deja vu here.

0:53.1

And the reason we're late is that the government at lunchtime promised they would publish

0:56.9

the three witness statements that were given by the Deputy National Security Advisor to the

1:01.7

Crown Prosecution Service as they were prosecuting these two British guys who were accused

1:07.7

of spying for the Chinese charges which they have always denied.

1:12.2

And we were waiting and waiting and waiting.

1:14.0

And then conveniently for Chris Mason, these documents dropped just before the 10 o'clock news.

1:19.1

But anyway, conveniently for us on Newscast, it means we can now have a proper chat about them,

1:23.2

as the clock strikes 11 on Wednesday.

1:26.2

Newscast.

1:26.9

Newscast from the BBC. Fat boy sliver me in the classroom doing our violin lessons. I was the tattle tail in the class. Can I have an apology, please? I trust almost nobody. That daddy has to sometimes do strong language. Next time in Moscow. I feel delulu with no salulu. Take me down to Downey Street. Let's go have a tour. Blimey.

1:47.7

Hello, it's Adam in the newscast studio. And it is Chris at Westminster. So we won't spend

...

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