Britain’s top prosecutor faces mounting pressure over the China spy fiasco after a key witness removed a description of Beijing as an “enemy”.

National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell said Counter Terror Police and the Crown Prosecution Service were aware of the bombshell change made by his deputy Matt Collins in his statement.

This would mean the CPS knew the “enemy” reference had been removed before charging two suspects, according to Mr Powell.

Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry had been accused of passing classified information to Beijing.

But the case collapsed because the Government would not call China a threat.

And they warned two years before the case collapsed that they would not be able to call China an enemy.

Prosecutors have blamed Mr Collins’ witness statements for the dropping of the case.

But the admission has thrown the spotlight back onto the Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Mr Sunak is the only politician to have seen the original statement before ministers and advisors were barred, by the DPP, from seeing them.

Counter-terrorism police, in November 24, asked the Deputy National Security Adviser to provide “further detail” about the threat posed by China and their spies.

The letter to the National Security Strategy Joint Committee revealed: “He was also specifically asked to comment on whether China is a State which, during the period 31 December 2021 to 3 February 2023, posed an active threat to the UK’s national security; and to confirm whether that remains the position at the time of writing.

“Following a further approach from CTP on 10 May 2025, a third witness statement was produced on 04 August 2025.

“CTP specifically requested that the DNSA provide further points of detail regarding the UK Government assessment of the nature and extent of the threat to the UK from China.

“Examples were requested, to support the CPS with a finding that, at the material time that the offences were alleged to have been committed, China was ‘an enemy’ for the purposes of s.1 OSA 1911.

“It was made clear by CTP that they were only asking for the government’s view of the threat from China at the material time that the offences were committed.”

But the Government failed to provide the evidence prosecutors were hoping, leading to the case collapsing.

China hawk Neil O’Brien said: “The Labour government knew – on their own admission – for nearly two weeks that this case was about to collapse because they wouldn’t describe China as a current national security threat.

“But they did nothing because they want to suck up to China.”

Attorney General Lord Hermer said in a letter to the JCNSS that he was informed of the DPP’s decision to offer no evidence – collapsing the case – on September 3, and discussed the decision with him but “did not though intervene in the case or give any direction to the DPP”.

He said he did not share the information with Cabinet colleagues at the “express request” of Mr Parkinson.

“I was not consulted on the decision, nor would it be appropriate for me to have any involvement in, or objection to, the decision to discontinue on evidential grounds,” he said.

Darren Jones, in his own letter, said Collins’ three witness statements published last week are “consistent” in their evaluation of the threat posed by China under the current and previous governments.

But he stressed that “this Government’s position is immaterial” as the prosecution’s case is based on the policy at the time of the alleged offences.