Labour says Tory government at time failed to classify China as a threat, but plenty of evidence suggests the contrary

There is a baffling contradiction at the heart of the efforts of Dan Jarvis, the security minister, to explain why the prosecution of two Britons accused of spying for China collapsed last month. The problem, he insisted in front of MPs on Monday, was that “it was not the policy of a Conservative government to classify China as a threat to national security”.

Except there is plenty of evidence to suggest that China was recognised as a threat by the previous governments in documents and public statements by ministers and officials. All this makes the failure of the government witness – Matthew Collins, the deputy national security adviser – to set this out in three separate witness statements given to the prosecution even more surprising.