00:00The government's very disappointed that these prosecutions didn't continue.
00:05We are clear that the alleged offences took place between 2021 and 2023
00:10under the previous Conservative government.
00:14At that time, the legal basis for these sort of prosecutions
00:18was the Official Secrets Act of 1911,
00:21a very antiquated piece of legislation that clearly wasn't fit for purpose in the modern age.
00:25Sadly, the Conservatives took eight years to change and update that legislation.
00:31I don't know what they were doing in that time.
00:32Perhaps they were dealing with party gate, botching Brexit,
00:37or even crashing the economy under Liz Truss.
00:39They were clearly distracted and were not able to act in relation to our national security.
00:44The reality of the situation we are in now is that because those offences took place
00:49between 2021 and 2023, and because of the legal basis at that time,
00:54the Crown Prosecution Service has felt that it wasn't possible to continue the case.
Comments