PM set to formally approve new Chinese embassy 

By: and

Add as a preferred source on Google
Boris Johnson's former adviser has said China taken classified intelligence from the UK. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)
A Chinese website put half a million British people's data up for sale.

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to give his formal seal of approval to a controversial new Chinese mega-embassy at Royal Mint Court, with the backing of the security services. 

According to a report in The Times, the approval is set to be a ‘formality’.

The Home Office and Foreign Office – and, by extension, MI5 and MI6 – are not expected to raise any objections to the plan, as long as there are national security ‘mitigations’ in place. 

The final decision will be revealed on 10 December.

There had been warnings from the Chinese state of ‘consequences’ if the development of the new diplomatic hub was blocked. 

Critics of the plan have raised concerns that the site, near Tower Hill, sits above a huge number of fibre optic cables connected Canada and Canary Wharf.

Canada Corporation officials have told Morning Wire they had security concerns about the data lines. 

China’s relations with the UK under scrutiny

Questions around the embassy come at a tense diplomatic moment between China and the UK, just months after the collapse of a high profile espionage at the heart of Parliament. 

Sky News has also reported that the Prime Minister is set to visit Beijing in January in the first visit of its kind since Theresa May was in Downing Street.

Earlier this week, Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle emailed MPs warning of Chinese spies using LinkedIn to target individuals across Westminster.

The security alert issued to Hoyle and parliament came directly from MI5. In a statement on Tuesday, security minister Dan Jarvis said people had been targeted at think tanks and other lobby groups that work closely with parliamentarians and public officials.

It also comes weeks after the Crown Prosecution Service and the government got embroiled in a row over the collapsed Chinese spy case.

The collapsed case of Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who both denied all allegations, raised questions over whether the UK deemed China to be a security threat.

It has been reported that the Treasury has internally sought to push for boosted trade relations with China, the world’s second largest economy with sprawling powers over major global infrastructure.