Plans for a Chinese super-embassy are set to be given the green light despite fears over Beijing’s spying campaigns.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to approve the proposals at the former Royal Mint building.
But “mitigations” will need to be put in place to protect national security, it is understood.
Some fear China will be able to use the embassy in the heart of London as a base for its intelligence officers, with particular concern about a series of underground cables nearby linking the City to Westminster.
But the Home Office and Foreign Office, which represent MI5 and MI6, will not raise any formal objections to the plans.
Sir Keir has been under intense pressure to block the super-embassy plans after a series of spy plots were discovered linked to Beijing.
Two recruitment firms, Amanda Qiu (BR-YR Executive Search) and Shirly Shen (Internship Union), were accused of passing on details about politicians, their staff, policy wonks, economists and officials to Chinese intelligence officers.
And a case against two suspected moles – Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry – collapsed after Labour refused to call China a threat.
Beijing had warned of “consequences” if its new UK embassy was not given planning permission.
Cash and Berry were accused of passing sensitive intelligence on the inner workings of Parliament to the Chinese Communist Party.
This was then handed to a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party and a Politburo member.
Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins said a meeting between Mr Berry and a senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader in July 2022 was “highly unlikely” to have happened “unless the Chinese state considered him to be someone who could obtain valuable information”.
Mr Collins said Mr Cash was made aware “in detail” of the July 2022 meeting, with the researcher allegedly sending Mr Berry a message which read: “You’re in spy territory now.”
The Chinese intelligence agent allegedly commissioned at least 34 reports from Mr Berry – some of which contained information from Mr Cash.
Sir Keir Starmer is also reportedly set to visit China early next year, amid widespread accusations he is a soft touch on Beijing’s security threat. The Prime Minister’s visit would be the first by a British prime minister in seven years, with the Government pushing a number of trade improvements to boost the UK’s struggling economy.
Any visit to Beijing would prove politically controversial amid serious security threats posed to Britain by Xi Jinping.
Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “Labour are kowtowing to China, a country which is a threat to the United Kingdom, and now it appears Starmer is jetting off to Beijing just weeks after the collapse of the Chinese spy case under his watch.
“The trip will also come soon after the decision on the new Chinese super embassy that Labour are desperate to approve, despite serious concerns being raised, including about suspicious basement rooms Beijing refuses to come clean about.
“Labour are gaslighting the public once again as our intelligence services have spoken out for years about China’s “sustained campaign” of Chinese espionage on a ‘pretty epic scale’.
“Starmer is so feeble he kowtows to China at every opportunity, regardless of the cost to our country. Only the Conservatives can be trusted to protect Britain’s national interest.”
