London: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to approve plans for a controversial new Chinese “super embassy” in the heart of London ahead of a proposed visit to Beijing in the new year, a UK media report claimed on Friday.
According to ‘The Times’, both the Home Office and Foreign Office are unlikely to raise any formal objections to the plan if appropriate “mitigations” are put in place to protect national security after the UK’s domestic and foreign security services – MI5 and MI6 – gave their nod to the proposals.
The newspaper referenced a government source at Whitehall to say that the mega embassy’s approval was now seen as a “formality” and expected by December 10. Starmer is also expected to travel to China next year as Britain seeks to bolster economic relations with Beijing, despite concerns that it is carrying out large-scale espionage against the UK, the newspaper claims. If the visit goes ahead, Starmer will become the first UK prime minister to visit China since Theresa May in 2018.
China had warned of “consequences” for bilateral ties if its new UK embassy was not given planning permission. A decision on the country’s proposals for extensive development at the site of the historic Royal Mint Court, near the Tower of London, had been delayed repeatedly over security concerns, given that it is set to run above a vast web of fibre-optic cables used to carry information into the
City of London.