The government has again delayed making a decision on whether the Chinese super embassy can go ahead.
New Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who took over from Angela Rayner, was due to approve or deny Beijing’s application for a 600,000 sq ft embassy near the Tower of London next Tuesday.
However, the decision has been delayed to 10 December, “given the detailed nature” of the planning application “and the need to give parties sufficient opportunity to respond”, the prime minister’s spokesman confirmed.
He added that the new deadline is “not legally binding”.
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The spokesman denied the postponement was politically influenced and said it was “very much bound by the quasi-judicial” nature of planning law.
The delay comes the day after the government published witness statements it provided to prosecutors in the China spy trial that collapsed, prompting a blame game over whose fault it was that it dropped.
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A decision had already been delayed from 9 September to 21 October after China submitted plans with large greyed-out sections, which said: “Redacted for security reasons.”
It has become controversial due to concerns about it being turned into a Chinese spy hub for Europe and the fact highly sensitive financial cables run beneath it to the City of London and Canary Wharf.
The decision to delay again was made after the national security strategy committee wrote to Mr Reed on Monday saying that approving the embassy at its proposed site was “not in the UK’s long-term interest”.
Committee chairman Matt Western, a Labour MP, said in the letter the location presents “eavesdropping risks in peacetime and sabotage risks in a crisis”.
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Tower Hamlets Council rejected China’s initial planning application in 2022 to turn Royal Mint Court, where British coins were minted until 1975, into the largest embassy in Europe over security concerns and opposition from residents.
Beijing did not appeal the decision after making it clear it wanted Conservative ministers to give assurances they would back a resubmitted application – but the then-Tory government refused.
Eleven days after Labour won the election last July, the application was resubmitted in nearly exactly the same form, and was soon “called in” by Ms Rayner for central government to decide.
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Conservative shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly accused the government of having “actively sought to silence the warnings” about the threats to national security from the embassy.
“It is essential the planning review has access to the full unredacted drawings for the Chinese embassy, and that the UK security agencies are able to submit evidence in private, using established processes,” he said.
“If Keir Starmer had any backbone, he would ensure his government threw out this sinister application – as Ireland and Australia did when faced with similar embassy development proposals from Russia.”
In August, the Chinese embassy in the UK said the planning and design was “of high quality” and the application had “followed the customary diplomatic practices, as well as necessary protocol and procedures”.
The embassy added it is “an international obligation of the host country to provide support and facilitation for the construction of diplomatic premises”.
And it reminded the UK that London wants to knock down and rebuild the British embassy in Beijing, which is in a very poor condition.
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In September, a Chinese embassy spokesperson told Sky News claims the new embassy poses a potential security risk to the UK is “completely groundless and malicious slander, and we firmly oppose it”.
They added: “Anti-China forces are using security risks as an excuse to interfere with the British government’s consideration over this planning application. This is a despicable move that is unpopular and will not succeed.”
