The US has issued a stark warning against the UK building the Chinese mega-embassy after David Lammy and Yvette Cooper overrode security concerns to force through the 20,000 square metres building on the Royal Mint Court site. Intelligence services had warned that it could grant China access to vital communication cables…
Now Trump has personally warned Starmer against giving the mega-embassy the green light, and a senior US official has told The Sunday Times: “The United States is deeply concerned about providing China with potential access to the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” Labour’s love for Beijing could derail any ongoing US-UK trade talks…
Guido thought it worth noting that Starmer directly raised the issue of the mega-embassy during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Rio de Janeiro last November. He said:
“You raised the Chinese embassy building in London when we spoke on the telephone. We have since taken action by calling in that application now we have to follow the legal process and timeline.”
Walking into the dragon’s mouth…
UPDATE: Influential US congressional committee the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party now attacks Labour’s mega-embassy gift to Xi Jinping.
“If reports are accurate, placing a PRC embassy of unprecedented size over sensitive cabling that supports US and UK financial systems would pose an unacceptable risk to our institutions.”
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”