Angela Rayner privately opposed China’s controversial plans for a new “mega embassy” in London, The i Paper has been told.
The Housing Secretary believed the project posed serious security risks, and would be damaging to Britain’s interests, according to Whitehall insiders.
Critics of Beijing’s vast new embassy have long argued that its size and location near the City’s financial infrastructure could increase espionage and security risks. They also raised concerns that it will be used to monitor Chinese dissidents in the UK.
While serving as Sir Keir Starmer’s Housing Secretary and deputy prime minister, Rayner spent months considering whether to approve the vast diplomatic compound at Royal Mint Court, near the Tower of London. She left office before her successor, Steve Reed, approved the project in January this year.
Although her private concerns did not affect Reed’s decision, they shed light on the unease among senior Labour figures over China’s growing influence in the UK.
Senior Whitehall sources with knowledge of the discussions said Rayner had been reluctant to give the project the go-ahead.
“She didn’t want to do it. She thought it would be too damaging and risky,” a source told The i Paper.
Sir Ken McCallum, the director-general of MI5, said any national security risk posed by the new embassy could not be wholly eliminated, but that an “expert, professional and proportionate” package of mitigating measures had been put in place to allow the development to proceed.
UK officials faced claims the embassy was approved as part of a “quid pro quo” for work beginning on the British embassy in Beijing, which China had blocked.
An aerial view of Royal Mint Court, the site for the new Chinese Embassy near Tower Bridge (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)Having a new embassy in the Chinese capital would be highly valuable to the UK’s security services, outweighing objections to the new embassy in London. Security officials also believed that Beijing would continue their espionage activities in the UK regardless.
Rayner resigned as Housing Secretary in September last year after underpaying £40,000 in stamp duty on the purchase of a property in Hove.
But in the weeks before she left government, she had demanded answers from the Chinese embassy over parts of its plans that had been redacted, including the internal layouts of buildings.
Redacted basement plans raised suspicions that these could be used to monitor, intimidate or even detain opponents of the Chinese Government.
It was against that backdrop that Rayner’s department required China to either to provide unredacted drawings or to “comprehensively” explain the plans. China declined to provide the full drawings, and the Government subsequently extended the timetable for deciding the application.
Sources close to Rayner said she followed the requirement for decisions to be made on the basis of evidence and not personal views – and ultimately she was not part of the decision-making process and a decision was made by her successor.
Opponents also argued that the location of the new embassy could allow China to infiltrate the UK’s financial system by tapping into nearby fibre optic cables carrying sensitive data for firms in the City of London. These risks are among those believed to have been mitigated.
Protesters outside the Royal Mint Court, where China’s new embassy is set to be built (Photo credit should read Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing via Getty Images)The White House had warned Downing Streeting against allowing a Chinese embassy to be built near sensitive financial centres in the capital.
A senior US official said at the time: “The United States is deeply concerned about providing China with potential access to the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The row over the development has reignited in recent weeks after The i Paper revealed that security guards at China’s current embassy in London had been seen brandishing illegal electroshock weapons at protesters. A guard was also seen waving a stun baton at intruders at the Royal Mint Court site.
UK Government officials later warned China that actions by a foreign state to intimidate or harm individuals on British soil would not be tolerated. The diplomatic row has raised fresh questions over China’s conduct and its alleged attempts to silence dissidents in the UK.
The High Court dismissed a legal challenge by campaigners against the proposed embassy. They plan to take their case to the Court of Appeal.
They hope the new Prime Minister Andy Burnham will take a tougher position on China than his predecessor Starmer, who sought a reset of the UK’s relationship with Beijing focused on trade and economic growth.
The Ministry for Housing and Local Government was approached for comment. A source said that as the decision may still be subject to legal action, it would not be appropriate to comment further. END
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