China's London 'super-embassy' to include secret SPY DUNGEON - but Labour 'waves through' planning application (0.014871702219915291)
<iframe frameborder="0" height="100%" scrolling="no" src="https://www.gbnews.com/res/scraper/embed/?video_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmm-v2.simplestream.com%2Fiframe%2Fplayer.php%3Fkey%3D3Li3Nt2Qs8Ct3Xq9Fi5Uy0Mb2Bj0Qs%26player%3DGB003%26uvid%3D52771437%26type%3Dvod%26viously_id%3DL7ZVel8Pohk" width="100%"></iframe><br/><p class="">Long-running concerns over a Chinese "super-embassy" in the heart of London have been ratcheted up after it emerged that its plans contain blueprints for a secretive "spy dungeon".</p><p>Plans for the embassy, set to fill the site of the old Royal Mint on the edge of the capital's financial hub in the City, contain "two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel" - with their exact purpose "redacted for security reasons".</p><h3></h3><br/><p>The Mail reports that the embassy - often dubbed a "massive spy hub" by critics including Robert Jenrick - has become the source of a Cabinet rift - with the four "Great Offices of State" split down the middle on what to do.</p><p>Yvette Cooper's Home Office and David Lammy's Foreign Office are said to want to add China to the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs), a "blacklist" designed to monitor and combat covert foreign state activities.</p><h3></h3><br/><img alt="Chinese embassy maps" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21d462ca8c11ff1292f2e7397ea09779" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="fcf22" loading="lazy" src="https://www.gbnews.com/media-library/chinese-embassy-maps.png?id=53149675&width=980"/><h3></h3><br/><div class="embed-latest"></div><p>But Sir Keir Starmer's No10 and Rachel Reeves's Treasury have argued against doing so.</p><p>The embassy had been blocked by the former Tory Government in the past, while British intelligence services and the Metropolitan Police have both raised their own objections to its construction.</p><p>But now, it could be just months away from a formal green-lighting at the hands of Angela Rayner, who will make a final decision on the site soon.</p><p>And despite a Foreign Office push to put China on the Firs list, Rayner's "calling in" of the plans came at the behest of Lammy, according to The Telegraph.</p><p>Shadow Housing Secretary Kevin Hollinrake has now written to the Prime Minister demanding answers.</p><p><strong>LATEST ON CHINA:</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/china-labour-ed-miliband-solar-panels-net-zeo-uighurs" target="_self">'Shameful!' Labour caves to China AGAIN as Miliband to reject plan to ban 'slave-made' solar panels</a></li><li><a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/keir-starmer-rachel-reeves-china-iain-duncan-smith-politics-news" target="_self">Starmer and Reeves accused of ‘cosying up’ to China leaving Labour MPs ‘deeply concerned’</a></li><li><a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/peter-mandelson-china-fbi-keir-starmer-donald-trump" target="_self">Mandelson referred to FBI as Starmer's US ambassador pick faces probe over 'damning' China links</a></li></ul><h3></h3><br/><img alt="Starmer and Xi" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5dfbff7df6693853cc169fcbfcc44684" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="10db7" loading="lazy" src="https://www.gbnews.com/media-library/starmer-and-xi.jpg?id=59888839&width=980"/><h3></h3><br/><div class="embed-dontmiss"></div><p>He said in a letter: "Downing Street has been caught red-handed in an attempt to ram this mega-embassy through the planning system.</p><p>"Labour have disregarded democratic concerns - through a contempt for local democracy, and by failing to defend free speech in Britain.</p><p>"It would be a barbarous irony that a site so close to the medieval Tower of London could become a modern-day dungeon under a Starmer Government."</p><p>Hollinrake also warned that secrecy about the "dungeons" in planning documents is "striking", saying: "Why does the use of the basement rooms need to be redacted, given they are not in public sight and there is no public access?"</p><p>"This subterranean zone will undeniably be used for intelligence work by the Chinese Communist Party and its arm, the United Front Work Department," he added.</p><h3></h3><br/><img alt="Robert Jenrick" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="18530005b39b2620deeadba58c2b6224" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" id="b6664" loading="lazy" src="https://www.gbnews.com/media-library/robert-jenrick.jpg?id=57411005&width=980"/><h3></h3><br/><div class="embed-mostread"></div><p>"But there is also a chilling prospect that it could be used for the abduction, intimidation or torture of anti-Chinese dissidents living in the United Kingdom."</p><p>Alan Mendoza, the executive director of the Henry Jackson Society think tank, told GB News a few weeks ago: "Who knows what could be in that embassy - listening posts and such like - but its location suggests its target might be commercial rather than political."</p><p>His warnings came amid a <a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/china-labour-keir-starmer-chagos-islands-london-embassy-civil-service-spying-hong-kong" target="_blank">spike in fears of China's influence over Britain</a> - which the Government moved to partially remedy on Saturday with the <a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/british-steel-vote-parliament-recalled-national-security-keir-starmer" target="_blank">passing of a Bill to rescue British Steel from Chinese owners Jingye</a>.</p><p>And just days ago, a British MP who had spoken out against Beijing in the past <a href="https://www.gbnews.com/politics/wera-hobhouse-mp-banned-hong-kong-grandson-china" target="_blank">was barred from entering Chinese-run Hong Kong</a>.</p><p>Responding to questions from the Tories about whether No10 had intervened in the local planning process at the behest of Beijing, a Government spokesman said: "The public interest lies in favour of withholding the information you have requested."</p><p>And a Chinese embassy spokesman blasted: "Anti-China elements are always keen on slandering and attacking China."</p>
