Tensions between Britain and China have escalated after Beijing criticised further delays to a planning decision on its proposed “mega embassy” in London.
China’s ministry of foreign affairs expressed “grave concern and strong dissatisfaction” after Steve Reed, the housing secretary, pushed back his final decision on the proposal until 10 December.
The row further complicates attempts by Keir Starmer, the prime minister, to reset relations with Beijing, which have already been damaged by a row over alleged Chinese espionage in the UK.
Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, told a press conference in Beijing on Friday that the UK had shown “disregard for contractual spirit, acting in bad faith and without integrity”.
He said China had acted with “the utmost sincerity and patience” and the UK should “immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments otherwise the British side shall bear all consequences”.
The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters on Friday that the decision over the embassy was quasi-judicial and “independent of the rest of government”. He said he did not “recognise any claims of commitments or assurances”.
Conservative MPs have accused ministers of breaking the law by giving China private assurances that they would wave through the proposed complex, which at 20,000 sq metres would be the biggest embassy in Europe if it goes ahead.
Oliver Robbins, the head of the Foreign Office, is in China this week discussing the embassy application and the refurbishments Britain wants to carry out on its own embassy in Beijing. The Guardian revealed last year that China was refusing to let the works go ahead while the fate of its own embassy is being decided.
Starmer has been keen to improve relations with Beijing as he seeks foreign investment to help build big infrastructure projects in the UK. But those attempts have faced multiple hurdles, including the two recent rows over spying and the proposed new embassy.
Beijing bought the site of the prospective embassy near the Tower of London for £255m in 2018. Tower Hamlets council refused permission for the project in 2022, prompting wrangling over whether it could go ahead.
China resubmitted its application shortly after Labour came to power and Xi Jinping raised the matter directly with Starmer in their first call in August 2024.
Starmer told Xi on the margins of the G20 summit in November 2024: “You raised the Chinese embassy building in London when we spoke on the telephone. We have since taken action by calling in that application.”
Angela Rayner took over the decision last year in her role as housing secretary, but was replaced by Reed days before a decision deadline of 9 September. That deadline was pushed back until 21 October after China redacted large portions of its plans for what it said were security reasons.
Downing Street this week said the decision had been delayed again in the midst of a separate controversy over two British citizens accused of spying for China. The case against the pair, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, collapsed last month, prompting accusations that the government had intervened in order to preserve diplomatic ties with Beijing.
Parliamentarians wrote to Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser, Matthew Collins, his deputy who drafted the government’s evidence in the case, and Chris Wormald, the cabinet secretary, with a series of questions on Friday night.
The joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS) has launched an inquiry into the collapse of the case.
The JCNSS asked Powell and Collins whether there was anything unusual in the nature of their involvement in this case, and whether the government conducted an internal legal assessment into the evidence it would provide.
It asked Wormald whether he believed the Crown Prosecution Service acted correctly in this case and whether it would have been appropriate for it to seek additional evidence from other parts of government.
Meanwhile, reports suggest Beijing has been accessing classified material on British servers for several years, renewing concerns that it could use the new embassy to bolster its surveillance efforts.
Matt Western, the Labour MP who chairs the joint committee on national security wrote to the government on Monday to say that approving the embassy was “not in the UK’s long-term interest”.
Western said the proposed location posed “eavesdropping risks in peacetime and sabotage risks in a crisis” owing to its proximity to fibre-optic cables, datacentres and telecoms exchanges serving Canary Wharf and the City.
Downing Street said the new delay to the embassy planning decision was not motivated by political concerns and instead reflected the complexity of the application.
A spokesperson said on Thursday: “Given the detailed nature of the representations that have been provided, and the need to give parties sufficient opportunity to respond, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government considers that more time is needed for full consideration of the applications.”
