Chinese embassy could be Labour's costliest error yet

LABOUR’S decision to approve the largest Chinese embassy ever built in Europe, directly beside the City of London, is being defended as grownup diplomacy.

- Esther Krakue

Protesters rally against plans to create a new Chinese mega-embassy in London

Apparently, this is what serious countries do, because Britain can no longer “afford to be precious about who it does business with”.

It would be more convincing if the building in question were not sitting next to some of the most sensitive financial and communications infrastructure in the country, and if the partner involved didn’t have a long and well-documented record of espionage, coercion and industrial sabotage.

But apparently that doesn’t matter. The government still expects us to believe that all risks and security concerns have been taken into account, even as MI5 is warning parliamentary staff about Chinese attempts to recruit people with access to sensitive material, and only weeks after the collapse of the Chinese spying case.

This is the same government that has already clocked up more than a dozen U-turns and broken election promises since coming to power, which is, apparently, meant to project a picture of competence. So you'll forgive my scepticism.