Beijing warns Keir Starmer he faces 'consequences' if he doesn't approve Chinese embassy

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Olly Robbins's meetings in Beijing appear to have been unsuccessful, according to Bloomberg.

The spokesman expressed "grave concern and strong dissatisfaction" at the embassy decision which has been delayed multiple times and most recently until December 10.

Mr Jian said the UK must "immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments, otherwise the British side bear all consequences".

He added that the UK had shown "disregard for contractural spirit, acting in bad faith and without integrity".

Plans for the embassy were previously rejected in 2022 by Tower Hamlets Council and Beijing resubmitted the application a fortnight after Sir Keir's election victory last year.

The decision comes amid mounting pressure on the Government over the Chinese spying case.

Senior Conservatives have asked England's chief prosecutor if the trial of two alleged Chinese spies could be resumed if the Government declared Beijing was a threat to national security.

Tory leader labelled the China spy trial collapse "shocking".

"We now know that Keir Starmer knew the case was collapsing and did absolutely nothing to stop it," Kemi Badenoch said.

"He was too interested in thinking about how he could blame the Conservatives than in making sure we have national security."

Ms Badenoch referenced the speech by MI5 boss Sir Ken McCallum who said the agency had intervened operationally to disrupt Chinese activity of national security concern in the past week.

"(He said) even just last week they were stopping Chinese threats," she said.

"It's very clear that China is a national security threat with all of this spying, all of this espionage."

Ms Badenoch said "we can't stop China from spying on us".

She added that the Tory party "knew about it" when it was in Government.

"We took many steps to deal with it," Ms Badenoch said.

The Tory leader said if people are caught allegedly spying for China, they should be prosecuted.

The government and the Crown Prosecution Service are facing mounting questions over the collapse of the case.

The prosecution service dropped the case last month after finding the evidence did not show China was a threat to national security.

But witness statements from Britains deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins - published late on Wednesday - are clear that the Chinese are carrying out spying operations against the UK.

He said in the documents that China was carrying out "large scale espionage" against the UK.

Mr Collins added that it was "the biggest state-based threat to the country's economic security".