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In characteristic fashion, the Labour Party is failing abysmally on national security and the basic function of any government in keeping the country secure. The latest instalment in this shameful and disturbing sequence is an ignorant obsession with deepening ties to the despots in Beijing supposedly out of perceived economic necessity.
Putting aside the fact that much of contemporary Labour Britain’s fiscal predicament was entirely self-inflicted by that embarrassing own goal of an Autumn Budget that launched a crusade on the engines of growth in a free market economy, the Labour government now finds itself clutching its pearls over the stagnation it unilaterally imposed on the country. Labour is inevitably discovering, once again, that you cannot recklessly tax and spend your way to growth. I cynically suspect we’ll keep having to learn that same painful lesson every single time we get economically illiterate Labour governments.
Indeed, it may upset our Prime Minister to know that as the July 2024 general election retreats ever further into the rearview mirror, it becomes increasingly politically unsustainable for him to continue screaming ‘it’s the Tories’ fault’ on every issue of contention when he needs cover for his and his Cabinet’s own poor judgement.
Its new grand solution to its fiscal quagmire is not to reverse its job-killing National Insurance hike on businesses or any of the other stifling measures it enacted that brought growth to a screeching halt, but rather to cozy up to arguably the greatest geopolitical adversary to the democratic world at the direct expense of our national security and pray some economic crumbs fall from the negotiating table.
This kneejerk pivot to Beijing out of desperation is a harrowing development and begs the question just how far will Labour go in these discussions? What we can already quantify from their first ten months in office is mortifying from a national security perspective. From the Chagos Deal to the hollowing out of the foreign aid budget (one of the United Kingdom’s most effective soft power tools at its disposal), and lacklustre increases to the defence budget at a critical juncture, for all the empty rhetoric this government is not interested in prioritising national security. Rather, it is passionately committed to the ignorant ideological utopian visions of those North London legal think tank circles that gave the country Keir Starmer and company. It is seemingly very important for the Prime Minister, and indeed our Foreign Secretary, to feel good about themselves at their next cosmopolitan think tank dinner, even if that comes at the expense of the country’s security.
In typical party and ideological over national interest, most of these awful Labour decisions have come at the zero-sum expense of our security. The very worst of the many harmful choices is the decision to unilaterally hand over sovereignty of a key archipelago that hosts a critical joint UK-US strategic base in a vital geopolitical region to a Chinese ally that has never exercised control over those islands. The relinquishing of the Chagos Islands was done in the vague name of self-determination, yet the Chagossian community has made it abundantly clear that they do not wish to become Mauritian nor have they been consulted at any stage of the process.
And the best part? We get to frontload £9 billion (and possibly as high as £18 billion) to Mauritius for the privilege. We are harming our security, eroding relationships with our allies and risking our forward operating capabilities in a vital region for absolutely zero gain and with the national wallet billions of pounds lighter.
But no don’t be silly, we can apparently conjure up a spare £18 billion for Starmer and Lammy’s damaging narcissistic pet projects but of course we can’t find the £1.3 billion to retain the Winter Fuel Allowance and prevent 100,000 pensioners being pushed into poverty by 2026 and some 4,000 more excess deaths.
Returning to the Labour government’s fangirling over China as the economic antidote to their incompetence, we know precisely the big prize that the Chinese state will demand of the Labour government for expanded economic engagement, and even more concerningly we can be all but sure that they will now approve it as in quintessential Labour fashion they enter negotiations having already removed their own leverage. The cost will be the new 700,000 square foot Chinese ‘super-embassy’ on the historic old Royal Mint Court site (which China already owns) in Tower Hamlets in central London that the Chinese government has been lobbying relentlessly for several years to try to attain formal approval for.
It is a cornerstone project on Beijing’s mind and is the gateway to a strengthened foothold for subversion in Britain – approval for it is explicitly raised at almost every high-level Sino-UK diplomatic encounter, including by Xi Jinping himself to the Prime Minister when they spoke. The following excerpt detailing the devastating consequences and security implications of approving such an establishment on British soil is drawn from one of my previous articles.
‘It would be the largest diplomatic compound in Britain and China’s largest embassy in Europe and has been dubbed a ‘super-embassy’. It would be ten times the size of Beijing’s existing embassy in London. The danger arises from the fact that such a massive complex, which would boast such a huge array of facilities and capabilities given its sheer size and shielded by certain protections of international law and diplomatic immunity, could effectively double as a spy centre or even a prison for foreign dissidents Beijing otherwise could not reach.
If approved, it would ‘significantly boost the country’s espionage capabilities’. Intelligence officials have said it will allow Beijing to ‘station more spies and use increasingly powerful surveillance equipment close to sensitive UK infrastructure’. Given the location of the site very close to the City of London’s financial district, a high-ranking ex-MI6 officer alleged it will ‘inevitably be used for electronic collection’ and provide access for Chinese agents to ‘key fibre-optic cables vital to Britain’s internet network and the City’s sensitive communication lines’. Indeed, any clandestine activity could be more easily veiled by it being situated in one of the busiest areas of London, right next to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.
It is a serious security risk for Britain to approve such a complex, to the point that American security officials have warned approving it may force Washington to consider ‘mitigative measures’, including curbing intelligence sharing if they felt Britain was not capable of challenging China.
Whilst operating a covert Chinese prison on British soil may sound outlandish or conspiratorial, remember we have seen this before. In October 2022, pro-democracy activists were protesting Hong Kong outside the Chinese Consulate in Manchester, when 8 consulate staff wearing helmets and protective vests forcibly dragged one of the protestors inside the diplomatic grounds and beat him. Given it couldn’t be entered without consent, there was little the British authorities were entitled to do to aid the protester, so it is fortunate that he escaped of his own accord. Now imagine this on an immeasurably larger scale with thousands of staff and the facilities to detain dissidents (or worse) – masked by a bustling area in London. No self-respecting democracy could plausibly endorse such plans’.
We have since had greater confirmation in the three months since that prior article about the nefarious intent of the Chinese government for this embassy, in the form of planning approval documents submitted to the government which revealed ‘two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel’, the purpose of which has been redacted ‘for security’.
The last Conservative government rightfully blocked the plans, yet Beijing tried their luck again and resubmitted them following the general election, undoubtedly sensing a new spinelessness in Downing Street. Ignoring the fact that the local council in Tower Hamlets has twice unanimously rejected the plans, Starmer set up a review and handed final decision-making capacity to Angela Rayner, who is poised to announce her final decision imminently.
It would be a domestic security disaster of unparalleled proportions if this Chinese enterprise is allowed to proceed. That is partly, alongside the fact it will surely be Beijing’s starting price for renewed rounds of trade discussions Labour has convinced itself are its only way out of its fiscal hole, why I am confident Labour will approve it – if their wider record is anything to go by.
The Labour Party has a rich history of placing party and ideology over country and security. That is not a new phenomenon. What is particularly disturbing however about its current obsession with making nice with the brutal Chinese autocrats is the enormous hit to our domestic and foreign security (and indeed that of our allies), for a small sliver of trade progress when it is far from the only option available to the government. It is a shameful dereliction of the most important function of government, keeping us safe and secure.
How many more British pro-democracy protestors must be violently beaten up by the Chinese diplomatic corps on Manchester streets?
How many more benches and pubs in St. James’ Park need to be bugged as they record privileged parliamentary conversations?
How many more clear warnings from our allies and intelligence services about internal subversion are going to be tossed aside by Keir Starmer in pursuit of a naive ideological vision?
How many more pieces of critical sensitive national infrastructure like previously Hinkley Point nuclear power station, then British Steel and soon Thames Water are we going to let Beijing buy up and hollow out from within?
How many more sitting Cabinet-level Labour MPs are we going to let take £500,000 from registered CCP agents before we accept the indisputable reality that the Chinese government is not our friend and is not the answer to our contemporary problems and rather is one of the primary sources?
Image: Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends the G20 Summit in Brazil, Simon Dawson, 2024//CC BY 2.0
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