Fears grow over Chinese 'spy campus' at heart of London
Mapping data shows the proposed site lies directly between financial hubs in the City and Canary Wharf and close to three major data centres, including the Stock Exchange. Earlier this year, The Mail on Sunday revealed that planning documents for the embassy included 'spy dungeons' – two suites of basement rooms and a tunnel, with their purpose redacted for security reasons. A source said: 'There will effectively be a student-style campus for spies in the heart of the City. 'And those spy dungeons are so deep that the sensitive cables are virtually at head height.'
A US security source said 'cultural interests/exchange' is a 'euphemism for intelligence and security services', adding: 'It's where they often stuff their security and intelligence staff, among other diplomats. And if it's a "cultural" centre/space, why do they always declare it off limits in planning documents?'
Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: 'Everywhere there is a mega embassy... Chinese state-sponsored, trans-national repression of those who have fled the Chinese state or who criticise it grows dramatically. 'It's simple: a bigger embassy has more spies and more repression.'
Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Kevin Hollinrake said Labour had been 'caught red-handed trying to ram through this sinister embassy' in a 'desperate attempt to woo the Chinese Communist Party to bail out their failing economic policies'. He added: 'It is shocking Labour want to sign a legal document that will ban British officials checking what is being built in the embassy building. This is yet another surrender document from a Labour Government that puts foreign interests over British interests.'
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The Guardian
16 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Monday briefing: What Zarah Sultana's new breakaway party could mean for Labour and the left
Good morning. Last week, Zarah Sultana resigned from the Labour party and announced she was co-founding a new leftwing political party alongside former leader Jeremy Corbyn. The MP for Coventry South, who was first elected in December 2019, lost the Labour whip last July after defying the party to oppose the two-child benefit cap. She has stood by that decision, saying she would 'do it again'. In her resignation statement, Sultana accused the government of seeking to make disabled people suffer and called the political system in Westminster 'broken'. She said she was joining forces with other independent MPs and activists to build an alternative to what she described as a political establishment that no longer served ordinary people. The news will not come as a surprise to many Westminster watchers – Corbyn has been hinting at the formation of a new party since last September, and an appeareance on Peston on Sunday two weeks ago was widely seen as a soft launch for the project. But so far Corbyn has confirmed only that he is in discussions about a new party; some reports suggest Sultana caught parts of the emerging alliance off guard, exposing divisions over strategy and direction – and a struggle for leadership and power. While we await more key details – including the party's name – it's worth asking whether there is real public appetite for a new leftwing party, what it could look like, and what impact it could have on not just Labour but the entire political landscape. To explore those questions, I spoke with veteran pollster and Deltapoll co-founder Joe Twyman for today's newsletter. That's after the headlines. Labour | Downing Street is facing another bruising battle after last week's humiliating retreat on welfare reforms as MPs, campaigners and parents voice concern at its overhaul of special needs education for children in England, the Guardian can reveal. Middle East | Israeli warplanes launched a wave of strikes in Gaza on Sunday, killing at least 38 Palestinians, according to hospital officials, as talks over a ceasefire in the devastated territory reached a critical point. US news | Residents in central Texas were observing a day of prayer on Sunday for at least 82 people killed and dozens missing in flash flooding. A search, rescue and recovery operation was continuing. Australia | A jury in Australia has found Erin Patterson, 50, guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth with a poisoned beef wellington lunch almost two years ago. UK news | Keir Starmer, King Charles and the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, have marked the 20th anniversary of the 7 July attacks in London in which Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured more than 770. Sultana published a statement on Thursday accusing Labour and the Conservatives of offering 'nothing but managed decline and broken promises'. She pointed to Reform – and its leader, Nigel Farage, a 'billionaire-backed grifter' in her words – leading the polls as evidence of the political system's failure. Framing the next general election as a battle between 'socialism or barbarism', a slogan famously used by the Marxist thinker Rosa Luxemburg, she called for urgent political change. The MP's statement strongly criticised some of Labour's most controversial policies in government, including the two-child benefit cap, winter fuel payment cuts and welfare reform proposals that the government's own impact assessment says would push many disabled people into poverty. She also condemned politicians across the spectrum for smearing 'people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists'. Sultana ended the statement by urging supporters to 'join us' in building what she presented as a new political alternative. As of this morning, more than 45,000 people had signed up as 'actioners'. Together, these two themes – inequality and poverty, and anger over the war in Gaza – point to the communities this new party is hoping to mobilise and represent. But is there any appetite for this among the British electorate? What does the polling say? It's hard to measure hypotheticals in polling, Joe Twyman told me, yet he warned: 'The last 10 to 15 years of British politics have taught us that you cannot rule anything out, and that nothing can be guaranteed.' On the question of whether there is a desire for a new leftwing party among the electorate, Twyman said: 'There is always a desire for a new party … if there were a general election tomorrow and the following parties were running, the normal parties, and then a new party, left, right, whatever, they will always poll relatively well. And by relatively well, I mean around 10-15%.' A recent poll by More in Common, shared with the New Statesman last month, backed this up, finding that a new party fronted by Corbyn could pick up 10% of the votes in an election. But Twyman was keen to temper expectations. 'That's because you're asking in an abstract way: how would you hypothetically vote in a hypothetical election for a hypothetical party? But what people are actually answering is how they feel about the existing parties. We project our hopes and expectations on to a new party. People think, 'Oh yeah, I'd vote for that,' not because they like the new party, but because they don't like the established ones. There's nothing bad yet about this new party in the eyes of many people.' He added that he speaks from experience. Twyman was the official pollster for the ill-fated Change UK party, made up of centrist defectors from Labour and the Conservatives in 2019. Ultimately, not a single candidate won a seat. 'It lasted so short a time I didn't even get the T-shirt,' he joked. What does this mean for the Greens? It has been particularly interesting to see how leading figures in the Green party have responded to the announcement of a new political party. Zack Polanski, the insurgent London assembly member running to lead the Greens on a radical, mass-membership 'eco-populism' platform, quickly announced he would work with any party that wanted to stop Reform and challenge Labour. So did Mothin Ali, the most high-profile candidate currently running to become the party's deputy leader. Could we soon see a political pact between the Green party and this new organisation? James Meadway, an economist, former adviser to John McDonnell and now a Green party member, has been calling for exactly that, and he isn't alone. He claims there are 60 seats up for grabs for an alliance between socialists and environmentalists. But could this actually work? Twyman told me it is difficult to test the public appetite for formal alliances. 'The average person in the street has not thought about this at all,' he said. 'What you're dealing with here is hypotheticals, but the reality can be very, very different.' He said the mistake people often make is simply adding up parties. It's the same trick Conservatives use when they add Reform's vote to their own and claim that is what they would get if Reform didn't stand. So for now, there is no reliable way to model how well such an alliance would actually perform. Will it be a serious threat to Labour? As for Labour leadership, they have so far brushed off the announcement of this new party, while some Labour backbenchers actively welcomed Sultana's resignation. But could this new party prove to be a headache for Labour down the line? 'Everything's a headache for Labour,' Twyman said. 'If you're Tony Blair and you're 40 points ahead in the polls and you get complaints from your left flank, then you can laugh it off. If, on the other hand, you're Keir Starmer and you have had a really tough first year, you're trying to get things back on track, you recognise the risk that Reform represents on some of your voters … and now you're thinking, well, maybe here's another risk.' Should Downing Street be worried as things stand right now? No, Twyman said. But he wouldn't dismiss it completely, especially if the new party gains money, momentum, or defections. He suggests the announcement of the party adds to growing evidence of fragmentation in British politics. 'Reform and this new party didn't create this wave of dissatisfaction, but what they're being very effective at doing is riding it on to the beach.' 'Labour governments are meant to make people feel less scared, not more.' John Harris is typically powerful in today's column asking incredulously: is Labour really about to target the educational rights of special needs children? Charlie Lindlar, acting deputy editor, newsletters What does it mean to come dead last on the nation's most beloved reality TV show? I loved this roundup of contestants from a range of shows, from The Traitors to Bake Off. Aamna In case you missed it on Saturday: First Edition's own Archie Bland is excellent in this column on Bob Vylan and the coalescing of a steadfast public opposition to Israel's war on Gaza. 'It isn't just that people are angry that the catastrophe in Gaza isn't being given due attention: it is that their encounters with observable reality are being flatly denied,' he thinks. Charlie From his earliest reading memory (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) to the author he once struggled with but now frequently rereads (Jane Austen), this is a lovely, quiet meditation from bestselling author David Nicholls on the books that changed his life. Aamna I'm in the midst of yet another Girls rewatch – the perfect time for Lena Dunham's long-awaited next project, Too Much, and this Michael Segalov interview with its star, Megan Stalter. Charlie Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Tennis | At Wimbledon, Cameron Norrie lost a third-set match point but beat Chile's Nicolás Jarry 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (7), 6-7 (5), 6-3 to set up a quarter-final against Carlos Alcaraz. Briton Sonay Kartal lost to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-6 (3), 6-4 in a clash marred by technological failure, with Wimbledon organisers apologising after the electronic line-calling system was turned off in error at a crucial moment on Centre Court. Football | Second-half goals from Géraldine Reuteler and Alayah Pilgrim gave Switzerland a 2-0 win against Iceland in Group A of Euro 2025. Caroline Graham Hansen struck late on as Norway ended 2-1 against Finland for their second win in two games at Euro 2025, with Switzerland's win sealing their qualification. Formula One | Lando Norris took his maiden win at the British Grand Prix after a dramatic and incident-packed race at Silverstone in treacherous wet and dry conditions. The Guardian begins the week with 'New battle for No 10 as MPs raise alarm on special needs provision'. The Times likewise has 'PM facing fresh revolt over special needs help'. 'Labour 'willing to explore' wealth tax' says the Telegraph. 'State pension tax would be 'insult to all OAPs'' – that's the Express while the i leads with 'UK was 10 years from turning off the taps: Labour vows to avert new water crisis'. The Financial Times tells us that 'China reroutes exports via south-east Asia in bid to skirt Trump's tariff wall'. The Metro reports on a call by the Met commissioner, Mark Rowley, for ''12 mega forces' in policing shake-up'. Biggest story in the Daily Mail is 'Top police chiefs: Smell of cannabis is a 'sign of crime''. ''Fined'... for keeping teeth healthy' – it's a 'perverse' case that stains NHS dentistry, says the Mirror. A rogue fertility clinic, stolen eggs, and an unlikely friendship Jenny Kleeman reports on the IVF clinic in the US that stole women's eggs to get other women pregnant. Sign up for Inside Saturday to see more of Edith Pritchett's cartoons, the best Saturday magazine journalism and an exclusive look behind the scenes A bit of good news to remind you that the world's not all bad Two decades after the 7/7 London bombings, families of victims have channelled grief into powerful memorials that continue to change lives. The Miriam Hyman Children's Eye Care Centre in India now treats thousands of children each month, while initiatives like Fiona Stevenson's swimming project in Belize and Michael Matsushita's orphanage fund in Cambodia and Vietnam have safeguarded and uplifted countless young lives. Closer to home, bursaries and hospital donations honour victims like Helen Jones, Benedetta Ciaccia, and Philip Russell. Alongside these legacies, families have also campaigned for reconciliation and social cohesion. From clinics to classrooms, each initiative reflects the values of those lost and the enduring power of compassion. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday And finally, the Guardian's puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
BBC News
17 minutes ago
- BBC News
Needham Market student says he is helping teenagers escape crime
After moving to the UK from Zimbabwe in 2022, DJ Mudziviri started "hanging around with the wrong groups" and doing things he "can't mention".But, three years on, he says he is now helping steer others away from crime, drugs, and gang violence, having left behind what he describes as a "horrific" way of summer, the 18-year-old from Needham Market founded Better Youth UK - to give teenagers with limited opportunities the chance to make money trying to make a difference to the lives of young people, DJ won a community champion award from the Eastern Education Group, which runs Suffolk One, where he studies. "It felt amazing and it was a very happy moment for me. I was jumping and me and the family celebrated," said the health and social care student."I was really happy because people hadn't seen that side of me because they had a bad interpretation of me, so, I am very, very grateful." DJ and his team identify young people who may require support through their outreach programme, which sees them visit cities across the says he then provides them with an opportunity."I say, 'If you were to make the same amount of money you're making illegally, legally, would you choose the legal way?', and they always say 'yes'," he said."They want money quick, but they don't know who to reach out to in order to make a legal income."We actually help young people and give them more opportunities to express themselves." Those who decide to take up DJ's offer of a life away from drugs and gang violence are tasked with selling the Better Youth UK copy costs £10, with £6 going to the person who sells it. The remaining £4 is put back into funding more outreach programmes and and his team also offer mental health support and hold monthly workshops to inspire people to set up their own have helped a young woman set up as a hairdresser and another become the boss of her own nail business."Whilst out working they are working for themselves," said DJ."The benefit is they are not looking behind their back for the police trying to nick them or the competition that might steal their products."They can work without fear of harm or prosecution." 'Real life stories' DJ, who moved to the UK with his "proud" mum Anna, says he started the organisation with "a lot" of his own money – but he says he was "determined" to provide the younger generation with a way out."I was having sleepless nights trying to design the website," he said."But I set it up because I didn't want other young people to go through [what I had] - because the things I saw were very horrific."Following the success of Better Youth UK's first award-winning year, DJ is now looking towards the future."We want to go into schools and hold talks, because young people don't like listening to a 30-year-old man who has no experience [of youth crime]", he said."They want real life stories with people who have been through it."I am not the solution, but I am part of the solution to help reduce these issues among young people." Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Daily Mirror
22 minutes ago
- Daily Mirror
7/7 London terror attack was 20 years ago but UK security risk worse than ever
Twenty years ago four Islamist extremist attackers set off suicide bombs that ripped through central London ending and changing many lives of innocent civilians - now Britain's leading counter-terror experts warn the threat is still here TWENTY years ago today these four men killed themselves and 52 others when they detonated their bombs on three trains and a bus in London in the first Islamist suicide attack on UK soil. A further 770 people were injured in the 7/7 bombings, which signalled the start of a new era of terrorism in Britain. There is now an ever-present terror threat, and with ever-changing weapons would-be attackers are adapting. But, in the shadows, MI5 and counter-terror police are surveilling terror cells and lone wolves, building up evidence and striking to prevent attacks. They have seen terrorism up close and understand what the public do not see – that evil is out there and another attacker could strike at any time. As Richard Kemp, a former adviser to the government on terrorism, tells the Mirror today: 'Twenty years on, this insidious threat remains with us and will never go away.' Britain's leading security experts have revealed how the UK's security risk is as bad as it was 20 years ago - and in some cases, worse. The war on terror continues exactly 20 years on from one of the worst attacks in the UK. On 7 July 2005 four suicide bombers struck London's transport network, killing 52 people and injuring over 770 others in an atrocity that shocked the world. These experts below have seen terrorism up close and have a deep understanding of what the public do not see - that evil is out there and the attackers could strike at any time, here's what they have to say about the state of the threat today: Colonel Richard Kemp, former adviser to government on terrorism "Twenty years ago, on 7th July 2005, we saw the most deadly terrorist attack ever committed on UK soil when 52 were killed and 770 wounded. I was chairman of the COBRA Intelligence Group, responsible for coordinating the national intelligence services MI5, MI6 and GCHQ as well as military and police intelligence in support of the UK crisis management committee, chaired by the prime minister. Following 9/11, in which more British people were killed than in any other terrorist attack anywhere, our intelligence efforts against Islamic jihadists had been redoubled. But nevertheless there had been no warning of the 7/7 attack and many experts believed that a suicide bombing would not take place on British soil, despite the involvement of many British Muslims in a wide range of terrorism outside the UK — including suicide attacks. COBRA met as soon as it became clear that the Underground had been bombed. The number one priority of the Intelligence Group was to identify any information that might indicate further immediate danger so that any secondary or follow-on attack could be prevented by the police and MI5. Key to that was clearly connections between the terrorists directly involved and any other individuals or networks either in Britain or abroad. That obviously took some time until the terrorists were identified. Then the stops were pulled out and the agencies feverishly drew not only on their own sources but also international intelligence allies. The London bombings essentially emerged from the importation into the UK of Islamic grievances inside Pakistan, the country of origin of the parents of terrorist ringleader Mohammad Sedique Khan. The conflict in Kashmir especially had been his start point and as his religious fervour grew, he also came under increasing influence from Pakistani mujahideen and supporters of Al Qaeda, both here in Britain and while travelling to Pakistan and Afghanistan. His pre-7/7 video of course blames British violence against Muslims for his planned attack, while conveniently ignoring the reality of infinitely greater levels of violence against Muslims perpetrated by his own Al Qaida heroes. The catalogue of jihadist attacks in the UK since 7/7, including the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, horrific though it is, doesn't come close to the full picture. MI5 and the police constantly monitor thousands of suspects and thankfully have prevented dozens more mass murder plots. Twenty years on this insidious threat remains with us and will never go away." Major Chris Hunter QGM, ex-SAS bomb disposal expert "When the 7/7 suicide bombings tore through London's transport network, I was an Army Major, working for Defence Intelligence and seconded to COBRA, the UK Government's emergency crisis response committee. For days, I was immersed in intelligence feeds, risk assessments, and the horrific aftermath of an attack on our own streets. That evening I walked home - through a city changed forever - toward my wife and children in Putney, carrying with me the realisation that the frontlines were no longer just overseas. At that point in my career, I had already served as a bomb disposal officer with the SAS, disarming IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan. We'd trained for years for an incident like this, but 7/7 brought the reality home: the enemy no longer needed to cross borders. The war could be brought to us, through ideology, radicalisation, and cunning ingenuity. Since then, the threat has evolved - mutated, even. Where once it was crude homemade devices in backpacks, it's now 3D-printed components, encrypted planning apps, and lone actors radicalised online from bedrooms thousands of miles away. The accessibility of lethal technology is greater than ever. The barriers to entry are lower. The ideology, tragically, is still thriving. For the past ten years, I've worked as a humanitarian Explosive Ordnance Disposal operator in conflict zones across the world - Libya, Syria, Iraq – where my colleagues and I are saving lives and denying terrorists the weapons they leave behind. We've cleared thousands of IEDs: everything from Daesh 's suicide belts to booby-trapped schools and hospitals. I've seen, and continue to see first-hand how this threat doesn't just persist - it adapts. And it doesn't respect borders. I'm writing this from another conflict zone in the Middle East. And the hard truth is this: while the faces and factions may change, the tactics don't. We must remain vigilant - not paranoid, but prepared. We must invest in intelligence, prevention, and resilience. Because terrorism never sleeps. And neither should we. They only have to be lucky once; we have to be lucky always." Colonel Hamish De-Bretton Gordon, chemical and biological weapons expert "At the time of 7/7, 20 years ago I was commanding the UK's Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear Regiment and was on operations in Iraq. We were dealing with a potential al-Qaeda biological weapon attack against British troops in southern Iraq. Had 7/7 been a CBRN attack, God only knows what the death toll might have been. I saw up close the terror state of Assad's Syria, killing thousands of civilians with the deadly nerve agent Sarin, but also with readily available chlorine. When I was fighting with the Peshmerga against ISIS, 2015-17, the terrorists frequently fired mortars at us full of mustard agent aka mustard gas. ISIS also tried to obtain highly enriched uranium to make an improvised nuclear device which could have devastated whole towns and villages. The offspring of the jihadists of 7/7 have tried and so far, failed to devastate the hated West with some form of CBRN attack. It is not just the terrorists who view this type of attack as the 'gold' standard, but also tyrants and rogue states. The dictator of North Korea had his stepbrother assassinated with the nerve agent VX, and my hometown of Salisbury was attacked by Russian hitmen on the orders of Putin himself, with Novichok, the deadliest chemical man has ever produced. There was enough Novichok used in the attack to kill half the population of Salsibury. It seems every terrorist, dictator, despot and rogue state sees CBRN as morbidly brilliant weapons, but there is mitigation to every threat, and it is the one that is ignored or put in the too difficult bracket, that will cause us serious harm. However, we in this country are fortunate to have the brilliant MI5 and MI6, the counter-terror police, the SAS and many other agencies that keep us safe in our beds and will continue to do so if we support and fund them properly." Peter Clarke, former head of counter-terrorism, Scotland Yard "It's the only time we've had this scale of multiple attacks, in the capital, targeting innocent members of the public. Lockerbie saw far greater loss of life but there were different things about this one. It turned out it was British citizens killing and injuring their own citizens, on and under the streets of London. Unprecedented. You have to ask yourself, what did they achieve? It's been 20 years now. All that pain and suffering they caused, and death, what did they actually achieve by that?' What has changed is that we adapted the way we worked after 9/11 to the different threat posed by the Islamist groups as opposed to the Irish paramilitaries. That involved MI5 and the police working much more closely together than they ever had before to try and capture these people at the planning stages or as early as possible before they killed too many people. Their ambition was to kill as many people as possible, which the Irish hadn't because they were part of a political process. So we found a new way of working where lots of material that MI5 had gathered became available to us as evidence and that enabled us to intervene earlier, in some cases. The closeness of that relationship made it increasingly difficult for Al Qaeda to operate large terrorist networks. You had 7/7, then the transatlantic airline plot in 2006 and the last network was the NHS doctors who attacked Haymarket and then Glasgow Airport in 2007. What had happened by then is that it became too difficult for large networks to operate in this country. It's around that time that Al Qaeda changed its tactics and said that individual terrorists could choose their target and their timing. In the past these networks had had to be centrally authorised by Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That was certainly the case with 7/7. So the method of launching terrorist attacks has changed since then. There is obviously a huge terrorist threat.'
