Sir Keir Starmer is set to visit Beijing next week – just days after Labour green-lit China’s mega-embassy in central London.

The PM is expected to head east in a bid to revive a “golden era” of relations, which tailed off after a series of Chinese espionage, technology, and influence operations, alongside disagreements on human rights.

The visit was largely contingent on approval for the embassy, and after it was given the go-ahead, talks between the two countries “begun in earnest”, Reuters revealed.

It emerged on Wednesday that five UK allies – the US, the Netherlands, Sweden, New Zealand and Switzerland – had all raised fears about the site, and urged No10 not to “open Pandora’s Box”.

Labour has now been accused of “kowtowing” over the visit by senior Tories, though Sir Keir will not even get the chance to meet President Xi Jinping – instead, he is set to shake hands with second-in-command Li Qiang.

Sources said Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland could derail the trip, and cautioned that elements of the visit were still being finalised.

But things may now be more settled after the President struck a “draft framework agreement” with Nato, which may see a number of US military bases set up in the Arctic.

The British embassy in Beijing said the PM’s travel arrangements would be announced in the usual way.

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Tories launch major attack on PM after details of China visit emerge

Responding to reports of a potential visit to China, Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel said: “Having surrendered to China over their plan for a spy hub super-embassy in the heart of our capital, Keir Starmer is now getting ready to jet off to Beijing and toast it all with Xi Jinping.

“Meanwhile Labour are handing British sovereign territory and £35billion of taxpayers’ money to Mauritius, an ally of China, despite the clear threat to national security.

“When he is in Beijing, Starmer must not make any further concessions to the Chinese Communist Party.

“Labour are desperate to kowtow to Beijing in the hope of winning some crumbs of investment into the tanking economy they are presiding over.

“Only the Conservatives can be trusted to put Britain first.”

Sir Keir is pushing to revive a business dialogue forum known as the “UK-China CEO Council” that was established by none other than the Conservatives in 2018, with Theresa May being the last British PM to visit the country.

Writing in The Telegraph earlier this week, Shadow National Security Minister accused the PM of green-lighting the embassy “in return for a vanity visit later this month”.

“It is an open secret in Westminster that Keir Starmer is planning on visiting Beijing within weeks. It is also widely understood this visit is contingent on the embassy being approved beforehand,” she said.

“This is little more than diplomatic blackmail. What message does this send?”