Sir Iain Duncan Smith has launched a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer after plans for a new Chinese “mega-embassy” were approved earlier today.

Speaking to GB News, the former Conservative leader declared the move a “give away to China” with the Prime Minister on “bended knee” to “project kowtow”.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has greenlit the plans for the building at Royal Mint Court.

Despite widespread criticism from MPs and campaigners over its security implications, Communities Secretary Steve Reed has granted both planning permission and listed building consent for the site near the Tower of London.

Hitting out at the decision, Sir Iain told GB News: “The Government clearly can’t count if this is the number one priority. God help us, this is a giveaway to China.

“The minister was asked in Parliament just now, ‘can you tell us whether this agreement to have this embassy makes Britain more secure or less secure? Yes or no?’, and he couldn’t answer it. He waffled around it.

“He wouldn’t answer that question, and he was asked it two or three times. He couldn’t say it makes us more secure.”

He argued: “All of these things they say, from the security services saying ‘we can cope with this’, they’re all about coping.

“And then that’s marginal, because their statement today says, ‘well, we can’t we can’t stop everything that takes place that damages the UK’. So coping means it’s not better, it’s worse, but somehow not as bad as you say it’s going to be.”

Fearing the personal implications he and his family may face with the new embassy in place, Sir Iain said: “So the Chinese Embassy will house 200 extra diplomats, and I say diplomats with inverted commas, because they’re really going to be spies.

“We already have the Chinese dissidents here who fled Hong Kong for persecution, and people like me who are sanctioned by the Chinese government and all my family, by the way, where I’m constantly attacked by them. I’ve had low level security operatives in China trying to impersonate me and to trash my reputation and all the rest of it going on the whole time.

“And the Chinese dissidents get hounded, bounties put on their head, ‘drag them to the embassy’ letters to local residents.”

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

• Nana Akua pinpoints Donald Trump’s ‘last straw’ with Starmer amid simmering transatlantic tensions
• ‘Flabbergasting!’ Tory bigwig tears into Keir Starmer’s approval of Chinese mega-embassy
• Labour approves plans for China’s ‘super embassy’ despite security fears

He continued: “They say as long as China acts lawfully, this should be okay. They never act lawfully. The Chinese government is not lawful when it suits them. Hounding Chinese people here in Britain, not lawful. Hounding members of Parliament by sanctioning them and their family, not lawful.

“Cyber attacks on the House of Commons and other areas and entities, not lawful. They act unlawfully whenever it suits them. So what they’re saying now, as long as they act lawfully, well, that’s it then, China’s not going to be a real threat. And this increases the threat, and it’s an utter, unmitigated disaster.”

Questioned on Sir Keir’s “strategy” to approve the embassy in order to grow a stronger economic relationship with China, Sir Iain fumed: “I think it’s pathetic, really. Let’s think about it, they have been threatened by China that unless they grant this embassy, China will have no arrangements with them at all.

“In the meantime, this shows you how bad this is, they have been busy shutting down the water to the British embassy in Beijing, and often the electricity, telling them they can’t do any repairs. They won’t be allowed to have any until they get their embassy over here, and what do we do? The Foreign Office wants us to cave in because they so desperately want their embassy over there.”

Highlighting the concerns of the security cables, located just metres away from the embassy, the ex-Tory leader told GB News: “The reality is, we’ve made a deal with them to give them this embassy, which is the biggest now in Europe, in the wrong place across these security cables, financial services cables.

“They’re about a foot and a half away from them down below, and they’re building rooms down there.

“We’ve given all that away, with more people to come and hound British citizens and Chinese dissidents, and we’ve given it away to get a few builders on site in a building in Beijing that if we weren’t there, nobody would care and we wouldn’t notice.”

He concluded: “This is a terrible deal, and it’s a weakness. It’s a Government on bended knee, project kowtow, going all the way to China saying, please, please, please help us have some trade.”