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Plans for a new Chinese ‘super embassy’ in London would include on-site accommodation for more than 200 intelligence officers, it has been revealed.

News of the proposed ‘spy campus’ has added fresh controversy to China’s redevelopment bid for the historic Royal Mint buildings near the Tower of London.

Downing Street is considering the plans — previously shelved by the last government — following personal lobbying by Chinese President Xi Jinping, The Mail on Sunday reports.

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 “cultural exchange” area within the embassy plans is reportedly exempt from UK inspection and verification. A security source told the Mail on Sunday the term is a “euphemism for intelligence and security services”.

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Planning documents for the proposed embassy site reveal “two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel,” with their intended purpose redacted “for security reasons”.

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A 12-day public inquiry into the plans took place in February. A report by the Planning Inspectorate — an executive agency of the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government — is now believed to recommend approval.

Tower Hamlets Council originally rejected the application in 2022. However, the case was later called in by then-deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, who used her ministerial powers to take the final decision away from the local authority.

https://bsky.app/profile/georgemonbiot.bsky.social/post/3lt7sya2mfk2q

Enforcement teams are gearing up to launch a nationwide blitz targeting illegal working hotspots, with a focus on the gig economy and migrants working as delivery riders.

Under the Government’s Plan for Change to restore order to the immigration system and tougher enforcement of the rules, Home Office Immigration Enforcement teams will launch a major operation to disrupt this type of criminality.

Strategic, intel-driven activity will bring together officers across the UK and place an increased focus on migrants suspected of working illegally whilst in taxpayer funded accommodation or receiving financial support.

The law is clear that asylum seekers are only entitled to this support if they would otherwise be destitute. That is why anyone caught flagrantly abusing the system in this way, as a result of the operation, will face having support discontinued, whether that’s entitlement to accommodation or payments.

Operational teams will target certain hotspots across the country over a period of intensification, as well as going after organisations who wilfully employ those working illegally, through civil penalty referrals. Any business found to be illegally employing someone could face a fine of up to £60,000 per worker, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.

Clean, efficient electric heating is one of the best options for government to translate the Clean Power mission into energy bill savings for households. But poor policy decisions stand in the way of consumers feeling the benefits.

It’s disturbing to hear the UK is /again/ changing the banknotes (according to BBC WS). Does this in any way shorten any deadline to trade-in the previous notes? Will it be possible to trade in notes that are 2 generations old?

I have a couple thousand GBP banknotes. These are the previous style and no longer legal tender. I would get burnt if I tried to exchange them for my local currency because the exchange service cannot sell them (they must send them to England). I believe I can still travel to the UK and exchange them fairly legal tender at post offices, correct?

MSM hacks like Beth Rigby attended the Spectator summer garden party - after it published another vile column by Rod Liddle