Luke de Pulford, co-founder, Executive Director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China wrote on X: “Judicial Review challenge against the [Chinese] mega embassy has BEGUN! The Pre-Application Letter from @StopTheEmbassy, backed by a top legal team, is extremely strong.”
In the document, the Royal Mint Court Residents Association lists five grounds on which they are opposing the project’s approval. The decision is flawed, they claim, because diplomatic protocols make it so it is not possible to preserve safeguarding conditions imposed on the plans by the UK government.
It also alleges a failure to disclose critical security assessments during the public inquiry, and that the decision was influenced by “immaterial considerations”.
These purportedly included considerations regarding UK-Chinese relations and the want to secure approval from Beijing for an upgrade of the British embassy in the city, the Financial Times reports.
Opponents are also seeking relevant documents and communications between the British and China over the London embassy’s approval.
It comes after Sir Keir was accused of going to China “with the title deeds to a mega-embassy in the back pocket” without securing an assurance that jailed pro-democracy activist and British citizen Jimmy Lai would be released by Beijing.
The Prime Minister came under fire in Parliament from human rights campaigner Lord Alton of Liverpool, who had previously been sanctioned by the communist regime.
Responding, foreign minister Baroness Chapman of Darlington argued Mr Lai, 78, the founder of now-defunct Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, should be freed immediately, but said the Government would not “get everything we want with one visit”.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper accused the PM of going “cap in hand” to Beijing.
Responding, the Deputy Prime Minister, David Lammy, said: “China matters and ignoring them would be a dereliction of duty. We will build a consistent, long-term and strategic approach, grounded in reality.
“And that is what our allies do – President Trump, Macron, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Carney, all are visiting and engaging. We’ll cooperate where we can, and I’m sure in areas like climate, she would expect us to cooperate, and we will challenge in areas where we disagree.”