Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, speaks to protesters gathered outside the proposed site of the new Chinese embassy redevelopment in Royal Mint Court, east London.

Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, was among thousands of people who demonstrated against the plans on Saturday.

If approved, it will be 10 times bigger than the current Chinese embassy and become the country’s largest diplomatic mission in Europe.

The site at the former Royal Mint Court in east London would include offices, 225 homes and a “cultural exchange” building.

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China bought the site for more than £255 million in 2018 but plans for the super-embassy were previously rejected by Tower Hamlets borough council in 2022.

China chose not to appeal against the decision, amid speculation that the Conservative government at the time would have backed the council’s decision

It resubmitted largely unchanged plans just weeks after Labour won the general election last year.

Mr Jenrick said: “We do not want this great historic building behind us, the Royal Mint, to become a mega embassy of the Chinese Communist Party.

“This is the wrong site. It is the wrong process and it is wrong for the national security of our country.

“Don’t take it from me. Take it from the police and our security services. Take it from Ken McCallum [the head of MI5] who said himself that the number one espionage threat to our country is China.

“Why, when you have China stealing our intellectual property, spying on members of our government, sanctioning members of Parliament and intimidating, harassing British citizens day in, day out – why would we allow them to have here the biggest mega embassy and spy headquarters in Europe? No self-respecting country would do that. We have to stand against it.”

“We have to fight this tooth and nail.”

He added: “When was the last time you saw the Prime Minister of this country on camera bowing down before Xi Jinping and saying clearly that he would help, he would do everything to ensure that this building became the Chinese embassy? It has made a mockery of the legal process.”

Police repeatedly clashed with demonstrators as masked protesters grew louder and moved with linked arms towards the officers.

Police walked backwards with their backs facing a police van that was driving out of the crowd.

Protesters were heard shouting aggressively as officers moved away.

Police officers in the area estimated that around 2,000 protesters attended.

Chants of “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” and “Mega embassy, mega no” reverberated through the crowds.

Coaches brought in protesters from Scotland, Liverpool, Reading and Manchester.

Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister, Blair McDougall, the Labour MP for East Renfrewshire, and Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, also joined the crowd.

Mr Tugendhat said: “This protest, it’s not about bricks and mortar. This protest is not about our relationship to the Chinese people we’re proud to call friends.

“This protest is about the CCP. It is about the spread of oppression and silence and fear. It is about the hatred that Xi Jinping and his Marxist nationalist ideology have spread in China. And we will not allow it to spread here in London.”

The final decision rests with Angela Rayner after a public inquiry led by the Planning Inspectorate, which begins on Tuesday, reaches its conclusion.

The Housing Secretary called in Beijing’s application after Xi Jinping, China’s president, lobbied Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, over the embassy during a phone call.

Several ministers have signalled their support for the proposed embassy. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, and Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, appeared to back the application in a joint letter to the Planning Inspectorate last month, just days after Rachel Reeves’s visit to China.

In that letter, the pair revealed that the Metropolitan Police had withdrawn their objection to the proposed embassy. The Met’s withdrawal will have significantly increased Beijing’s chances of gaining planning approval.

In its previous opposition to the plans, the Met warned that the planned complex did not have enough space for more than 100 protesters without risking their safety and disrupting local roads.

Jon Savell, of the Met’s counter-terrorism unit, also cautioned in November that the “vulnerability” of nearby residents “should not be discounted”. During a planning debate a month later, police officers warned the site could attract hundreds of protesters and take resources away from fighting crime.

However, Elisabeth Chapple, of the Met, told the Planning Inspectorate in January that the force had since reviewed a formal assessment of the site submitted by the Chinese embassy in 2022, which prompted it to withdraw its objection.

She said the Met had not seen this assessment before opposing the scheme. That document estimated that up to 1,920 people could safely fit in front of the site and up to 4,500 in the streets around it.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “Applications for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hamlets have been called in for ministers to decide.

“A final decision will be made in due course.”

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