Driver killed in second deadly Spain train crash in days

A commuter train struck a retaining wall that fell onto the tracks due to heavy rain and became derailed in Spain on Tuesday, killing the driver and injuring at least 37 passengers.

This is the second accident to hit Spanish railways in just two days after 42 people were killed in a high-speed train collision and derailment near Adamuz in the southern Cordoba province on Sunday.

Tuesday’s accident, near the Spanish city of Barcelona left five people seriously injured, Spanish authorities said.

Emergency services said 20 ambulances had been sent to the site of the crash, and the injured were taken to hospitals in the area. Regional firefighters said most of the injured had been riding in the first train car.

Emergency workers near Adamuz on Tuesday were still searching for more victims in the wreckage from Sunday’s deadly train accident that took place some 800km away as the nation began three days of mourning.

Claudi Gallardo, inspector at the Catalonia regional fire department, said in televised comments from the site of the crash that 37 people had been injured, adding that all of the passengers had been removed from the train.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez acknowledged the Barcelona area crash, writing on X/Twitter: “All my affection and solidarity with the victims and their families.”

While Spain’s high-speed rail network generally runs smoothly, and at least until Sunday had been a source of confidence, the commuter rail service is plagued by reliability issues. However, accidents causing injury or death are not common in either.

The commuter train crashed near the town of Gelida, located about 35 minutes outside of Barcelona.

Police in Catalonia said the Central Airport and Public Transport Area, which is responsible for investigating railway accidents, has launched initial investigations into the accident.

Spain’s railway operator Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias (ADIF) said the containment wall likely collapsed due to heavy rainfall that swept across the northeastern Spanish region this week. Commuter train service was cancelled along the line, it said.

The suburban train derailment occurred in an area long plagued by underfunded rail services and frequent incidents.

A support centre for relatives of those affected by the accident has been set up at the Casablanca Urbanisation civic centre, the civil protection agency added.

In a separate incident on Tuesday night, traffic between Blanes and Macanet-Massanes south of the city of Girona – also part of the Barcelona commuter rail network – was interrupted “due to a train axle coming off the track”, ADIF said in a statement on X.

On Sunday, 42 people were killed and dozens more injured when two high-speed trains collided in southern Spain on Sunday evening, in one of Europe’s worst railway accidents in 80 years.

The crash happened at 7.45pm local time according to Spain’s interior ministry.

The tail end of a train run by private high-speed rail operator Iryo, travelling from Málaga to Madrid, was derailed and jumped onto an adjacent track, where it smashed into an oncoming Renfe service travelling from Madrid to Huelva, a municipality in Spain. Renfe is Spain’s national state-owned railway company.

ADIF said the Iryo train derailed first and crashed into the second train, pushing it off the tracks and down a railway embankment.

Subdued Raducanu crashes out of Australian Open in second-round exit

Emma Raducanu was knocked out of the Australian Open by world No 55 Anastasia Potapova as the British No 1 suffered an early exit in Melbourne.

Raducanu, the 28th seed, struggled with forehand errors and was subdued as Potapova won 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 to set up a third-round clash with world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka, which would have been the target for Raducanu despite arriving at the tournament short of match fitness following a disruptive off-season foot injury.

It all unravelled for Raducanu after the 23-year-old was broken while serving for the first set. Her forehand, which coughed up too many errors in the 91-minute defeat, broke down further in the deciding tiebreak, as Potapova jumped into double-break lead at the start of the second set.

Raducanu had played to the crowd during her first-round victory over Thailand’s Mananchaya Sawangkaew but this was a surprisingly meek exit – following a positive 2025 season where Raducanu’s defeats at the grand slams only came against the very best players in the world.

Cameron Norrie is the last British player standing in the singles. The 26th seed Norrie takes on Emilio Nava after qualifier Arthur Fery, following on a run of four wins in Melbourne, lost in straight-sets to Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

Follow live scores and updates from the Australian Open below

Badenoch more popular than Farage for first time in a year, poll shows

Kemi Badenoch’s approval rating has surpassed Nigel Farage for the first time in over a year after she dramatically sacked Robert Jenrick for planning to defect to Reform UK, according to a new poll.

The Conservative leader kicked her former shadow justice secretary out of her party as she accused him of plotting to leave “in a way designed to be as damaging as possible” to the Tories.

Hours later, he joined Reform, taking a swipe at his former party as he was unveiled by Mr Farage as the latest Tory defector.

But a new More In Common poll, carried out from the day after Mr Jenrick was sacked until Monday, shows half of Britons support Ms Badenoch’s decisive action – with even 45 per cent of Reform voters saying she handled the defection well.

The survey found her net approval rating has risen to -11, the highest since December 2024, just a month after she first became leader.

It has also overtaken Mr Farage, who is on -13, for the first time since the same month.

The public is also three times more likely to say that Mr Jenrick’s sacking reflected well on Ms Badenoch than badly (34 to 11 per cent).

By contrast, just 14 per cent of those questioned say the row reflected well on Mr Jenrick, while 37 per cent say it reflects poorly on him.

Pollsters also identified what they described as the potential ‘cost of defections’. More than half (56 per cent) said Tory politicians were defecting out of self-interest rather than principle, while a staggering seven in ten Conservative voters said they would not vote for their MP if they switched to Reform.

Earlier this month, polling guru Sir John Curtice wrote for the Independent about Ms Badenoch’s improving popularity following her well-regarded party conference speech and her response in the Budget.

“This is a key reason why the average level of support for Reform itself has slipped below the 30 per cent mark, for the first time since the party’s success in gaining control of 20 county councils last May,” he wrote.

However, despite the good news for Ms Badenoch, there was bad news for her party, with Reform UK winning the battle to be seen to represent the ‘Right’ of British politics, on 35 per cent ahead of the Tories on 29 per cent.

Mother fears British Isis suspect ‘sitting duck’ in Syrian clashes

The mother of a man stripped of his British citizenship and held in a Syrian Islamic State jail said he had been “left to die” by the UK after prisons in north-east Syria were engulfed by violent clashes between government and Kurdish-led forces.

Sally Lane, 63, said her son Jack Letts, 30, and others with ties to Britain accused of affiliations with Isis, are “sitting ducks” who have been “left to fend for themselves” as detention centres have become the frontline in ferocious fighting.

The Independent understands as many as 60 people, including 35 children, with connections to the UK are currently being held in these camps and prisons, now engulfed by battles, despite desperate calls over the years from their families to repatriate them.

Reprieve rights group warned that British children were now in “mortal danger” as a direct result of the UK government’s “negligent policy” to strip their parents of citizenship and to refuse to repatriate them.

Letts, who has Canadian citizenship, has been held without formal charge or trial for a decade by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a suspected Isis militant.

A convert to Islam, he had travelled to the Middle East in 2014, eventually ending up in Isis-controlled territory in Syria, where he was arrested by the SDF two years later when trying to flee. Nicknamed by parts of the media “jihadi Jack”, he has denied being an Isis fighter. In 2019 his UK citizenship was stripped.

He is currently believed to be in a prison in Raqqa, where Kurdish forces accused government forces of using suicide drones and heavy gunfire against the facility on Tuesday night.

“Keir Starmer has failed British citizens, former British citizens, utterly he’s abandoned them to their deaths. We’ve been screaming about this for years,” Ms Lane told The Independent, accusing the UK and Canadian governments of “negligence and moral abdication”.

She has long campaigned to have her son repatriated, citing concerns about his welfare, . In 2019 she and her ex-husband John Letts were handed a 15 month prison sentence, suspended for a year, for “funding terrorism” after they tried to send money to their son in Syria in 2015 via an intermediary.

“[The government has] blood on their hands, and now it’s just a free for all. The detainees will just have to fend for themselves.

“It beggars belief that nothing has been done for 10 years, that it’s just been allowed to happen.”

Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa, a former Islamist rebel who led the uprising against Bashar al Assad, has sought to bring the fractured country under centralised authority after over a decade of civil war and sectarian violence.

But talks with Kurdish-led authorities, who seek autonomy in the north-east, have failed. This week Damascus forces swept swathes of northern and eastern Syria long held by the SDF.

Amid the chaos, sides traded accusations about the escaped Isis suspects from different prisons – with reports that as many as 200 were now on the loose.

An official with the U.S. military’s Central Command who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “We are aware of the reports and are closely monitoring the situation.” Tom Barrack, the US special envoy to Syria, meanwhile urged the SDF to integrate with the government on social media.

As the violence escalated on Tuesday, the office of al Sharaa said it had renewed a truce with the SDF, which gave it four days to develop a detailed plan of how to integrate Kurdish areas and its forces into defence and interior ministries.

The SDF said they were “fully committed” to the ceasefire agreement and were open to “political tracks, negotiated solutions and dialogue”.

But Kurdish-led forces also reported fighting still raging around SDF-run prisons and camps holding tens of thousands of people either accused of being part of Isis or who lived under the caliphate.

The Syrian defense ministry has pledged to take over the camps and prisons, and accused the SDF of using them as “bargaining chips” to “sow chaos and destabilise the region”.

There are believed to be around 9,000 men accused of being Isis militants in the prisons, including 10 men like Letts linked to the UK.

Meanwhile 42,000 others, primarily women and children linked to male Isis suspects are being held in two camps al Hol and Roj. The most high-profile detainee is Shamima Begum.

In 2015, at just 15 years old, Begum was groomed and likely trafficked by Isis to the so-called caliphate in Syria. Her citizenship, like Letts, was stripped in 2019, leaving her stateless.

The Independent travelled to the camps this summer where former British citizens warned their lives were in danger amid concerns about the security break down in Syria.

On Tuesday reports from within the camps that were shared with The Independent, said there was heavy gunfire heard particularly around Roj, where most of the foreigners are being held.

Maya Foa, chief executive of Reprieve, called on the UK government to urgently intervene and repatriate all British nationals “at the earliest opportunity” warning British children were in “caught in the crossfire”.

“For family members back home in the UK, the fragments of information coming out of Camp Roj and Al-Hol are terrifying,” she said.

“The government should make urgent arrangements to repatriate all British nationals at the earliest opportunity, while emphasising to all diplomatic partners the need to respect and protect the rights of prisoners in these facilities.

“Security experts have been warning about the collapse of these detention facilities for years. The Kurdish authorities themselves described them as a ‘ticking time bomb’.

Ms Lane, like several of the families, has spent years campaigning to have her son repatriated to the UK, even if he were to face investigation and trial, telling The Independent she fears he had been tortured by his guards in prison.

After his citizenship was stripped, and after Canada declined to intervene, in recent weeks Lane has launched a campaign to have his British citizenship reinstated, fearing the security situation in Syria was deteriorating and he could become trapped.

“The families [of those held in Syria] have agreed to everything in the past decade from the government including that their relatives can be put on trial.

“Even that wasn’t good enough. They have still been abandoned.”

Middle East minister Hamish Falconer said: “The situation in North-East Syria is deeply concerning – including reports of escaped Daesh fighters. We call for urgent de-escalation, the protection of civilians and a return to negotiations. The UK continues to provide humanitarian aid to those affected by the violence.”

Russell Brand in court to face two fresh charges including rape

Russell Brand has appeared in court charged with two further sexual offences, including rape.

The comedian, 50, has already denied two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault, and two counts of sexual assault in relation to alleged offences between 1999 and 2005, involving four women.

He was further charged with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault in relation to two more women in December last year.

Appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday afternoon over the fresh charges, the former Big Brother’s Big Mouth presenter spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.

The star attended via video link from Florida, in the US, where he now lives, wearing a blue denim shirt unbuttoned to his lower chest.

Addressing Mr Brand at the end of the six-minute hearing, Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring KC said: “Mr Brand, one of the charges you face is what we call indictable only, which means it can only be tried in the crown court.”

He was bailed to appear at Southwark Crown Court for a plea hearing on 17 February, with the condition that he must notify the police of any change of address.

The two alleged offences took place in London in 2009, according to court documents.

A trial is scheduled to begin at Southwark Crown Court later this year in relation to the five original charges.

Mr Brand, who also has an address in Oxfordshire, is accused of raping a woman in a hotel room while she attended a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, and grabbing a TV worker’s breasts and orally raping her after dragging her into a male toilet, the court heard in May.

He is also alleged to have grabbed a radio station worker’s face, pushing her against a wall and kissing her before groping her breasts and buttocks.

The actor is also accused of indecently assaulting another woman after grabbing her forearm and attempting to drag her into a male toilet.

He was charged following an investigation by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times in which several women made allegations against him.

He was married to US pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012, but is now married to Laura Gallacher, the sister of presenter Kirsty, and the pair have two children.

Pick your paradise: uncover nature, wellness and luxury in the idyllic Maldives

When it comes to bucket-list destinations, look no further than the Maldives for a truly unforgettable trip. It’s an extraordinary place, scattered across hundreds of coral islands in the Indian Ocean, and feels almost unreal when you first arrive. Life moves more slowly here, shaped by the sea, with days spent swimming, snorkelling and taking in the idyllic views. It’s also home to some of the world’s most polished island resorts, making it easy to slink into the laid-back rhythm of island life.

Travelbag takes the hassle out of planning a Maldives holiday, with a carefully chosen mix of resorts to suit different types of trips. Whether you’re looking for something romantic, low-key, or family-friendly, their Travel Specialists can help shape the details. There’s also a ‘Sale On, Switch Off’ offer running from now to the end of February, with up to 50 per cent off selected hotel stays and added discounts across selected resorts and added extras, for a luxury stay that works for your budget.

Here are six incredible resorts to inspire you to finally book that dream trip to the Maldives…

Only a 10-minute speedboat ride from Malé, on the first private island resort in the North Malé Atoll, Niva Kurumba Maldives is one of the easiest resorts to get to, but still serves that dreamy castaway feeling. As the country’s first private island resort, it leans into its history, offering thoughtfully curated excursions such as snorkelling trips, a dolphin-exploration cruise, and guided visits to Malé.

There’s plenty to fill your days on the island, from snorkelling around the house reef to watersports and relaxing classes like yoga or cocktail making. You’ll also be spoiled for cutting edge cuisine here, with several restaurants to choose from, including Hamakaze, an overwater teppanyaki spot for sushi and sashimi, and Athiri, a barefoot beach bar that’s ideal for long evenings.

If true escape is the goal, Niva Velassaru Maldives offers a refined island retreat designed for effortless relaxation. From the moment guests arrive, a sense of calm sets in, with the resort’s spa thoughtfully positioned at the heart of the island, nestled beneath swaying palms and featuring overwater treatment rooms, couples’ pavilions, steam rooms, and shaded daybeds for moments of rest between treatments.

The surrounding lagoon invites discovery, with guided snorkeling along the house reef, daily dive excursions led by a PADI-certified team, and the presence of an on-site marine biologist. Additional experiences include dolphin cruises and glass-bottom boat tours, offering a closer look at the island’s marine life.

Accommodation ranges from villas set amidst lush greenery to elegant overwater retreats, each offering privacy, comfort, and uninterrupted views – ideal for complete relaxation. For guests seeking more active pursuits, the resort provides access to water sports equipment, a fully equipped gym, a tennis court, a Pilates studio and an infinity pool overlooking the beach. Wellness and movement are seamlessly woven into the guest experience, with complimentary morning cruises and sunset yoga sessions available for those wishing to begin or end the day with intention.

Set in the western Raa Atoll, Niva Dhigali Maldives sits among greenery and white sand, with the landscape itself very much part of the experience. Villas are spread across the island and out over the water, offering gorgeous garden or sea views. The overwater villas are the most open, with wide views of the Indian Ocean and direct access to the water.

Days tend to unfold slowly here, with snorkelling and diving on nearby reefs, dolphin cruises, time on the beach and spa sessions beneath the palms all shaping the pace of your stay. You’re spoilt for choice in terms of dining, with several restaurants and bars across the island, including Haali Bar at the quieter west end, which is a favourite for cocktails as the sun drops into the ocean.

Huvafen Fushi is a small island resort in the North Malé Atoll, around 30 minutes from Malé by speedboat, and it’s ideal for couples seeking utter serenity. With just 46 beach and overwater bungalows and pavilions, this is the perfect setting for a complete escape. The main talking point is the underwater spa, where treatments take place eight metres below the surface, with coral reef views, alongside a handful of overwater treatment rooms and saltwater flotation pools.

Wine is a serious focus too, and oenophiles will be in their element at Vinum, the first underground wine cellar in the Maldives, which hosts tastings and intimate gourmet dinners beneath the island. It’s a place made for honeymoons, special occasions and switching off completely.

Milaidhoo Maldives sits in the Baa Atoll UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, an area known for some of the country’s most diverse marine life. The nearby reefs are colourful and teeming with life, and during the right season, trips to Hanifaru Bay give guests the chance to swim with manta rays and whale sharks. Villas are spacious and built around outdoor living, with plenty of natural light, a private pool and a sundeck with lagoon or sea views – perfect for laidback days enjoying the wonderful peacefulness of this idyllic island.

Dining is a major draw, particularly at Ba’theli, the world’s only Maldivian fine-dining restaurant set on a traditional boat, where local dishes are inspired by the ancient Spice Route.

Baros has been welcoming guests for over five decades, and is a true local icon, offering guests the feel of authentic Maldives. It sits in the North Malé Atoll and is best known for its house reef, which you can snorkel straight from the shore. There are also resident marine biologists on site, working on conservation projects and running trips out to nearby dive sites, of which there are more than 40 in the area.

Villas are either tucked into the leafy surroundings or set out over the lagoon, each boasting its own private sun deck and a host available when needed. Sustainability runs through everything they do, including reef-protection work and all the biodegradable products used across the island.

To plan your own Maldives escape, explore exclusive offers and speak to a Travel Specialist, head to travelbag.co.uk

I was in the room when Trump backed Starmer over Chagos. This is why his U-turn is so bizarre

Sir Keir Starmer has in recent months shown he’s no stranger to changing his mind.

From farmers’ inheritance tax to welfare reform, U-turns have become central to this Labour government, much to the frustration of Sir Keir’s backbenchers.

But none of the prime minister’s backtracking has been so abrupt and so unexpected as Donald Trump’s conclusion that the UK’s deal to give away the Chagos Islands, with the crucial Diego Garcia airbase, to Mauritius was an “act of great stupidity”, which will have stunned Downing Street this morning.

Not least because less than a year ago, after Sir Keir’s team had painstakingly explained the plan to secure the future of the islands, the president was very much onboard.

In fact, I was there in the Oval Office in February last year for that first meeting between Starmer and Trump.

Shortly after Sir Keir handed over that invitation to Trump from the King for a historic second state visit, the US president took a question from a reporter on the controversial plan to hand over Chagos to Mauritius.

Trump was expected to be sceptical, or even veto the plan, which was vital for both the UK and US because of the Diego Garcia airbase on the islands.

Instead, the president said: “I have a feeling it is going to work out very well. I think we will be inclined to go along with your country.”

This was despite being lobbied by Nigel Farage and others to veto the deal, and the then foreign secretary David Lammy suggesting that if Trump opposed it, they would not go ahead with the handover.

So that statement, backed up later by a formal agreement from secretary of state Marco Rubio in May, is what paved the way for Sir Keir to get the Chagos deal done.

Not much has changed since. True to say, the cost of more than £30bn to the UK taxpayer (not US one), issues around the fate of Chagossians, the treaty being bogged down still in parliament, and questions over nuclear weapons on the islands have all emerged, but most of these were issues back then.

So why has Trump U-turned so spectacularly?

The Independent knows that opponents of the deal have not given up lobbying and begging the US president to intervene and stop it. It seems that their message may have got through after all.

But is that really enough for the president to effectively admit he was wrong last year?

The more likely explanation is Greenland. Trump now understands that the same international law logic used that the islands belong to Mauritius applies to Denmark’s ownership of Greenland. And, as we have seen with his bellicose language and tariff threats, he really wants the US to take control of the Danish territory.

Arguments by the Labour government that it has no choice under international law but to hand over the islands will not wash with this White House administration and actually may just fuel the Greenland grievance more.

But there is perhaps a wider issue here. Sir Keir has made a name among international leaders as “the Trump whisperer”.

He got the US president to agree on a range of things, including a better trade deal than the one given to the EU as well as Chagos. But this latest development perhaps shows that the relationship between two men who are ideologically far apart is deteriorating.

If Starmer’s ability to influence the capricious US president is waning, then that really is bad news. His foreign policy generally is to act as the bridge between the US and Europe, but if that is removed, it leaves Britain greatly weakened.

Starmer had kept Trump sweet with last year’s state visit, but it seems not even the prospect of a reciprocal visit to the US by King Charles is enough to tempt the US president to be a reasonable man.

The prime minister won some plaudits yesterday at his emergency press conference standing up to Trump for a fellow Nato ally, Denmark. But Trump, not a man who easily forgives, has clearly seen that as a betrayal and his remarks on Chagos are a new front in what is increasingly spiralling into a hostile relationship.

China ‘super-embassy’ security risk cannot be eliminated, M15 warns after Starmer approval

Plans for a controversial Chinese “super-embassy” in London have been approved by the government, despite warnings from MI5 that it cannot “eliminate every potential risk” posed by the new site.

Local government secretary Steve Reed gave the green light to a planning application on Tuesday, undeterred by fears it could become a “colossal spy hub” for Beijing, and warnings from international allies.

MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum and GCHQ director Anne Keast-Butler, warned the home secretary and foreign secretary that national security risks linked to the new embassy, at the former Royal Mint near the Tower of London, cannot be wholly eliminated.

In a joint letter to Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, and Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, they said: “MI5 has over 100 years of experience managing national security risks associated with foreign diplomatic premises in London.

“For the Royal Mint Court site, as with any foreign embassy on UK soil, it is not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk. (And even if this were a practicable goal, it would be irrational to drive ’embassy-generated risk’ down to zero when numerous other threat vectors are so central to the national security risks we face in the present era.”

However, they added that efforts to mitigate national security risks had been “expert, professional and proportionate”.

Beijing’s proposals for the building are reported to include 208 secret rooms and a hidden chamber in the basement.

Those opposed to the plans fear the hidden chamber would be located in close proximity to data cables used by Britain’s financial industry for communications between the City of London and Canary Wharf.

There are also concerns that the secret rooms could be used for the detention of dissidents who have fled China for safety in Britain.

Luke de Pulford, head of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told the Press Association: “Years of campaigning about the obvious and manifold risks posed by this embassy development have not been enough to outweigh the UK government’s desire for Beijing’s money.”

The government has hit back at opponents of the new embassy, branding them “either naive or recklessly isolationist”.

Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesperson told reporters: “It’s of course a normal part of international diplomatic relations for countries to agree to establish embassies in each other’s capitals.

“They are the first line of communication between countries. They offer vital help to their nationals when they need it, and above all, they help us to advance our economic, cultural and defence goals abroad to deliver for, and protect, our citizens at home.

“Those who don’t accept this basic premise are either naïve or recklessly isolationist.”

It comes after Labour MPs revealed on Monday that several UK allies have raised fears about the plans.

Sarah Champion, chair of the international development select committee, said in an urgent Commons debate: “We’ve now had interventions from the Dutch government, Swiss parliament, Swedish parliament and two interventions from the White House about the risks posed to UK infrastructure by the cabling that runs along the Royal Mint Court.

Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee criticised the government’s process of approving the new embassy, but said security concerns “can be satisfactorily mitigated”.

Christopher Mung, a former Hong Kong district councillor who fled to Britain in 2021 said he felt “betrayed” by the government’s decision, which would encourage “repression” by the Chinese Communist Party regime.

Ministers have argued the new site would consolidate Chinese diplomatic presence in London from seven buildings to one, which could have security benefits.

Security minister Dan Jarvis said that, while China continues to pose a threat to UK national security, Britain is protected.

The decision – which is final unless challenged in the courts – also removes a diplomatic hurdle in the relationship with Xi Jinping’s government, clearing the way for Sir Keir to make a widely-expected visit to China – possibly within weeks.

Mark Nygate, the treasurer of the Royal Mint Residents’ Association, said he believes there is enough opposition to seek a judicial review.

He said: “The documents have just turned up from the Ministry of Housing and we will be passing those over to a barrister to do an independent review to give us some feedback. At that point we will move forward with the judicial review, based on legal opinions that have already been given in 2025.”

A government spokesperson said: “National security is our first duty. Intelligence agencies have been involved throughout the process and an extensive range of measures have been developed to manage any risks.”

Liberal Democrats said the decision was Labour’s “biggest mistake yet”, while Labour peer and top barrister Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws called it a “dangerous” concession.

Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said the government “is giving Xi Jinping what he wants – a colossal spy hub in the heart of our capital”.