Labour needs to block China's mega-embassy plans and stand up to its bullying Communist Party, says Jacob Rees-Mogg

We need to talk about China. This weekend we witnessed the undignified spectacle of the House of Commons belatedly passing emergency legislation.

But why did it need rescuing in the first place? When I was in Government I held discussions with Jingye, who were the owners of British steel. The details need not detain us but safe to say that they were constructive and I walked away feeling that the company was committed to making British steel work. What changed?

Is it possible that the Chinese Communist Party instructed Jingye to give the British Government a problem, close the steelworks and sell off the coking core and iron ore needed to keep the blast furnaces on. In China, as the former head of Alibaba knows to his cost, private companies are merely arms of the state.

It is so important to view the behaviour of Jingye in the wider context of increasing hostility from China. Last week, a Member of Parliament was banned from entering Hong Kong.

Upon arriving in Hong Kong, Liberal Democrat MP Wera Hobhouse was detained, questioned and deported by the authorities.

The reason given? Well, there was no reason given. One can only assume Mrs Hobhouse’s membership of the inter-parliamentary alliance on China and its critical stance on the Peking government’s human rights record didn’t help her case.

And yes, before the left wing shout ‘what about Israel’ I believe that the Israeli government should have allowed both those Labour MPs into Israel.

Returning to domestic matters. I fear we could be seeing the opening rounds of a diplomatic spat between the UK and China. The Chinese government has warned, or threatened, the British government to treat Jingye fairly and “not to affect the confidence of Chinese enterprises in investing and cooperating in the UK” .

With this backdrop, you have to ask how sensible it is to allow the Chinese government to build a new mega-embassy next to the Tower of London.

I urge the government to follow the example of the previous Conservative government and block the plans and face up to the bullying Chinese Communist Party which is no friend of ours.