Senior German politician wants inquiry into UK spying at secret Berlin listening post

Thomas Oppermann heads the parliament’s intelligence committee (Getty Images)

A senior German politician has called for formal investigations by the country’s police and intelligence agencies into allegations that Britain is operating a secret listening post from its Berlin embassy.

Thomas Oppermann, who chairs the German parliament’s intelligence committee, said it had asked law enforcement agencies and the security services to investigate whether a “crime” has taken place following concerns of British spying raised by The Independent.

Revelations of embassy-based eavesdropping in Berlin by America’s National Security Agency and suspicions that Britain’s GCHQ may also have followed suit have struck a raw nerve in Germany, where memories of snooping by the Nazis and the Stasi still linger.

German media has widely reported revelations Britain operates a network of listening posts from diplomatic premises, and concern had been raised about a structure on the roof of British embassy, within a few hundred metres of the Bundestag.