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Home office leaker 'despicable and disloyal'
20.01.09
The string of leaks from the Home Office which prompted officials to call in the police was "completely undermining" the work of the department, its most senior civil servant said today.
Permanent Secretary Sir David Normington defended his decision to call in Scotland Yard, saying he was "completely frustrated" by 20 leaks over a two-year period.
He told the Home Affairs Committee whoever was leaking the material was "despicable and disloyal".
He said: "We were completely frustrated and very concerned about the situation. We seemed to have somebody or some people who were deliberately and maliciously leaking material for political purposes.
"From my point of view that is despicable, it is disloyal, it is completely undermining the work of the Home Office. It is completely unacceptable."
Sir David said he believed he had followed proper procedure when ordering an internal investigation and then calling in the police.
He said he was concerned about the damage the leaks were doing to the operation of the Home Office and about how close to the heart of the Home Office the leaker was.
There were also worries about any links between the Home Office leaks and wider leaks of national security information across Whitehall.
"It was the knowledge that the person or people must have had access to the Home Secretary's office and to her papers that gave us a great deal of concern that national security information was at risk," he said.
"The Cabinet Office also had a concern that there had been separate leaks not of Home Office documents but of a series of other materials from across Government which did have a national security classification which had been in the Home Office."
Pressed on how many of the Home Office leaks which appeared in the newspapers actually concerned matters of national security, he said there was "at least one".
Officers arrested a junior official, Christopher Galley, on November 19. Tory frontbencher Damian Green was arrested and his Parliamentary offices searched eight days later.
Prosecutors are still considering whether the pair will face charges.
Reader views (9)
Despicable and disloyal maybe, but could the same not be said of any department which hides information from the public, in order to preserve their own hides rather than serving the self same public who are their bosses?
- Bob, Cheam
So it's OK for Labour party sympathisers to pass on confidential material to Brown and Blair whilst in opposition, but it is '..despicable and disloyal..' when it is the other way around. Welcome to the warped world of Labour politics.
- Pw, Birmingham UK
Obviously Sir David and the Labour party are laoth to just let this incident fade away. But WHAT is Mr Green accused of? An offence under the Official Secrets Act? We need to know. Obviously their fishing trip around Mr Green's Westminster office didn't turn up anything. Labour be warned; what goes around, comes around
- Jeremiah, London
How many leaks were organised by the Government???
- Jeremy E, London
Normington is preparing the ground for the cessation of proceedings against Damian Green. Like most inflated civil servants, and politicians, he is best ignored.
- Peter Grimes, London
I'll wager the CPS will not pursue this, just imagine what he might tell. I do agree "despicable" -leaking before a minister can leak it, bad form.
- Alex, Soton
Typical of the Civil Service - it is disloyal to let the people who pay for the Civil Service know how useless they are - its all about self preservation under Brown. The only problem with these disclosures were that they were an embarassment to the government and thereby Normington's promotion prospects...
- Simon, London
What Sir David Normington is not being honest about, is that the so called leak was of information that was supposed to be in the public domain, and his boss Jacqui Smith didn’t want it to come out formally as it would embarrass her.
The real question for him and his boss to answer is why they were suppressing public interest information. Is it because freedom of information is not compatible with their desired police state?
This statement as with calling in the police is just a smoke screen for a new direction of UK politics.
- Ian, Reading, England
These Civil Servants are meant to serve the Public, and that is what the Leaker has done: no-one has demonstrated that he has received personal benefit from the leaks.
I think it's 'dispicable and disloyal' for a Senior Civil Servant to collude with the political party in power to hide important information from the Public: what did Sir David Normington get his knighthood for - can anyone remember . . . ?
- Roz, Chamonix, France
