UK’s most senior diplomat says POLICE involved in Darroch memos probe

Britain’s most senior diplomat says POLICE have been called in to probe leak of Sir Kim Darroch memos as he reveals Whitehall is not ruling out that the information was HACKED

• Sir Simon McDonald says ‘the police are involved’ in hunt for memos leaker
• Head of Diplomatic Service says probe has ‘not excluded’ possibility of hacking
• Sir Simon says leak has ‘shaken’ Foreign Office and will result in shake up
• Sir Kim Darroch today resigned as UK ambassador in US over leaked memos 
• Memos showed Sir Kim called Donald Trump ‘inept’ and ‘uniquely dysfunctional’
• The leaked Memos sparked full-scale diplomatic war between Britain and the US 

Britain’s most senior diplomat has revealed the police have been called in to investigate the bombshell leak of Sir Kim Darroch’s memos which prompted him to resign.

Sir Simon McDonald, the head of the Diplomatic Service, said this afternoon that ‘the police are involved’ in the probe and that if there is a criminal case to answer then it will be handed to the Crown Prosecution Service. 

Sir Simon also said that the government was not excluding the possibility of the memos having been obtained through hacking, possibly by a hostile state actor. 

Sir Kim quit as Britain’s man in Washington today after it emerged he had called Donald Trump ‘inept’ and the current White House ‘uniquely dysfunctional’. 

The comments prompted a political fire storm as Mr Trump vowed to no longer do business with Sir Kim as the US President called the UK’s ambassador a ‘very stupid guy’ and labelled Theresa May a ‘disaster’. 

Sir Kim said he felt his job was now ‘impossible’ because of the intense speculation over his future as he quit. 

The leak of the memos prompted the government to launch a Cabinet Office-led investigation into who was the source of the disclosure. 

The government had initially resisted calls for a criminal inquiry, but Sir Simon told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this afternoon that the police had been called in. 

Sir Simon McDonald (pictured centre) told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this afternoon that the police had been called in as part of the probe into the leaked memos

Sir Simon told MPs that the leaked memos had ‘shaken’ morale at the Foreign Office

Asked what sanctions could face the leaker if they are caught, Sir Simon said: ‘There are a range of sanctions up to and including summary dismissal. 

‘If a criminal case can be made well then it will be turned over to the director for public prosecutions. 

‘The police are involved.’

Sir Simon suggested that whoever leaked the Darroch memos may well have broken the Official Secrets Act and added: ‘I am not a lawyer, I do not think there is a public interest defence.’ 

He was also asked whether the Cabinet Office investigation had discounted the possibility of the information having been obtained through hacking. 

‘As the foreign secretary said on Monday there is no evidence of a hack but we have not excluded that,’ he said. 

‘This is an open investigation.’

However, Sir Simon did appear to rule out the idea that the material could have been intercepted by part of the US intelligence apparatus and then leaked by a US spy source. 

He said: ‘My personal view is no, we have a very close relationship with the United States, we do not spy on each other.’   

Sir Simon revealed the leak of the memos had ‘shaken’ morale at the Foreign Office amid claims that it would lead to diplomats watering down their reports just in case they too were made public. 

‘I think people are shaken by what has happened,’ Sir Simon said. 

‘There is a reason why I have asked to see all of my colleagues at four o’clock this afternoon.

‘The basis on which we have worked all our careers suddenly feels as those it is challenged. 

Sir Kim Darroch said his job had become ‘impossible’ after his criticism of the Trump White House had been made public 

‘I think there is a need for reassurance and reflection but the reflection needs to include all of the things the committee is talking about, about how we handle secure information and the systems on which they are transmitted.’   

There are four main theories in Whitehall about where the leak could have come from: A hostile state actor, a US spy source, a pro-Trump government minister or a disgruntled civil servant. 

The two dominant theories about the origins of the material are that either a politician or civil servant collated the information and then divulged it.

One popular theory is that a government minister sympathetic to the current US administration could have passed on the information in a bid to force out Sir Kim so that he could be replaced with a more pro-Trump candidate.

Another is that a civil servant who has been angered by the government’s attempts to curry favour with Mr Trump could have tried to sabotage US/UK relations.

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