MI6 chief’s ‘historic’ speech

The speaker, Sir John Sawers, took up his post as head of British intelligence (known as “C”) in November 2009.

He is by tradition the only serving member of SIS or MI6 who is publicly named by the government, though Sir John’s wife gave the appointment unwanted extra publicity last year when it emerged that she had mistakenly left pictures of him in his bathing trunks on Facebook.

Sir John’s fully suited appearance today is another marker in the slow evolution of MI6 into an organisation which increasingly tries to account for itself in public.

Last month Channel 4 News and other broadcasters were given the first television interviews with a former “C”, Sir John Scarlett, following the publication of the first official history of MI6’s first 50 years.

Sir John Sawers was foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair in the run up to the controversial 2003 Iraq war and he’s a former British Ambassador to Egypt and the United Nations.

The former diplomat is the first non-spy to be appointed as “C” in more than 40 years.

The 55-year-old former diplomat is the first non-spy to be appointed as “C” in more than 40 years, though Sawers’ long Foreign Office career was preceded by a stint as a junior MI6 officer during the 1970s when he was posted to Yemen.

Sir John makes an annual report on the work of SIS for the consumption of the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary, and his salary was recently revealed to be £169,999.00.

His decision to talk in public about MI6’s work today may be driven less by any current threat to the UK than the perceived need to counter negative reporting and to account for the unprecedented funding MI6 and its domestic counterpart MI5 now receive.

MI6’s reputation has been bruised by intelligence failures leading up to the Iraq war, and Sir John gave evidence to the official Iraq Inquiry in December 2009. As head of MI6, he is in charge of implementing new guidelines for MI6 officers on interrogating terrorist suspects, following allegations that intelligence officers colluded in torture overseas.

There is currently a debate in Whitehall about strengthening the oversight role of the Intelligence and Security Committee, which is attached to the Cabinet Office and supervises MI6. The Prime Minister has appointed Sir Malcolm Rifkind MP as the ISC’s chairman. An annual televised appearance by”C” in front of the Committee is now a possibility.

When he was Policy Director at the Foreign Office, Sir John was known to take a hawkish line on sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programme, and Iran is thought to have risen up MI6’s agenda on his watch.