Downing Street announces new MI6 chief

The new chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service MI6 is to be the current chairman of the UK government’s Joint Intelligence Committee John Scarlett, Downing Street announced today.

He succeeds Richard Dearlove, who is becoming Master at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and will take up his appointment this summer.

Mr Scarlett became the first head of the JIC to become widely known when he gave evidence to the Hutton Inquiry into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly.