UK: Cameron calls for anti-terror leaks probe

British Conservative Party leader David Cameron today renewed his call for a Whitehall inquiry into the allegation that lives were put at risk by a series of leaks about anti-terror operations.

He expressed concern about reports that a national newspaper was tipped off by Scotland Yard about a counter-terror operation in Birmingham so it was able to send three reporters to the city in advance.

Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One: “This whole area is very worrying. It is very important that our police forces are able to to their job in terms of counter-terrorism, and the strategy of leaking and briefing and pre-announcing things is extremely dangerous in this area.”

Roger Godsiff, the Labour MP for Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath, where one of the arrests took place, said there should be an internal inquiry to establish whether anyone in the police was responsible for the leak.

“If it is subsequently found that they had abused their position, there should be criminal charges preferred,” he told the programme.

“It is quite outrageous that our security services and our serving policemen out on the streets, who have a very difficult job to do in any event, have their position made that much more difficult by individuals abusing their position.”

West Midlands Police chief constable Paul Scott-Lee and Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell were asked to launch separate inquiries into a senior policeman’s claims about “damaging” anti-terrorism leaks.

A West Midlands Police spokeswoman refused to disclose if an investigation was under way because of the “sensitive nature” of the issue.

A Cabinet Office spokeswoman confirmed a letter had been received from shadow home secretary David Davis asking Sir Gus to launch an investigation.

She said the Cabinet Secretary would respond “in due course”.

The separate demands from opposition parties came after Britain’s most senior counter-terror police chief revealed concerns about a series of leaks, and said they could have placed lives at risk.

Commentators interpreted the remarks by Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Peter Clarke as an attack on the Government’s army of special advisers, or “spin doctors”.

In a speech last night, the policeman suggested culprits were trying to “squeeze out some short-term presentational advantage” by secretly briefing on anti-terror operations.

Mr Clarke highlighted leaks surrounding arrests made in Birmingham over an alleged plot to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier.

Details of the alleged plot were running in the media almost before the detainees had arrived at the police stations for questioning, he said.