The Metropolitan Police is looking into the leak of diplomatic cables that led to the resignation of the UK’s ambassador to US, Sir Kim Darroch.
The police force announced on Friday that it will begin a probe into “alleged leaking of official communications,” after messages from Sir Kim criticising the Trump administration, obtained by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, were published in The Mail on Sunday.
Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said that a criminal investigation of the leak is being lead by Counter Terrorism Command, who investigate potential breaches of the Official Secrets Act.
Criminal matter
Mr Basu said: “Given the widely reported consequences of that leak I am satisfied that there has been damage caused to UK international relations, and there would be clear public interest in bringing the person or people responsible to justice.”
The police force’s statement includes an explicit warning to journalists, with Mr Basu adding: “The publication of leaked communications, knowing the damage they have caused or are likely to cause may also be a criminal matter.
“I would advise all owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to publish leaked government documents that may already be in their possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s Government.”
The comments have been decried by newspaper bosses as an attack on press freedom.
Ill-advised
George Osborne, currently editor of the Evening Standard, said in a tweet: “If I were the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and I wanted to maintain my credibility and the credibility of my force, I would quickly distance myself from this very stupid and ill-advised statement from a junior officer who doesn’t appear to understand much about press freedom.”
The Sunday Times political editor Tim Shipman also denounced the “sinister, absurd, anti-democratic statement this evening threatening journalists with arrest for printing government leaks,” adding: “Do you have any comprehension of a free society? This isn’t Russia.”
An internal inquiry into the leak is still ongoing within the Foreign Office.
Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan told Parliament on Wednesday: “We do not at the moment have any evidence that this was a hack, so our focus is on finding someone within the system who has illicitly released these communications, which cover periods both very recent and from two years ago.
“That is where the inquiry is primarily focused.”
