The time-old tradition of leaks

Feature
By Ollie Stone-Lee
BBC News website

For some they are honourable whistleblowers, for others villainous traitors, but the people who leak secrets from the corridors of power will always grab the headlines.

For the journalist in search of a story to beat his or her rivals, there is nothing more welcome than the brown envelope with the classified documents, the tip off about a big inquiry's findings or the tale of Cabinet Room bust-up.

But aside from the race for newspaper sales, television audiences and website "hits", does all this leaking reveal as much as we like to think or cause the damage supposed by fuming ministers and spin doctors?

FAMOUS UK LEAKS 1930s: Figures on German arms leaked to Winston Churchill 1947: Hugh Dalton resigns over Budget leak 1983: Sarah Tisdall jailed for leaking details of arrival of Cruise missiles 1985: Jury clears Clive Ponting over leak over sinking of the General Belgrano in Falklands War 1986: Solicitor general's letter to Michael Heseltine leaked during Westland affair 1996: Secrets from Ken Clarke's budget leaked to newspaper but returned unpublished 2000: Tony Blair memo asking for eye-catching initiative leaked 2004: Hutton report appears in The Sun a day before publication date 2005: Attorney general's advice on the legality of the Iraq war leaked in full

The government is so worried about the problem that it is reportedly trying to appoint somebody to coordinate leak investigations and draw up plans for stemming future revelations.

Some leaks have cost Cabinet ministers their jobs. In the 1930s, Cabinet minister Jimmy Thomas resigned after he blurted out Budget secrets to a Tory MP on a golf course.

And Chancellor Hugh Dalton famously quit in 1947 when it was discovered he had told a journalist about some of his Budget before his statement.

But few people would criticise the leaker who paved the way for Winston Churchill's return to office in the 1930s and who arguably helped Britain stave off the threat of Nazi Germany.

A mole in government gave Churchill figures on German armaments that he used to argue the case against Neville Chamberlain's appeasement policy.

There is rather a gap between such issues of war and peace and the frequent leaks of MPs' reports which are to be published the next day in any case.

Major reports now seem invariably to leak now - look at The Sun's scoop of Lord Hutton's report on the death of government scientist David Kelly a day before it was published.

For the recent Turner report on the future of pensions policy, not only did details of the report seep out early, so did Chancellor Gordon Brown's reaction to it.

Heseltine fears some ideas will not be discussed

The Blair era has seen clutches of secret memos appear in full in the newspapers, such as in 2000 when the prime minister said he wanted eye-catching initiatives with which he could be personally associated.

In some cases, information is clearly leaked deliberately by government insiders, perhaps to float an idea and test reaction without announcing it officially and being forced into a humiliating U-turn.

Spin doctors are also adept at leaking extracts of speeches to the media - not that journalists often complain - so they can set the agenda for the way the speech is reported.

"The ship of state is the only ship that leaks from the top," says top civil servant Sir Humphrey in BBC comedy Yes, Minister.

'Monstrous'

Former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine says there are all kinds of reasons why people leak information: conscience, mischief and occasionally straight malice.

Twenty years ago Lord Heseltine fell victim of an infamous leak during the Westland Affair - the episode which prompted his resignation from Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet.

Part of a letter from the solicitor general to Lord Heseltine was leaked with the authorisation of Trade Secretary Leon Brittan, who has said he had approval from Downing Street.

Lord Heseltine told BBC News that leak was "monstrous" because it was "highly selective" and gave a misleading impression of the letter.

He said whether a leak was damaging depended on whether you were the victim or beneficiary.

But he argued: "There is not the slightest doubt that if you have a leak environment, an atmosphere of suspicion, it tends to curtail dialogue and trust.

"The temptation is not to put things in writing and have the discussions on issues."

'Bizarre ideas'

Lord Heseltine warned of the danger that more risky ideas were not even considered for fear of them appearing in the press as hard policies.

"If you really do want to explore an issue it's hugely beneficial to be able to sit with people who have the quality of mind to contribute to a hair down dialogue and discussion," he said.

"In those circumstances you are prepared to look at options which are perhaps bizarre."

Butler says civil servants should never leak

The Butler inquiry into the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction raised concerns about the "informality" of government decision-making.

Some commentators believe such "sofa government" among a tight circle of advisers is a consequence of ministers being afraid that information will leak.

Lord Butler, a former Cabinet secretary, said the decrease in Cabinet discussion was not distinctive to Tony Blair's government - it had also been seen during John Major's premiership, for example.

"The lack of confidentiality in government has reduced the confidence of prime ministers that they can use the Cabinet for discussions," he said.

Official secrets

Lord Butler argued that civil servants should never leak information to the media and admitted to taking an "old fashioned" view on their effect on the workings of government.

"It is damaging to frank conversation," he told BBC News.

Two of the cases which commonly cited as prime examples of the honourable, whistleblower-type leak, happened when Butler was in the top echelons of the civil service.

Clive Ponting was charged in 1985 with leaking an internal Ministry of Defence document concerning the General Belgrano, the Argentinean cruiser which British forces sank during the 1982 Falklands War.

But a jury defied a judge's directions and cleared him of breaking the Official Secrets Act.

Sarah Tisdall was not so lucky in 1983 when she was jailed for six months for leaking details of the arrival of Cruise Missiles in the UK.

Open government?

Lord Butler did not have sympathy with Ponting and Tisdall, whose leaks are often portrayed as "problems of conscience".

"If civil servants have problems of conscience, there are other means they can pursue these other than leaks," he said.

"In our system civil servants do not have to get elected. Politicians get elected and have to defend their actions in public. Civil servants from their safe position should not undermine them."

But he said he was not sure ministers viewed leaks of political discussions as even embarrassing anymore as there were now so many leaks and the currency had been cheapened.

"It's a kind of open government," he said.

Sign of weakness?

Lord Butler said leaks of political arguments were not necessarily a sign that a government was running into trouble. Some administrations were more prone to leaks than others.

"Historically, Labour governments have always been more inclined to speak openly to the media than the Conservatives - although with the Major government it was just about as likely."

Recent months have seen high profile leaks of arguments in Cabinet about school reforms plans and the planned partial smoking ban, as well as lists of nominations for peerages.

Some will argue this is a sign of healthy discussion but veteran journalist Anthony Howard says it shows a government is in trouble when there are leaks direct from the Cabinet.

He said: "A strong, confident government manages on the whole not to let things get out that it doesn't want to get out. A government which is tired and weak tends not to be able to help it."

Leak inquiries are notoriously unsuccessful in finding the suspect to be punished (or celebrated) for helping secrets into the public eye.

And former Cabinet secretary Lord Armstrong apparently once said of a letter he wrote warning about leaks: "I was very sad it took six weeks to leak."