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Real life 'M' Sir John Sawers stepping down as chief of MI6 Real life 'M' Sir John Sawers stepping down as chief of MI6
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The head of the secret service is stepping down in November after five years at MI6. The head of MI6, Sir John Sawers, is to stand down after five years in charge of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service.
Sir John Sawers is believed to have wanted to leave his post in the shadowy Secret Intelligence Service before next year’s general election. The agency said Sir John - a former diplomat who spent three years advising Prime Minister Tony Blair on foreign policy - had done “an exceptional job as chief”, typically declining to elaborate on his achievements. He will leave in November.
He made headlines last year when he made a rare foray into the public eye, appearing before the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee. Sir John is likely to be remembered for bringing an unprecedented openness to the role as MI6 chief, also known as C, regularly giving speeches and appearing at televised parliamentary hearings to describe the agency’s work.
The 58-year-old told MPs that the Edward Snowden leaks about GCHQ activities played into the hands of terrorists. In recent months he has had to deal with the fallout from the Edward Snowden revelations, telling a select committee in November that the leaks by the former US intelligence operative had been very damaging.
"Our adversaries were rubbing their hands with glee, al-Qa'ida is lapping it up," he said. He said: “They have put our operations at risk. It is clear our adversaries are rubbing their hands with glee. Al-Qaida is lapping it up.”
"The leaks from Snowden have been very damaging - they've put our operations at risk." Sir John had an inauspicious start when he landed the role as head of MI6 after his wife posted beach photos on Facebook of the incoming spy chief in his swimming trunks. He was yet to take up the role although his appointment, taking over from Sir John Scarlett, had been announced.
The “real life M” is actually known internally by the initial “C”. Lady Shelley Sawers also included details on about where the couple worked, their friends and family, and where they liked to go on holiday. The material was soon removed.
Another tradition dictates that the chief writes correspondence in green ink, although how this has transferred to email is not known. After working for Mr Blair, which included a key role in Northern Ireland implementing the Good Friday Agreement, Sir John spent two years as Ambassador to Egypt before returning in a senior role at the Foreign Office, where he began his diplomatic career in 1977.
A Foreign Office spokesman said Sir John had done an “exceptional job” as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “Sir John Sawers will complete his five-year term at SIS this autumn. He has done an exceptional job as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service.”
He served as Britain's permanent representative to the United Nations until his appointment as MI6 chief in 2009. MI6 was not officially recognised until 1994 when John Major’s Government introduced the Intelligence Services Act making it subject to Whitehall scrutiny. The agency now employs around 3,200 people and has its headquarters in Vauxhall Cross, central London.
Sir John previously worked as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair and held a variety of diplomatic posts. The Cabinet Office is due to begin the process of recruiting a successor with the outcome to be announced later in the year.
His successor will be approved by the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, and Prime Minister David Cameron.
The head of the GCHQ electronic spy agency, Sir Iain Lobban, is expected to be standing down around the same time.
Officials denied his departure was linked to controversy over the activities of GCHQ and its US counterpart the NSA revealed by the Snowden leaks.
MI6 gathers foreign intelligence and mounts covert operations abroad, while its counterpart MI5 is responsible for national security.
A description on its website says: “SIS provides Her Majesty's Government with a global covert capability to promote and defend the national security and economic well-being of the United Kingdom.”
Despite being founded in 1909, the existence of MI6 was not officially acknowledged until 1994.
That did not stop Ian Fleming and other authors using it as the inspiration for novels, most famously the James Bond series.
Additional reporting by Reuters