The issue of the political views of Sarah Helm the wife of National Security Advisor Jonathan Powell rages on and on. This argument is not going away anytime soon and we wait and see whether the Government will act and get rid of Powell or if Powell makes a decision to leave his post on his own accord.
A recent development in this story is a piece in the Daily Mail that said that Mr Powell discussed his very sensitive work at Number 10 with his wife when he returned from work. As someone familiar with Developed Vetting of those who wish to work in highly sensitive areas I’m surprised that any vetting of Mr Powell didn’t pick up on the existence of his wife’s clearly extremist views about ‘Palestine’.
The Daily Mail said:
“Ms Helm, an author and former Middle East correspondent, also appeared to reveal that her husband played little role in the Government’s decision to proscribe Palestine Action last year.
Asked by an X user if Mr Powell had been instrumental in banning the group – or was involved in the decision – Ms Helm replied: ‘Nope and nope.’
And in separate footage, Ms Helm answered ‘yes’ when asked if she discussed Mr Powell’s sensitive work in No10 when he returned home each day. In response to this footage being shared on social media, Ms Helm replied: ‘Wow shocking admissions here.”
Sarah Helm and indeed her husband appear to have a rather blasé attitude to national security matters. Whilst it is natural for one partner to ask another about their day, someone in Mr Powell’s position should have said either ‘a good day’ or ‘a not so good day’ and not go into detail about the highly sensitive work that he is engaged in as the Government’s National Security Advisor. It appears, at least from the Daily Mail piece that Jonathan Powell was wittering away about his job to his wife knowing that his wife has some particularly troubling political views and a record for expressing those views in public.
Anybody in Britain who applies to join or is employed by a highly sensitive entity in Government, for example one of the security agencies such as the Security Service or the Secret Intelligence Service are told not to discuss their application with anyone apart from those in the relevant organisation itself. That means they cannot discuss either their application of their job with partners, parents, siblings etc etc. Jonathan Powell on the other hand seems to have sung like a Canary to his wife about his job.
Following a number of high profile and highly damaging espionage scandals during the Cold War encompassing cases including Atom Spy Klaus Fuchs and the very destructive Cambridge Spies Affair, vetting of those handling Secret and Top Secret or UK Eyes Only classified material was tightened up greatly. Developed Vetting where everything about a person is examined to check for vulnerabilities should have turned up Sarah Helm’s political views and her activities. In my view the sort of political activities that Ms Helm was involved in should have precluded Mr Powell from doing the job he is doing. The risk of compromise to Mr Powell because of his wife’s politics and who she associates with should have rung some very big alarm bells with vetting agencies.
This raises some big questions to me. How deeply was Jonathan Powell vetted? Was his wife checked out, as I believe she should have been? Was he even vetted to any significant degree at all because of his previous work in Government? Was he in other words given a positive clearance on the nod?
This case is moving beyond just the wife of a high level government employee having dubious opinions, or a suspicion of two tier justice in how Sarah Helm has been handled, it’s now moving into the territory of how much did the various vetting agencies know about Sarah Helm’s political proclivities. It’s raising questions such as did the Vetting Agencies overlook potential problems because both the Starmer and Burnham governments desperately wanted Jonathan Powell in the post he occupies?
It’s getting more and more obvious that Jonathan Powell’s position is now almost completely untenable. There are now too many questions about what he may have revealed about his job to his wife and whether this information was used for non-official purposes or which may have been passed on to others?
Jonathan Powell should have stepped down or stepped back for the duration of this furore but has not. Maybe he’s holding out in the hope of a Peerage or a big payoff but the longer he’s in post the more this scandal will go on. If the Government has any sense they will not let this matter run on too long or create too much damage and sack Powell, but this Government in particular has a habit of trying to brazen things out. This story, unless it reaches a satisfactory conclusion, is likely to run and run.
Links
Daily Mail piece
Klaus Fuchs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs
The Cambridge Spy Ring
https://spyscape.com/article/the-cambridge-spy-scandal-that-haunts-britain
Be the first to comment on "The Battle of Helm’s Tweet goes on."