The MI5 has been forced to admit it “misled” the High Court during a bid to prevent the BBC from identifying a suspected Security Service informant.
In 2022, the government attempted to stop the BBC from airing a programme that would name a neo-Nazi state agent who allegedly abused two women and is a covert human intelligence source.
An order was made by a High Court judge in April 2022 to prevent the corporation from disclosing information likely to identify the man. However, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the BBC could still air the programme and the key issues, without identifying him, referring to them only as “X”.
The High Court heard on Wednesday that part of written evidence provided by MI5 was false, and the court was “misled”.
Jude Bunting KC, for the BBC, said the investigatory powers tribunal, which has heard a related case, may have also been misled.
The short hearing was told that a paragraph in a witness statement, provided by a witness known only as A, was misleading.
Mr Justice Chamberlain later said on Wednesday: “There is no contest that the evidence was not just misleading, it was false.
“Whether or not it was deliberately false is the subject of an investigation.”
In the programme about X, the broadcaster alleged the intelligence source was a misogynistic neo-Nazi who attacked his girlfriend with a machete.
He was accused of exploiting his status to wage a long-running campaign of “terror” against his girlfriend, including threatening to kill her.
The police also allegedly uncovered extremist material in X’s home, but he later left the country and was said to have continued intelligence work.
Following the hearing, MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum said in a statement: “It has become clear that MI5 provided incorrect information to the High Court in relation to an aspect of our witness statement.
“As soon as we became aware of the issue, we immediately took steps to correct that part of the statement.
“We take our duty to provide truthful, accurate and complete information very seriously and have offered an unreserved apology to the court.
“The home secretary and I agreed that she would commission an external review in order to establish the facts and improve processes for the future.”
He continued: “MI5’s job is to protect the UK from national security threats, and the harms they cause. If in the course of that work we uncover safeguarding risk, we share it with the relevant authorities.
“Every day, agents put themselves in harm’s way, to gather vital intelligence about threats to our nation from terrorists and foreign states. For them to keep protecting us, we must protect them and their identities from all those who would do them harm. This is our legal – and moral – duty.
“The use of agents is difficult, human work that is governed by legislation and tightly overseen. It is fundamental to MI5’s ability to keep the UK safe.”
Home secretary Yvette Cooper said it was “clearly a very serious matter to provide incorrect information to the court”.
She told MPs the review led by former government legal service chief Sir Jonathan Jones KC will “ensure that an independent authoritative view can be taken on what went wrong, and any actions MI5 needs to take to prevent a similar occurrence in the future”.
Ms Cooper added: “All organisations must have robust safeguarding policies under continuous review and must take any allegation of domestic abuse extremely seriously.”
