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Leaking details from a National Security Council (NSC) meeting is “utterly dysfunctional and destructive”, Harriet Harman has said.
While there are often briefings out of cabinet and Parliamentary Labour Party meetings, revealing details of top-secret talks held by the NSC “should be a red line”, the former deputy Labour leader said.
Her comments on Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast come after intimate details of NSC deliberations held just preceding and following the beginning of the US-Israeli war on Iran were revealed by The Spectator.
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The magazine reported that at a meeting last Friday, Sir Keir Starmer wanted to allow the US to use British bases for political reasons, but was blocked by four cabinet ministers, led by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
The prime minister then agreed to it for defensive purposes on Sunday after the US made a formal request the previous day.
Although Sir Keir has said there was not a “specific decision to be made” on the Friday, the government has not denied the story, so this appears to be the first leak of top-secret NSC deliberations since 2019.
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Speaking to our political editor Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harman hit out at the leaker or leakers, saying national security discussions need to be held in private.
She said: “The prime minister has got to be able to go to his NSC and discuss issues with colleagues – that’s how government functions.”
‘Red line’ has been crossed
Details of cabinet meetings and weekly meetings of Labour MPs often leak, and although…
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