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The UK authorities is near deciding on its first feminine head of the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, with two girls within the ultimate race for the highest job on the company tasked with the damaging work of recruiting brokers to spy for Britain abroad.
Previously few weeks, 4 candidates who had been shortlisted to guide the UK’s overseas intelligence service have been whittled down to 2, in keeping with folks acquainted with the method.
The ultimate pair within the working for a job historically recognized by the code title “C” are Barbara Woodward, at current the UK’s everlasting consultant to the UN and a former ambassador to China, and a feminine candidate from inside MI6.
Given the secrecy surrounding SIS staffing, the chief is the one member of the spy company who’s “avowed”, or publicly named. For that cause, the Monetary Occasions shouldn’t be naming the interior candidate.
The profitable candidate would be the first feminine head of the service in additional than a century for the reason that SIS was based. She is going to take up the function this autumn when the present head of the company, Sir Richard Moore, steps down following a five-year time period. Moore has been an advocate of better range within the appointments course of and has beforehand pledged that he could be the final “C” to be chosen from an all-male shortlist.
The ultimate choice can be made by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and overseas secretary David Lammy following a spherical of “fireplace chats” with the candidates, Whitehall officers stated. Jonathan Powell, Starmer’s nationwide safety adviser, can also be anticipated to have enter. The method has been run by the Cupboard Workplace underneath Pat McFadden, the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
The announcement of the profitable candidate is anticipated throughout the subsequent couple of weeks, three folks acquainted with the discussions stated. It was delayed partly to keep away from a conflict with the publication of the UK’s long-awaited strategic defence evaluate this week, one particular person stated.
The opposite two candidates within the ultimate 4 had been Jonathan Allen, director-general of defence and intelligence on the Overseas, Commonwealth and Growth Workplace (FCDO), and one other inner MI6 candidate.
In doubtlessly appointing a feminine SIS chief, the British authorities has proved that life does certainly imitate artwork. It has been 30 years for the reason that actress Dame Judi Dench first performed the pinnacle of MI6 within the James Bond movie GoldenEye.
However in ready so lengthy for a girl chief in actual life, SIS has lagged its sister companies, each within the UK and throughout the Atlantic.
MI5, the UK’s home intelligence company, has been led by two feminine directors-general: Dame Stella Rimington was appointed in 1992 and Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller turned head of the company 10 years later.
GCHQ, the UK’s indicators intelligence company, appointed Anne Keast-Butler as its first feminine director two years in the past. Throughout Donald Trump’s first time period as US president, Gina Haspel was made the primary feminine director of the CIA.
The brand new “C” will come into the job at a crucial time for the UK’s intelligence group, because it grapples with challenges together with sabotage by an more and more belligerent Russia, a rising safety menace from Iran and the elevated use of cyber assaults to check the nation’s crucial infrastructure.
Relationships, together with the “5 Eyes” intelligence sharing alliance — comprising the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — have additionally been put underneath pressure by Trump, who has threatened to cut back navy assist for Europe and to subsume Canada into the US.
Whereas some former ambassadors, together with Moore and Sir John Sawers, have progressed to the function of SIS chief, it’s uncommon to have an exterior candidate with no direct expertise contained in the company. Woodward is known to have by no means labored straight for MI6.
Moore, who was beforehand the UK’s ambassador to Turkey, was initially recruited by MI6 shortly after leaving college earlier than transitioning to a extra standard diplomatic profession throughout the Overseas Workplace.
The FCDO, which oversees MI6, didn’t instantly remark.
