JEREMY Hunt has confirmed officials are looking at whether a hostile state such as Russia hacked secret memos that branded Donald Trump “inept and incompetent”.
A cyber attack to steal Sir Kim Darroch’s blunt assessments of the US President is now an official line of inquiry in a major leak investigation, the Foreign Secretary told The Sun.
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Initial suspicion over who handed over a jumbo tranche of the Washington Ambassador’s cables centred on a plotting Tory minister.
But it emerged last night that some senior Foreign Office figures now believe an enemy government hoping to sow discord between the US and the UK is a more likely culprit.
Saying he was “extremely concerned” by the leak, Mr Hunt told The Sun: “Of course it would be massively concerning if it was the act of a foreign, hostile state.
“I’ve seen no evidence that that’s the case, but we’ll look at the leak inquiry very carefully.
“They are going to follow all avenues of inquiry to try to understand how this happened. That’s something that will be considered.”
Iran and China, who also have powerful cyber capabilities, are also in the frame, with the theory being that a middle man was then used to pass the material to the Mail on Sunday.
One of Sir Kim’s ‘diptels’, written just two weeks ago on how Mr Trump may have lied about why he cancelled a missile strike on Iran, was last night causing the greatest concern as it boosts Tehran.
A senior Government figure added: “A big question now being asked is who would have the most to gain from the leak?
‘SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE’
“Without doubt that the answer is a hostile state who wants to cause division, because they have succeeded.”
It emerged last night that the leak inquiry has expanded to take in the whole of the Government, and is now being led by security chiefs in the Cabinet Office.
Giving evidence to MPs, the FCO’s top mandarin, Permanent Secretary Sir Simon McDonald admitted that “there is clearly significant damage” from the leak.
An external hack “will be in the scope of the leak inquiry”, he also confirmed.
Sir Simon also revealed he has sent a memo to his diplomats across the globe to warn them to be careful who they share their sensitive findings with and “choose a limited distributed means of communication”.
While some called for Sir Kim to be recalled, the PM was standing by him yesterday and her official spokesman said she has “full faith” in him.
Mr Hunt also defended the top diplomat, telling The Sun: “I do defend the right of our ambassadors to give their frank opinions.
“That’s what makes the Foreign Office an incredibly successful diplomatic network.
“But we don’t always agree with each other. We have 13,000 people across the network and they have many varied views.”
Senior Tories demanded the police take over the investigation.
On a trip to Washington DC, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox insisted “heads must roll” as he also revealed he would apologise for the breach to the President’s daughter Ivanka Trump.
Dr Fox added: “I hope the full force of the law will come down in the person who did this”. Former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon also called for a full criminal probe, saying: “This is clearly a breach of the Official Secrets Act and if they can find out who did it, prosecutions should follow”.
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