Britain’s Brexit decisions have been damaged by a year-long culture of cabinet leaks, the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said in an apparent swipe at some of his colleagues, including Gavin Williamson who was sacked as defence secretary.
Referring to the effect of leaks on Brexit, Hunt said: “I think it has made it harder to deliver what we have been trying to achieve and yes, of course it damages trust.
“When we are faced with very difficult judgment calls on Brexit issues, it is obviously of great benefit to the country if everyone can discuss them freely without having to think how decisions will be leaked afterwards. So I am hoping this will be a moment of change for the whole machinery of government works.”
Asked whether the constant leaks from cabinet had hurt the Brexit process, he said: “Yes, I think it has.” He added that in the past year leaking had become the norm.
Hunt was speaking in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, as part of a five-day tour of Africa as the fallout from Williamson’s sacking continued. Williamson was fired after an inquiry concluded he was the source of leaked details about a decision by the National Security Council (NSC) to grant the Chinese firm Huawei a role in the UK’s 5G network.
Hunt said: “You have to have that element of trust and in the last year that has changed and I think it is highly regrettable because it means everyone that sits around the cabinet table has to be careful about how the comments they might make might be spun subsequently.
“I hope this [Huawei] incident will cause everyone to reflect on [those] kind of leaks. Full stop.”
Hunt suggested it was better if disagreements were aired within cabinet rather than publicly via leaks.
“When I think back to when I joined the cabinet nearly nine years ago, one of the best things about those cabinet meetings is that you would have someone like Ken Clarke sitting around the cabinet table who would politely rubbish George Osborne’s economic policies. You would have a very good debate and the result was a better decision would be made at the end of it.”
Hinting about how he may like to see cabinet conducted were he prime minister, Hunt said: “The way cabinet has to work is total honesty in private and total loyalty in public.
“The truth is the politics of the past year has created the most perfect storm. We have had the most controversial issue of our lifetimes combined with a hung parliament and that gives cabinet ministers a lot more power sitting round the cabinet table than they would normally have and so the question is whether cabinet ministers use that power responsibly or not.”
Asked whether he believed Williamson was responsible for the Huawei leak, Hunt said: “The prime minster has seen the evidence and she believes he was responsible and in that situation no prime minister can have a minister sitting around the table because she has to have absolute confidence that everything that is said will remain confidential.”
He also defended the cabinet secretary from suggestions that he had been prejudiced against Williamson, saying: “That is not the Mark Sedwill I know.”
Hunt said the NSC had to be seen as “the inner sanctum of government” at which very highly classified information was discussed.
He said he hoped Williamson’s political career would not be defined by the leak episode, saying the former defence secretary had shown an incredible commitment to the armed forces.
