It is more than a decade since the House of Commons authority refused to disclose details of MPs’ expenses with the claim that this “would compromise the privacy of the MP”. A government source now deploys this same specious contention to protect the executive, saying: “If MPs want to seize the private texts of advisers … they can speak to people’s lawyers” (Johnson told to hand over secret no-deal Brexit plans, 10 September).
In a decision on MPs’ expenses upheld by both the information tribunal and the high court, the information commissioner emphasised that “particular regard should be had to whether the personal data requested relates to individuals acting in an official as opposed to a private capacity”.
Michael Gove’s assertion, in his closing speech on Monday night, that the humble address would “trample over data protection law, ECHR rights and the principle of safe space” is absurd. He will recall the email sent by his education adviser, Dominic Cummings, in 2011 saying: “i will only answer things that come from gmail accounts from people who i know who they are. i suggest that you do the same in general but thats obv up to you guys – i can explain in person the reason for this…” (Gove faces questions over department’s use of private email, 20 September 2011).
Although Mr Gove set up a private email account in the name of “Mrs Blurt”, the information commissioner rejected the ridiculous suggestion that this justified privacy. It remained departmental business. Today, when the information is required by parliament, this principle gains greater significance.
Dr Mike Sheaff
University of Plymouth
• I agree with Sarah Walker (Letters, 9 September) that Dominic Cummings is likely a mole placed to destroy the Conservative party – but I have a bigger conspiracy theory – it seems to me he has a wider role to destabilise and destroy British liberal democracy from within. And who would be more interested in this than Putin and the Russian government? And Cummings spent three years after university working in post-Soviet Russia...
Jenny Keating
Lewes, East Sussex
• A simpler explanation for Cummings might be that he’s not very bright. While he has often referred to chess in his blog, one rather imagines he’s rubbish at the game. I – an averagely strong club player – played him in the Durham club championship in 1988. He fell for a very elementary trap and lost horribly, but not before expressing to a spectator incredulity as to how my play could be so stupid!
Michael Ayton
Durham
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