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Britain, whose intelligence cooperation with America is probably uniquely deep in the history of the world,

Indeed, it is no accident that the greatest trust in the intelligence world is that between Britain, America, Australia, New Zealand and Canada – sometimes known in this field as the Five Eyes. This exists because of a common experience of kinship, language, war and living under law-based liberty. It is emphatically not the product of untrammelled state power, but of a culture that knows that its eyes (five pairs being better than one) need to scan the horizon to stay free.

"There is absolutely no room for anyone to trade on their ministerial office. People come into politics ‑ whether Labour, Tory or Lib Dem – because of what they want to do for the country. And I believe that's true for MPs across all parties, I don't think this is a partisan point."Anything which sullies that reputation or gets in the way of that public service is completely inimical. I think it's right that we have tightened up the rules already ... but the Labour manifesto is going to say more about the need for a statutory register of the lobbying industry, because there is absolutely no room for the sort of innuendo or promises that seem to have been floated in this case."