麻豆社

Sir John Sawers, the former head of MI6, explained the decision to speak out now that they hadn't want to say anything before the local elections and that they had not be put up to this by government

He emphasised the importance of data and said while bilateral deals are important in secret operations it was data sharing which was "vastly more important now" as it allowed them to discover who's communicating with whom and then how to discover the networks.

Asked if he was "put up" to backing EU membership by Downing Street, Sir John says that he and other intelligence officers have to inform the government before they "break cover" and speak out over political matters but he believes that it would be "dangerous" for the UK to leave and abandon "structures" which has served it for 40 years. He warns of the growth of the "extreme left and extreme right" in Europe and says the centre needs to assert itself.