<\/p>\n
An appeal for information has been sent to all MI5 staff over false evidence the service gave to three courts in a neo-Nazi spy case.<\/p>\n
MI5’s regulator is investigating how it came to make false claims about conversations with the BBC.<\/p>\n
The Investigatory Powers Commissioner Sir Brian Leveson, who is overseeing the inquiry, said it was “surprising” that new material was being uncovered years after the case began.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer ordered the investigation in September<\/a> after the BBC revealed that MI5 had lied to three courts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The prime minister’s demand followed requests from the High Court and Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which both rejected MI5’s explanations about what happened. <\/p>\n MI5 also gave false evidence to its regulator, Sir Brian Leveson himself, whose office is conducting this new investigation.<\/p>\n The case centres on a neo-Nazi state informant known as Agent X, who used his MI5 role to coerce his girlfriend, whom he attacked with a machete.<\/p>\n Sir Brian has now sent a letter<\/a> updating the prime minister, the attorney general and the home secretary on the investigation into the false evidence. <\/p>\n In the letter, he reveals the investigation team “asked that a message be disseminated to all current MI5 staff”, inviting anyone who believes they have information which may assist, to make contact. <\/p>\n He adds: “I am grateful for MI5’s prompt and constructive engagement to achieve this.”<\/p>\n But he also notes that “relevant material” continues to be identified, adding that it is “surprising” four years after the case began and “over three years after my inspectors first considered the Agent X case.”<\/p>\n