Friday, December 18, 2020

Tory MP sacked as PPS after memo leaked to Guido Fawkes

Andrew Lewer, the Conservative MP for Northampton South, has been sacked as parliamentary private secretary to policing minster Kit Malthouse after a leaked memo appeared on the Guido Fawkes website.

The memo was a warning to Tories in junior government roles not to leak memos.

But how was he caught?

The Northampton Chronicle explains:

What the recipients did not know, reportedly, is that each copy of the memo from Chief Whip Mark Spencer MP was worded differently.

Then, when a copy of the memo was appeared on political gossip website Guido Fawkes, this reportedly led the Government to work out that particular version of the letter.

As a result, Andrew Lewer or a member of his staff has been accused of leaking the memo and has been fired from his role as a PPS at the Home Office.

2 comments:

Phil Beesley said...

In earlier times when newspapers reproduced an image of leaked reports, individual documents were generated with different punctuation and word spacing by the suspicious to identify sources. Different wording seems unsubtle in comparison.

david walsh said...

I understand he is blaming 'his staff'. but then, after Northampton CC hit the financial rocks after cuts in grant from central government, he blamed the councillors there......