US secretary of state flies to Britain to say sorry for Manchester leaks

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has flown to the UK to deliver in person an apology for leaks by US officials of details of the police investigation into the Manchester bombing.



Tillerson, who met the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said: “We take full responsibility for that and we obviously regret that that happened. With respect to the release of information inappropriately … certainly we condemn that.”

Such a public apology by a senior US politician – and flying to London specifically to make it – is unprecedented in US-UK relations. That the Trump administration felt the need to make such a gesture illustrates the seriousness of this week’s rift.

“This special relationship that exists between our two countries will certainly withstand this particular unfortunate event,” Tillerson said.

Rift between Trump and security agencies 'aided Manchester bomb leaks' Read more

The US and UK have one of the closest intelligence-sharing partnerships in the world.

Tillerson, who met Johnson at the foreign secretary’s official residence, Carlton Gardens, said “hearts are broken” across the US by the Manchester attack.



The Foreign Office described the meeting with Tillerson as “an expression of UK-US solidarity following the terrorist attack in Manchester earlier this week”.



As well as accepting blame for the leaks, the US secretary of state also made a political point, claiming immigration presented a significant challenge in confronting acts of terrorism. Another element, he said, was inability to assimilate people.

“That whatever reason as people immigrate into our countries – whether it is in Great Britain, in the United States or other countries – we seem to have difficulty assimilating those people so they feel a part of our society and would never consider acts of violence against their fellow citizens and their fellow neighbours,” Tillerson said. “It is an extremely complex issue, this mass immigration of people we are witnessing around the world.”

British police, the security services and ministers were angered after US officials disclosed to American reporters the identity of the killer, Salman Abedi, a move viewed as obstructing the investigation. Within hours of the home secretary, Amber Rudd, calling her US counterpart, the homeland security secretary, John Kelly, to seek assurances that leaks from US officials would end, the New York Times published forensic evidence from the crime scene, including photographs of the bomb.



The Greater Manchester police force and the London-based counter-terrorism team suspended intelligence sharing with the FBI and other police counterparts on Thursday but it was restored after Donald Trump intervened to say the justice department would investigate the leaks.

Johnson spoke of how he was “struck by how often our international friends and supporters have mentioned not so much the crime as the response – the acts of instinctive kindness by people in Manchester”.



He said the people of Manchester had shown, in “their unity and their determination”, that it was “by coming together that we can beat this scourge”.



“I think that the people of Manchester are showing the way for the world and we’ve seen again today what’s happened to innocent people in Egypt as a result of this challenge that we all face, this affliction that we all face together.”



Johnson added: “Around the world you will find the US and the UK facing the same problems together and defending our ideals together – we defend democracy and the rule of law, our values and our freedoms – not just because they are ours but because they are universal.



“If the world community can unite, I think, in the way that the people of Manchester have come together and united, then I think together we can prevail and will prevail.”

Tillerson joined Johnson in signing a book of condolences for the victims of the attack.