By Giles Edwards

Producer, BBC Radio 4's Day One in Number Ten

The last few days have been some of the most extraordinary in modern British politics. What secrets lie behind the famous black door at No 10? Yet away from the cameras, precious few glimpses have been offered behind the big black door of Number 10, where a well-oiled machine has whirred in motion. The civil service on one side, and a crack team of planners inside the political parties on the other, have started to implement carefully laid plans. The new prime minister has been meeting the people he will rely on to deliver on the promises he has made. Among them will be some of the state's most secret servants, briefing him on highly sensitive security, intelligence and nuclear matters. And now, for the first time, two former director generals of the security service, MI5, have spoken to BBC Radio 4's Day One in Number Ten programme about those briefings. In the first few hours of his new young premiership, MI5 briefs the new PM on anyone he might be thinking of appointing to his government who might be cause for concern. We have known for a long time that this happens. Tory talk What we have not known - until now - is exactly how that works, or how many people are involved. But now MI5's director general, Sir Stephen Lander, has described what happened during the 1997 transition. My experience is they know an awful lot about the peccadilloes of members of their own party

Sir Patrick Walker, former MI5 director general He told Radio 4: "In 1997 therefore the way the then cabinet secretary and I agreed we would deal with it... was that I would produce the summaries, one sheet for each of the individuals that we thought we should make a comment on." Asked by Professor Peter Hennessy, who presents the programme, whether this had numbered in single figures, he confirmed that it had, then added that in 1997 it had been agreed that "the cabinet secretary and the prime minister's principal private secretary would have copies of these, and if the prime minister said I'm thinking of making X secretary of state for defence, they would say 'well prime minister, you might like to read this from the security service'." Sir Stephen confirmed that none of the summaries were required at the time, but added that Tony Blair later asked to see something they had written about one of the individuals. Intriguingly for the new government, the director general of MI5 and the cabinet secretary also went to see the then Conservative Leader William Hague. They had a talk with him, too, about the "very small number of people in the Conservative Party, and he knew about the circumstances of one of them and not really about the others, and we had a sensible conversation and he said he'd take it into account when he was thinking about his shadow cabinet, and that was it". 'Peccadilloes' Both Sir Stephen Lander and predecessor Sir Patrick Walker emphasised that the issues they had raised with the prime minister were not about personal behaviour - financial or sexual - but solely about national security. "No, the peccadilloes of politicians is for the whips office," said Sir Patrick Walker, adding "and my experience is they know an awful lot about the peccadilloes of members of their own party." The MI5 building is a short walk from Downing Street Despite a great deal of speculation over the years, both men seemed sure that no foreign agent ever managed to get into the British cabinet. Sir Patrick Walker explained that during the Cold War "the amount of intelligence coming out from defectors and agents on the Soviet activities made it pretty clear that we got just about anybody. You know you can't be 100% sure, but I don't think there were any hangovers. "So therefore, I mean certainly in my experience and I suspect in Stephen's, there would be no suggestion that any of them were anybody who'd reached cabinet rank was in any way connected with the Soviet services." The programme also reveals the thoughts of other highly discreet Crown servants at times of great political change. Mary Francis, a private secretary to the Queen in 1997, reveals how the excitement of a transition percolated even through to them; and John Holroyd, appointments secretary in Number 10 in 1997, reveals what happens after the big black door closes. "The house is always serene and calm," he says. "It's partly the effect of the long corridor that leads away from the front door, which is carpeted and long and serene in itself and seems able to absorb any amount of hubbub and so on, and once the prime minister is in there that's his home, that's his office, and I think it encompasses people." It remains to be seen whether the new prime minister and his entourage will be "encompassed" in a similar way. Day One in Number Ten was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 1100hrs BST on Friday, 14 May 2010. Listen again on the BBC iPlayer.



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