Director’s letter contradicts Key’s claims

Contrary to his claims yesterday, the Prime Minister did know about the disclosure of SIS documents, says MP for Mt Roskill and former Labour Leader Phil Goff.

At yesterday’s media standup, when asked on the topic John Key said ‘I wasn’t told’.

“This simply is not true,” says Phil Goff.

“In a letter dated November 2011 former SIS director Warren Tucker states three times that ‘in accordance with the usual practice of keeping the minister informed’ the Prime Minister had been told.

“The letter indicates that it was the Prime Minister, not his office that was told. It reads ‘I notified the Prime Minister… I advised the Prime Minster … I informed the Prime Minster...’

“The Inspector General’s inquiry is critically important. We know from the leaked emails from Cameron Slater that even before he got the documents he knew their content and that their release would be expedited. He said he was ‘sworn to secrecy’.

“He can only have received this information either directly from the SIS or from John Key’s office. Those are the only potential sources of the leak.

“I am reluctant to believe that the SIS told Slater. Everything points to John Key’s office.

“John Key won’t have left his own fingerprints on the leak. He would simply have walked down the corridor to his Senior Advisor Jason Ede’s office and left him to do the dirty work with Slater,” Phil Goff said.

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