Outsider Sir John Sawers appointed new head of MI6

Michael Evans, Defence Editor One of Britain’s top diplomats is to become the first outsider to head MI6 in more than 40 years. Sir John Sawers, 53, who is the British Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, will become the Chief — or “C”, as the head of the Secret Intelligence Service is called in Whitehall — in November. He will replace Sir John Scarlett who is retiring after more than five years in the post. Despite the fact that Sir John is not a current MI6 employee he did begin his career with the espionage agency, serving in Yemen and Syria. He then switched to the Diplomatic Service in the mid-1980s, following a more conventional path as a British envoy, and was appointed political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2003. From 1999 to 2001 he was the foreign affairs adviser to Tony... [read full story]                    

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