It is a very English crisis. In the past, MI6 has faced down accusations it was involved in cases of torture and rendition and only slowly admitted that sources who claimed that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the 2003 war were wrong.
But when it emerged in the Guardian this week that Sir Richard Moore, the current chief of the foreign intelligence agency, was a member of the men-only Garrick club, it prompted an almost immediate response. For an organisation focused on shaking off images of Oxbridge-stuffed shirt elitism, the revelation instantly touched a nerve.
It turned out that Moore wrote not once, but twice, to all MI6 staff this week. First, he argued he was not resigning from the Garrick but campaigning from within to change its rules (perhaps the spy’s instinctive mode of operation), only for a day later to accept his membership was embarrassing and untenable, having consulted senior female colleagues.
Internally, the agency likes to consider itself a relatively democratic organisation and many of its staff pay a close eye on coverage in the media. The impression is that Moore misjudged the mood with his first missive and appears to have been faced with some degree of internal revolt.
MI6, in common with the rest of British intelligence, prefers a quiet life. It is cautious about sharing its assessments of the intentions or actions of Russia and China (timely information tends to come via the US). When briefing, it prefers to cloak its officials under the loose guise of “western officials” or “western intelligence”.
But in the modern era, it recognises it is necessary for the agencies to have some engagement with the media, rather than rely on periodic Bond movies. A key reason is to help generate a flow of recruits who represent modern Britain – and who might more instinctively understand the motivations of hostile actors.
Earlier this month, the intelligence service launched a campaign to recruit more black staff, with two senior ethnic minority officers giving BBC radio interviews. Three years ago, Moore himself formally apologised to LGBT officers who were thrown out for their sexuality prior to 1991, even appearing in a video with the actor and gay rights campaigner Sir Ian McKellen to emphasise the point.
Today, MI6 is still disproportionately white and male dominated. No woman has ever held the top job, unlike its sister agencies MI5 and GCHQ. Its total workforce is 38.4% female, a proportion that drops to 31.4% among the highest-paid quarter of staff. Black and, what the agency calls, “ethnic minority heritage” staff contribute 8.8% of the total workforce, below the national average.
In its recent gender pay gap report, the agency acknowledges that the average pay for men in the organisation is 7.6% higher – not much change from the year before – and this document also features a short, and somewhat apologetic forward from Moore, describing himself as ‘C’.
“We have an ambitious set of plans to tackle some of the barriers to women having long and fulfilling careers in the service,” Moore wrote. “We will also continue to work on our key priorities of attracting, recruiting and developing talent at all levels given that women continue to be under-represented at some grades and roles.”
It is against this context that Moore’s Garrick club membership has to be judged. The storm will blow over soon enough, but given Moore’s and MI6’s “ambitious plans” for workforce diversity, this particular affair is probably best described simply as embarrassing.
