‘Canary trap’ could catch Cabinet leaker

BORIS JOHNSON is being urged to hand out differently worded briefings to his Cabinet ministers in order to catch the leaker who announced the new national coronavirus lockdown.

The Prime Minister was infuriated when details of the lockdown in England were leaked 10 days ago, forcing him to announce the plans to the nation the following day, before MPS could formally be told.

Mr Johnson is said to be determined to stop leaks. One idea being considered by government whips is for No 10 to hand out differently worded documents to see which of them make it into the public domain.

The method – known as a canary trap – involves giving different versions of a sensitive document to several suspects in order to see which version is leaked.

A source in the whips’ office said Mr Johnson was being urged to sanction “different messages to different ministers to try to track down who is leaking”.

The national lockdown plans were discussed on Friday Oct 31 at a meeting chaired by Mr Johnson and attended by just three other Cabinet ministers: Matt Hancock, Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak. The details were leaked that same day. All three strongly deny any wrongdoing. The seriousness of the

Cabinet Office inquiry became clear when it emerged that Mr Gove had been forced by officials to hand over his mobile phone at his home last week.

Mr Sunak was interviewed along with other Cabinet ministers by security experts looking into the leak on Saturday, Whitehall sources told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. The Chancellor’s spokesman declined to comment.

A source close to Mr Gove said: “The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and members of his staff have cooper

‘They have cooperated fully and were happy to submit their phones, given they have nothing to hide’

ated fully with the inquiry and were happy to submit their phones for examination, given they have nothing to hide.”

According to a government source: “It is common procedure to go through call logs and messages in a leak investigation.” A spokesman for Mr Hancock said claims that the Health Secretary was the leaker were “categorically untrue and this will be demonstrated by the investigation”.

A Downing Street source denied the idea was being considered. The source said it would not stop leaks from meetings.