This is a job for Mrs Bond

MI5 wants middle-aged mothers as spies because they understand people better

SPY chiefs have been told by MPs to recruit middleaged mothers because they are ‘emotionally intelligent’ and skilled at relationships.

The Intelligence and Security Committee said MI5, MI6 and GCHQ should start advertising on the Mumsnet website.

An inquiry by the MPs and peers on the committee found that action was needed to break through the ‘permafrost’ of middleaged men dominating the ranks of the intelligence agencies who have a ‘very traditional male mentality and outlook’.

Across the three agencies, women make up 37 per cent of the workforce but hold only 19 per cent of the most senior roles.

Labour’s Hazel Blears, who sits on the ISC, said yesterday that recruiting a greater number of women would make the security services better at their job.

She highlighted the particular skills mothers have in building relationships – a vital talent for spies trying to recruit informants.

‘Women who have had children and brought their families up, they have valuable life experience,’ the former Home Office minister said.

The dominance of men, by contrast, ‘can reinforce a management culture which rewards those who speak the loudest or are aggressive in pursuing their career’, she said. Women deliver a ‘more consultative, collaborative approach’.

Mrs Blears said: ‘If all intelligence professionals are cut from the same cloth – sharing similar backgrounds and characteristics – then they are likely to share “unacknowledged biases” that will circumscribe both the definition of problems and the search for solutions.’

According to the inquiry, her view that women can make for a better working environment for spies was backed by Sir Iain Lobban, the former director of GCHQ, the listening agency. ‘I find that the discussions are deeper, I think they are more emotionally intelligent and, if you like, I think there is more intuition in the room,’ he said.

Mrs Blears said the need for MI6 officers to be able to deploy abroad – sometimes at short notice – could be a problem for women with children. She added: ‘There is a bit of testosterone in the system that says, “Tickets, money, passport – we all have to get there”. And if you’ve got children, finding 24-hour childcare is often very difficult.’

Mrs Blears also revealed that the BBC TV drama Spooks had made it harder for MI5 to recruit women

A string of its female characters met a grisly end, such as being blown apart trying to rescue a Home Secretary from a bomb.

Quentin Letts – Page 18