Riddle as spy chief quits after 2 years

THE director of GCHQ stunned ministers last night by announcing he was quitting his job after only two years.

Robert Hannigan, head of one of the three Government intelligence agencies which spearhead Britain’s fight against terrorism and serious crime, said he was stepping down aged 51 for ‘personal reasons’.

In a letter to Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, he hinted that the strain placed on his family by his job at the UK’s listening post had prompted his resignation.

Mr Hannigan’s wife is understood to be ill, although GCHQ denied that a family illness had spurred him to act. The eavesdropping agency also insisted he had not been sacked, subject to disciplinary proceedings or quit because of concerns about the direction of UK and US policy.

Mr Hannigan, a married father-of-two, described leading the men and women of GCHQ as a ‘great privilege’. He wrote: ‘I am equally proud of the relentless 24-hour operational effort against terrorism, crime and many other national security threats. While this work must remain secret, you will know how many lives have been saved in this country and overseas by the work of GCHQ.’

But he said his 20-year career as a public servant had ‘demanded a great deal of my ever patient and understanding family and now is the right time for a change in direction’. Mr Johnson praised him for leading ‘the renewal of some of our most important national security capabilities’.

Dominic Grieve, chairman of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee, said he had been ‘outstanding’.

Oxford-educated Mr Hannigan took up his £160,000 post in November 2014. It followed scrutiny of the agency’s work after leaks by US fugitive Edward Snowden. These revealed how GCHQ used vast amounts of personal information supplied by US spy chiefs – later ruled illegal by a tribunal.