Sturgeon fears new PM will ‘cause 18 years of damage in 18 weeks’
acknowledged it would be an offence to admit to being an agent if he had been.
Asked if former spies could, under the law, answer honestly whether they worked for MI6, he told Today: “No, and in fact the law wouldn’t allow newspapers to reveal the identity of intelligence officers.”
Presenter Nick Robinson asked: “You can’t really answer the question whether you were a spy or not, you can just simply say you served your country?”
Mr Stewart said: “I definitely would say I served my country and if somebody asked me whether I am a spy I would say no.”
Mr Stewart later retweeted a comment from Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Tom Tugendhat, who said in response to the Telegraph allegations: “If he did, he risked everything in the shadows defending our nation.
“If he didn’t, he risked everything in Iraq trying to build the peace.
“Whoever these Whitehall sources are need to seriously rethink their ethics.”
Mr Tugendhat, a former military intelligence officer, suggested that trying to use Mr Stewart “as political capital” could put others at risk.
And Aberdeenshire MP Andrew Bowie, a navy veteran and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister, said the report was “utterly ridiculous”.
“We should celebrate everyone who is willing to serve our country in whatever capacity, wherever they are from and whatever they do,” Mr Bowie posted on Twitter.
Mr Stewart served briefly as an infantry officer in the Black Watch before university and then joined the UK diplomatic service, with postings in Jakarta, Indonesia, and as the British representative to Montenegro in the wake of the Kosovo crisis.
He was the coalition deputy-governor of two provinces in southern Iraq following the 2003 invasion.
The Telegraph’s Whitehall source said Mr Stewart was hired by the Secret Intelligence Service as a “fast track” entry after he left Oxford University in the 1990s and left after seven years. His father, Brian Stewart, has been a senior officer with the Secret Intelligence Service. The new Conservative leader could cause as much damage to Scotland in 18 weeks as Margaret Thatcher and John Major did in 18 years of government, Nicola Sturgeon has warned.
The First Minister was to speak last night about her fears of the impact an “out of touch Tory Party” led by an “even more reckless leader” could do.
With the UK facing the prospect of a no-deal Brexit at the end of October, she will again insist Scotland “must have the option of choosing a different course”.
The SNP leader has already earmarked the second half of 2020 for when a second Scottish independence referendum could be held but she is unlikely to get permission to hold such a ballot from the new prime minister, no matter who is voted in to succeed Theresa May.
But in the First Minister was to use a speech to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Scottish Parliament to make plain that the next six months could bring more challenges than the first two decades of devolution.
Over the past 20 years she was to argue Holyrood and its MSPS have “sought to improve the lives of the people of Scotland”.
She said the record of achievement over this time is “significant”, noting 61 per cent of Scots trust Holyrood to act in the country’s best interests, while only 21 per cent trust Westminster to do the right thing for Scotland.
The campaign for a devolved Scottish Parliament focused on the “democratic deficit” that existed in the 1980s and 1990s when Mrs Thatcher and then Mr Major were in Downing Street.
“Immense damage to Scottish communities was caused by an out of touch Conservative Party that governed, unelected in Scotland, for 18 years,” Ms Sturgeon was to say.
“But now I fear a similarly out of touch Tory Party, led by an even more reckless leader, could cause as much damage as Mrs Thatcher and John Major did.
“But while they took 18 years, he, whoever it is, could do as much – or more – damage in just 18 weeks.
“Because by the end of October, Scotland could be heading for a no-deal Brexit.”
The First Minister was to use her speech in Edinburgh to claim that “instead of the chaos and dysfunction at Westminster, I believe people want a welcoming, tolerant, internationalist, European, equal, caring Scotland”.
She was expected to add: “That’s why, for all the undoubted successes of devolution, this has to be a time for taking stock.”