Gordo Brown tells Mervyn King he's talking f***ing b***locks in US financial spy scandal

[David Guyatt]

And the United Poodle Kingdom keeps crapping on honesty in the name of intelligence sharing with NSA.

Gordon Brown 'launched f-word tirade at former Bank Governor Mervyn King', says Damian McBride

Gordon Brown allegedly launched a four letter word tirade at Lord King of Lothbury, the former Governor of the Bank of England, when he threatened to reveal details of how US spies had been allowed to snoop on people's financial information.

Gordon Brown with Damian McBride at the 2007 Labour Party Conference Photo: Alan Davidson









By Christopher Hope, Senior Political Correspondent

7:12PM BST 24 Sep 2013

162 Comments


Lord King, as Mervyn King, made the threat to disclose how America's Central Intelligence Agency had been secretly accessing people's financial information in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at a meeting of the G7 finance ministers in Florida in February 2004.

Damian McBride, Mr Brown's former spin doctor, said in his memoirs published on Tuesday that Lord King had felt uncomfortable about the CIA's access to the Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication system, known as Swift.

Mr McBride told how "Mervyn's conscience told him that he had a duty to blow the gaff on the Swift deal, and tell the British people that the CIA had with the Treasury's connivance been secretly accessing that financial data".

Mr McBride described how "when Mervyn announced his intentions in a small meeting room in Boca Raton, Gordon quietly told everyone else to leave, aside from the Swift expert, Mark Bowman".

Mr McBride then told how, with the room cleared, "for the next five minutes, Gordon unleashed a volcanic tirade at Mervyn, very properly saying that he'd be putting Britain's counter-terror operations at threat if he went public about Swift and that it would do huge damage to our relationship with America".

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Mr McBride said Mr Brown had continued "perhaps rather harshly that Mervyn was talking f****** bull****" when he said he had a duty to speak out and that it was his f****** ego' dictating his position, not his duty to the country."
Mr McBride clearly took Mr Brown's side in the argument. He added: "However rudely Mervyn felt he was treated and he enjoyed some cold revenge in his future Mansion House speeches and economic forecasts there is no question that Gordon was right and, as a result of his intervention, the Swift deal remained a secret for another two years, until it was exposed by the New York Times, and safeguards and formal treaties were put in place governing its use."
Mr Brown's office did not reply to a request for comment.
Friends of Lord King confirmed that Mr Brown had shouted and sworn at the then-Governor. However they said that the peer disputes the content of the conversation as set out by Mr McBride.

Telegraph.co.uk