With Reform UK riding high and the polls, would our security services be comfortable with a Farage government? Our columnist Calum Steele suggests not

Last week’s leaked transcript of a conversation between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov was genuinely jaw-dropping. The implication that Witkoff was coaching his Russian contact on how to steer Donald Trump towards a proposal to end the war in Ukraine was explosive enough; but the suggestion from some commentators that the leak may have originated from a US ally pointed to something even more remarkable: the quiet abandonment of long-standing diplomatic norms about how strategic partners behave towards each other.

With our very own GCHQ speculated to be among those at the front of the queue being scrutinised, I was reminded of a conversation I had with a former colleague in the weeks before the US presidential elections, and the then-hypothesis over what a Donald Trump return to the White House would mean for sharing intelligence with the nation we have long regarded as our most important ally.

Whilst I am certain the diplomatic language of transatlantic politics will suggest the information flow to and from our security services has continued seamlessly, it is unimaginable that the character of the man who occupies the Oval Office has not caused consternation for those charged with safeguarding our national interests.

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