Spying Today sources report that Alex Younger at SIS and Andrew Parker at the Security Service may have their terms in office extended to cover the Brexit period. A version of this story has been reported in The Times today (13 February), but our sources put it slightly differently: Apparently this a contingency, largely for cosmetic purposes to reassure the public that all is well. Operationally, changing the head of a service would make very little difference, as both men have very capable deputies and senior management teams who are there precisely to ensure continuity even if there is a change at the top. The second reason this is being considered is because the exercise to choose a successor occupies a certain amount of government time and energy – something that is currently being soaked up by the Brexit negotiations. So Service effectiveness during the Brexit period actually has very little, if anything, to do with it.
