A woman could be about to take charge of MI6 for the first time in the service’s history, despite concerns over her lack of experience and views towards China. Dame Barbara Woodward is the frontrunner for the job and is believed to be one of three candidates on the final shortlist, comprising two women and a man.
Dame Woodward and two serving unnamed MI6 officers are in the running to replace the current chief, Sir Richard Moore, who is due to step down this year following five years in post. Her appointment would be controversial, with Dame Woodward having no previous experience with the intelligence service and critics accusing the former Chinese ambassador of being too sympathetic towards the country at a time of increased intelligence gathering targeted against the UK by Beijing. Critics have accused her of being too reluctant to speak out against the regime whilst in post between 2015 and 2020, especially on issues such as the oppression of the Uyghur people in Xinjiang, something many believe is a genocide.
Dame Barbara Woodward, who is now Britain’s ambassador to the United Nations, was the Chinese ambassador when five MPs were sanctioned by the regime for being critical of their treatment of Uighurs, with some accusing her of “doing nothing to help.”
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who was also sanctioned by the Chinese, said: “This appointment is of the greatest importance to our security and any ambivalence towards the enormous threat that China poses will end in disaster for the UK.
“Those of us sanctioned and attacked by the Chinese state apparatus on a regular basis will have concerns that she was less than robust about Chinese actions and only raised Xinjiang and the Uyghur when she left China.”
Supporters of her expected appointment claim that she is the most experienced person in the foreign services, which, combined with her experiences in China, will give the intelligence service the best chance of meeting the needs of the future.
Intelligence officials believe that China is conducting espionage on an industrial scale. Recently, they have been able to penetrate the inner circle of the Duke of York and have been known to have hacked British businesses and attacked UK-based Hong Kong dissidents.
The chief of MI6 is known as “C”, the initial of the service’s first chief, Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, in 1909.
Ian Fleming renamed the chief “M” in his James Bond books, the character, famously played by Dame Judi Dench.
Since its formation, there have been 17 male chiefs, with sister agency MI5 having had two female heads, Dame Stella Rimington being the first in 1992.
Sir Keir Starmer will make the decision on the next head of MI6, supported by the advice of a panel of experts, including David Lammy and Jonathan Powell, the national security adviser.