London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Former UK defence official behind classified dossier bus stop leak was tipped to become NATO ambassador – reports

Former UK defence official behind classified dossier bus stop leak was tipped to become NATO ambassador – reports

Media sources have identified the senior UK official who mislaid classified defence papers – detailing sensitive Crimean coast operations – as Angus Lapsley. He was apparently being groomed as the country’s next envoy to NATO.

The former Ministry of Defence (MoD) director general’s blunder led to a 50-page dossier being found in a “soggy heap” at a bus stop in Kent in June, prompting both fears of espionage by “adversaries” and ridicule of the UK’s intelligence and security establishment.

The documents – one of which was rated at the highest ‘Secret: UK Eyes Only’ classification – went public after a passerby handed them to the BBC, which published a report detailing some of their contents. Last month, an MoD probe had pinned the blame on a single public servant but did not identify the individual.

On Tuesday, The Guardian cited two anonymous government sources to reveal that Lapsley – who was director general strategy & international at the time of the incident – was responsible.

Despite the gaffe, the paper reported that his appointment as NATO ambassador was now “unlikely, but not definitely ruled out”. In his MoD position, he was responsible for “defence policy on NATO and the general Euro-Atlantic area.”

However, Lapsley’s security clearance has been revoked pending a review and he has been transferred to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

But an unnamed government source told The Telegraph that Lapsley’s security clearance could be “reinstated at a later date”.

Although a final punishment is pending, The Guardian claimed the most likely penalty would be an extended suspension of Lapsley’s clearance to see classified information, which is apparently likely to last a few months instead of weeks.

Security officials in both the UK and the US have been critical of Westminster’s response to the leak and news about Lapsley’s NATO chances.

“It used to be the case that people would be hung out to dry for something like this,” security sources reportedly told The Guardian, adding that the lack of a strong official reprimand would make it harder for government departments to penalise public servants responsible for similar slip-ups in the future.

Meanwhile, senior US Defense Department sources told The Telegraph that “an FBI investigation would ensue” if the situation had played out in the US and warned that the “lack of discipline” taken against Lapsley raised “serious questions about UK-US intelligence”.

"At the very least, the person in question would either be asked to resign, forced to take early retirement or be permanently stripped of his security clearance and redeployed to a role where no security clearance was required."


According to the BBC, the document marked ‘Secret: UK Eyes Only’ had sensitive recommendations for future UK military deployment in Afghanistan once US and NATO operations wound up.

These top-secret documents are printed on pink paper and are not supposed to be taken out of government buildings unless properly logged out and securely stored.

The dossier also revealed high-level British military deliberations about the possible Russian reactions to the HMS ‘Defender’ warship's passage by the coast of Crimea.

The mission – dubbed ‘Op Ditroite’ – ended with Russian forces firing warning shots at the vessel on June 23 after it ignored demands to leave waters off Cape Fiolent, near the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

Last month, UK Defence Minister Ben Wallace told Parliament that an official investigation into the incident had turned up “no evidence of espionage” and concluded that there had been “no compromise of the papers by our adversaries”.

A government spokesman echoed those comments to The Telegraph, but US officials told the paper that “the way [the incident] has been handled does not instill confidence.”

“Why was he even taking such documents out of the building? Obviously, the British are more lax than we are,” they said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×