Inquiry Found MI5 Failed to Act on Agent X Warnings but Agency Later Changed Policies and Paid Compensation

A secret inquiry by the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office concluded there were serious failings in MI5’s management of Agent X, BBC News reported. The inspection, which concluded in 2024, found strong indications of Agent X’s interest in violence, including video footage of him threatening his girlfriend with a machete.

MI5 did not review his suitability as an agent after seeing the footage.

IPCO stated that Agent X was openly misogynistic with his handlers and that they knew he was involved with a pick-up artistry movement that seeks to exploit women for sex. MI5 knew Agent X was obsessed with violence because he told them, and there were indications he might be a threat to others arising from his general interest in extreme violence.

IPCO found a lack of sufficient professional curiosity about Agent X by MI5.

The watchdog required MI5 to take action to address the identified failings. MI5 subsequently made significant changes to its policies, practices and procedures. During the inspection MI5 misled IPCO about having maintained its core neither-confirm-nor-deny secrecy policy on Agent X’s status during conversations with the BBC.

In 2020 MI5 told the BBC that Agent X was an agent during early attempts to prevent the BBC investigating him. MI5 also gave false evidence to three courts regarding its secrecy policy on Agent X. A further IPCO investigation into the false evidence is due to report to the prime minister imminently.

IPCO found nothing in case records to suggest MI5 was aware of any sinister motivation by Agent X for becoming an agent. An internal MI5 document records the head of the team that managed Agent X stating that the whole case had been a disaster and that they should not have touched him as a covert human intelligence source.