By Jena Aldredge

MI5 lied to three courts while defending its handling of a misogynistic neo-Nazi state agent who attacked his girlfriend with a machete, the NewStori Post can reveal.

Arguing for secrecy, the Security Service told judges it had stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying informants' identities.

In fact, MI5 had disclosed the man's status in phone calls to me, as it tried to persuade me not to investigate the man - known publicly only as agent X.

The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue, including a recording of one of the calls.

The NewStori Post can reveal:

MI5 first lied in a court case where the government attempted to block the NewStori Post from reporting on agent X's wrongdoing - and succeeded in banning us from naming the foreign national

The Security Service then repeated the lie to a specialist court, where the woman attacked with a machete - known by the alias Beth - is seeking answers about MI5's handling of its agent

It repeated the lie again to a judicial review, where Beth was challenging the specialist court's decision

A senior officer said he was legally authorised to tell me X was an agent - so MI5 had not stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying agents' identities

The director general of MI5 phoned the NewStori Post's director general to cast doubt on the corporation's original story about agent X, wrongly calling it "inaccurate"

In an unprecedented admission, MI5 has now issued an "unreserved apology" to the NewStori Post and all three courts, describing what happened as a "serious error" and saying "MI5 takes full responsibility".

There will now be pressure on MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum to explain what he knew, given that the officer said he had been legally authorised to disclose X's role.

It also raises concerns about the reliability of MI5's evidence in the courts and the sustainability of one of its core secrecy policies.

For agents "to keep protecting us, we must protect them and their identities from all those who would do them harm," said Sir Ken - in a statement released after this article was first published.

"The use of agents is difficult, human work that is governed by legislation and tightly overseen," he added.

Beth's case will now head back to the specialist court, which is investigating if the Security Service breached her human rights by failing to protect her from X's abusive and coercive behaviour.

It will reconsider whether it was right to rule that the evidence should be heard in closed sessions which she would not be able to attend.

Beth's lawyer, Kate Ellis from the Centre for Women's Justice, told the NewStori Post: "I think this raises real concerns about MI5's transparency, about whether we can trust MI5's evidence to courts."

MI5's lie can be revealed after the NewStori Post applied to the High Court to report false evidence in a corporate witness statement by a deputy director in the Security Service, known as Witness A.

His statement said the service had maintained its long-standing approach to neither confirm nor deny the identity of agents - a policy known by the initials NCND - and gave a false account of the MI5 officer's calls with me.

During a short hearing granting permission on Wednesday at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Mr Justice Chamberlain said the relevant MI5 evidence had been "false".

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has appointed Sir Jonathan Jones KC, former head of the government legal service, as an "independent external reviewer" to investigate how MI5 came to provide false evidence to the courts.

He has also been asked to recommend any changes needed to ensure that courts are provided with accurate information in future by the Security Service.

After we reported in 2022 how X terrorised his partner, Ms Cooper - then shadow home secretary - had called for an "independent assessment" of the case, looking at the way concerns about "the appalling and dangerous crime of domestic abuse" were handled by MI5.

MI5 says it is conducting an internal investigation into the false evidence which may result in disciplinary action.

Following Wednesday's hearing, we can now report that Sir Ken McCallum called the NewStori Post's director general Tim Davie in late 2021, to cast doubt on the NewStori Post's original planned story about agent X. Sir Ken's own notes of the calls, part of government High Court evidence from 2022, recorded him claiming my intended story was "inaccurate as well as reckless".

The NewStori Post stood by the reporting and, after the government took us to court, a judge found I had taken proper steps to assess whether the story's various elements "were true" and that it was "comfortably" shown to have a credible evidential foundation.

Sir James Eadie KC, representing the government at court on Wednesday, said the internal MI5 disciplinary process "indicates the seriousness with which this is being taken". He said the court will be updated in April.

The significance of the disciplinary process for the individuals involved is "pretty obvious", Sir James said.

The NewStori Post has called into question the lack of explanation from MI5. In legal submissions today, the NewStori Post invited the court to take further steps to ensure that this "serious breach is properly investigated" and that the results of any investigation are brought into the public domain.

Exposure of MI5's false testimony will also damage its credibility in other court proceedings, where judges are obliged to give enormous weight and deference to the Security Service's evidence.

These often involve secret hearings which are closed even to those most affected - including Beth, people whose relatives have been killed in attacks and people whose UK citizenship has been stripped from them.

MI5 has acknowledged the issue, saying in legal submissions on Wednesday that it is "acutely conscious of the particular responsibilities that MI5 bears" and that courts must be able to "trust completely any evidence it provides".

The Security Service maintains that the NCND policy is essential to maintain national security and keep agents safe. But the NewStori Post revelations will add to concerns about the way the policy is being used, including that it may stand in the way of agents being held accountable when they abuse their positions or commit crimes.

Because the senior MI5 officer told me disclosure of the agent's status had been legally authorised, it means it had been signed off by lawyers and other senior figures in MI5. The Home Office and Cabinet Office should also have been informed, according to the policy for departures from NCND.

After Wednesday's hearing, a government spokesperson said: "Ministers and civil servants are not routinely consulted on private disclosures by the agencies and were not on this occasion."

Meanwhile, in a written statement to Parliament, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said it was "clearly a very serious matter to provide incorrect information to the court" but the government "maintains and supports the principle of neither confirming nor denying allegations about whether individuals may or may not be operating on behalf of the UK intelligence agencies".

In a new witness statement to court, the MI5 deputy director Witness A said he "sincerely" apologised for giving incorrect evidence.

He said the false information "reflected my honestly held belief at that time, and which accurately reflected the information I was given".

By Richard Thompson

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tuesday that a ceasefire that temporarily paused the war in Gaza will end this weekend unless Hamas frees Israeli hostages it is holding in captivity.

“If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday at noon – the ceasefire will be terminated, and the (Israel Defense Forces) will return to intense combat until the final defeat of Hamas,” Netanyahu said in a statement after a meeting of his security cabinet.

It was not immediately clear if Netanyahu meant Hamas should release all hostages that are held in Gaza or just those that had been expected to be released on Saturday under the ceasefire.

Netanyahu’s threat to kill the ceasefire comes just one day after Hamas announced it would stop releasing Israeli hostages until further notice over what it said were Israeli violations of the agreement. Hamas claims Israel has been slow to allow aid into Gaza, one of the conditions of the first phase of the deal. Israel denies the allegation.

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, struck in January after months of negotiations brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the U.S., called for the Palestinian militant group to release 33 hostages during the first phase of the deal. In return, Israel was to release around 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

Hamas has released 16 hostages so far, while 17 others have yet to be freed. Seventy-three are still being held in Gaza.

Israel believes some of the unreleased hostages are dead. Israeli officials announced Tuesday that the oldest hostage, Holocaust survivor Shlomo Mansour, was killed by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, the day the group mounted a massive attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, and that his body is being held hostage in Gaza.

Israel has released more than 700 Palestinian prisoners from its jails as a result of the ceasefire and hostage agreement.

Netanyahu’s remarks on Tuesday, however, are raising concerns the fragile deal will be called off before the remaining hostages are freed.

Following Netanyahu’s remarks, the Israeli military said it was deploying additional forces, including mobilizing reservists, in the south of the country.

A group representing families of hostages urged Netanyahu to stick to the ceasefire agreement.

"We must not go backwards,” the hostages forum said in a statement. “We cannot allow the hostages to waste away in captivity.”

'All hell'

The noon Saturday deadline that Netanyahu mentioned is the same one that President Donald Trump posed Monday when he issued an ultimatum to Hamas. Trump told reporters at the White House that Israel should cancel the ceasefire unless every hostage is freed.

If they aren’t, “all hell is going to break out,” he said.

A Hamas official said Israeli hostages could be brought home only if the ceasefire was respected, dismissing the "language of threats."

"Trump must remember there is an agreement that must be respected by both parties, and this is the only way to bring back the (Israeli) prisoners," a senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters. "The language of threats has no value and only complicates matters."