Donald Trump’s top team have been dubbed “unbelievably stupid” by Gordon Brown’s former national security adviser after a journalist was mistakenly added to a group chat outlining plans to strike the Houthis in Yemen.
Lord West of Spithead, a retired admiral of the Royal Navy, told The Independent the incident was “absolutely extraordinary”, while former defence secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind described the incident as an “appalling breach of security”.
After the breach was exposed, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged the government to “comprehensively review our intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US”.
However, both Sir Malcolm and Lord West dismissed such an approach, with the former warning it would be “an overreaction on this particular event”.
It comes after senior officials in the Trump administration, including national security adviser Mike Waltz, defence secretary Pete Hegseth, and vice president JD Vance, reportedly discussed a highly sensitive operation aimed at targeting Houthi positions in Yemen in a Signal group chat to which The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was added by mistake.
The US carried out a series of air strikes against the rebel Houthi militant group on March 15 following continued attacks on shipping in the Red Sea – an operation in which the UK provided air-to-air refuelling support.
According to The Atlantic, officials had used emojis including a fist, an American flag, and fire to respond to the strikes, which the Houthi-run Yemeni health ministry said killed at least 53 people.
Lord West told The Independent: “I find it absolutely extraordinary… I think it was unbelievably stupid. I’m sure that the American intelligence agencies are apologising to us about this. I think it shows a rather stupid attitude to intelligence by those ministers involved.”
But he warned the UK shouldn’t “wreck the intelligence relationship” with the US, adding that a review of the situation would “just be stupid”, given the important of the transatlantic partnership.
“The intelligence links between our two countries are hugely close. Looking historically, they gave us a hard time when we made the odd mistake on security. So ever since WikiLeaks happened, they’ve been hiding their head in shame.
“And now it seems that they make more mistakes than we do. But that doesn’t mean that you should wreck the intelligence relationship because of it”, he said.
He added: “I think some of the things that were said were crass. They were like a bunch of schoolboys. I expect squaddies to be sending things to each other like that, not senior people.”
Meanwhile, Sir Ed said Mr Trump’s White House “can’t be trusted to take even the most basic steps to keep its own intelligence safe”.
“Their fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach to security means it could only be a matter of time until our own intelligence shared with them is also leaked. This could put British lives at risk.
“As a matter of urgency, the government must comprehensively review our intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US”, he said.
Downing Street said it retained confidence that any UK intelligence shared with the US was being handled appropriately.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “The US is our closest ally when it comes to matters of defence, we have a long-standing relationship on intelligence and defence co-operation.”
While there have been growing calls for Mike Waltz, who reportedly started the group chat, to resign, President Trump gave the security adviser his backing.
He denied any knowledge of the breach and a White House spokeswoman said the president retained “utmost confidence” in his national security team.
Signal chats are encrypted, but are not approved by the US government for discussion of classified material.
The US National Security Council said the group chat “appears to be authentic”, adding it was investigating how Mr Goldberg came to be included.