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A couple of questions now remain. Who leaked these emails to Staines in the first place and is this really the end of McBride as a Labor aide?
We will probably never know the answer to the first. As for the second, look at the record. Alastair Campbell now routinely boasts he is in regular contact with Gordon Brown, while Charlie Whelan, in his new role as head of press at the union Unite, is well and truly back and was even copied in to the emails between McBride and Draper.
THE MOLE: MCBRIDEGATE
FIRST POSTED APRIL 12, 2009
Top Terror Cop Resigns
Some Dare Call It Treason
Bob Quick fiasco - police were 'several weeks' away from plot
The full extent of the damage caused when the Met police's anti-terror chief Bob Quick allowed secret documents to be photographed by the press is emerging, with security sources saying intelligence services may still have been "several weeks" away from breaking a suspected plot to carry out bomb attacks in the UK when they were forced to make arrests. It is thought that some of those arrested had been let into the UK from Pakistan under surveillance. (Independent on Sunday)
The Mole: Mayor Boris Johnson steals credit for Bob Quick's departure
Mayor Boris Johnson steals credit for Bob Quick’s departure
Boris Johnson lost little time getting himself onto the Today programme this morning to talk about Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick's resignation. One could have been forgiven for thinking the London mayor was in the lead on all this. But not so.
In fact, it appears that, not for the first time, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is well and truly fed up with the mayor over his behaviour in relation to something that was primarily a decision for her and, most importantly, the Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson.
Technically, it is to the Met Police Authority - led by Johnson as mayor - that Quick offered his resignation last night following the fiasco he began by strolling into Downing Street clutching a top secret operational document, available for all to read.
But the wheels had been put in motion yesterday afternoon when Quick met Smith and they agreed his position was untenable. It was then a matter of going through the correct procedures, with the ultimate responsibility falling to Sir Paul.
Yet a breathless Boris suddenly popped up on Today to 'steal' the headlines by saying he had accepted the resignation. Numerous media interviews then followed. Smith, it is fair to say, was not happy.
Meanwhile shadow home secretary Chris Grayling was all over the media admitting there had been "issues" between Quick and the Conservative party ever since last year's controversial Damian Green arrest, which Quick had authorized. At one stage, following a story in the Mail on Sunday about his wife Judith running a wedding car service from their home, Quick suggested there was a Tory dirty tricks campaign against him, but he later retracted the allegation.
Nonetheless, Grayling insisted these "issues" had not affected his view of Quick and he went on to say it was not up to him to demand the cop's resignation.
