Politicians electronic vulnerability

GCHQ CAN spy on MPs’ emails and phone calls: ‘Wilson doctrine’ that protected them is not backed up by law, senior judges say

Politicians do not have special protection from having their communications monitored by Britain’s spy agencies, a tribunal has ruled.

In a landmark decision, the Investigatory Powers Tribunal said a convention preventing the interception of MPs’ and peers’ calls and emails was not enforceable in law.

Senior judges said that, while the so-called Wilson Doctrine prevented ‘targeted’ tapping of such communications, it did not bar the ‘incidental’ collection of data by Britain’s listening post GCHQ.

The Wilson Doctrine was introduced in 1966 under Harold Wilson, the then Labour prime minister, to ban the tapping of MPs’ and peers’ phones except in a national emergency. It was later extended to cover emails.