8 FINAL^ Sunday 1 September 2019 The Sunday Telegraph
Politics
Met defends officer who led aide from
By Edward Malnick
SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR
SCOTLAND YARD has defended an
armed officer who escorted a sacked
media adviser to the Chancellor out of
No 10 at the request of Boris Johnson’s
most senior aide.
The Metropolitan Police insisted it
was “standard practice” for visitors to
be accompanied off the premises fol-
lowing meetings in the building.
But former colleagues of Sonia
Khan, 27, said the officer had been
“used” to embarrass a “young female
aide” over a political feud. “Dozens of
visitors leave Downing Street through
the front door without a pass every day
without being escorted,” one former
colleague said.
Stephen Doughty, a Labour member
of the Commons home affairs commit-
tee, said yesterday he would ask Sir
Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary,
and Cressida Dick, the Met Commis-
sioner, to explain whether any proto-
cols or codes of conduct were broken.
Miss Khan was sacked from her post
as adviser to Sajid Javid by Dominic
Cummings, the Prime Minister’s sen-
ior adviser, after a 10-minute meeting.
She was then marched out of thebuilding by an armed policeman who
had been posted outside. The incident
prompted a major row at a daily meet-
ing attended by Mr Javid, Mr Johnson
and Mr Cummings on Friday morning.
The Chancellor, who had no warn-
ing of Miss Khan’s dismissal, is said to
have raised his voice to an “apologetic”
Prime Minister.
Yesterday, Mr Javid declined to pub-
licly discuss “personnel” issues during
an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today
programme and insisted that he had
a “fantastic” relationship with Mr
Johnson.
He denied Labour’s claims that hisauthority had been undermined by Mr
Cummings, saying that the Conserva-
tives’ opponents “will always paint
pictures that they want to exist, but
they’re not really there”.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman
said: “On Thursday, Aug 29, a police of-
ficer stationed at the door of No 10
Downing Street escorted a woman
from the front door to the exit gates as
she did not have a security pass at the
time. This is standard practice if a visi-
tor does not have a pass. The woman
was not arrested.”
However, the statement is at odds
with insiders’ accounts of the even-ing’s events. Sources said that Miss
Khan was escorted from the room and
taken through No 10 to the front door
of the building, and then out to the
back exit from the road.
Miss Khan was fired by Mr Cum-
mings after being confronted over her
contacts with Philip Hammond, her
former boss, and one of his aides.
Earlier this month, No 10 had
blamed a group of rebel Tory MPs led
by Mr Hammond for leaking details of
the Government’s no-deal planning in
Operation Yellowhammer. Mr Ham-
mond denied any involvement.
Yesterday, a friend of Mr Javid said:“Sonia is a Birmingham girl done
good, a proper Brexiteer. Why would
you want to hurt somebody like that
without any evidence? She is a profes-
sional who actually believed in the
cause.”
Miss Khan is the fourth female min-
ister ial aide to be forced out by No 10 in
the four weeks since Mr Johnson took
over as Prime Minister.
One female special adviser lasted
just a fortnight at the Treasury, with
two others moving to Downing Street
with Mr Johnson, before leaving after
three weeks.
There is no suggestion any of theseHENRY NICHOLLS/CHRISTOPHER PLEDGERRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws