The Daily Mirror claims that the West Dorset MP had been seen disposing of Governmental papers at a park near to Downing Street, reportedly on five separate occasions. According to the paper Mr Letwin has discarded in excess of 100 papers and although he tore up the documents in an attempt to render them unreadable he obviously did not succeed.
The papers discarded amongst public waste were still legible and included documents regarding Terrorism, National Security and private details of Constituents'. The papers dated from the 27th of July last year to September 30th of this year include five letters from the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC). One such letter shows MP Andrew Tyrie telling Sir Malcolm Rifkind, an ISC chairman, that his committee "failed to get to the truth on UK involvement in rendition" referring to controversial terrorist interrogations.
The Daily Mirror published photos showing Mr Letwin on the verge of dropping these papers into a park bin whilst engaged in a phone conversation and in another scene he seems to be giving papers to a park cleaner holding a bag. Who knows if these papers were the documents referring to Al Qaida links in Pakistan that were reportedly amongst those thrown away so carelessly by the MP.
Labour's shadow Minister Michael Dugher is "alarmed" at reports of Mr Letwin "repeatedly discarding official Government documents - some said to deal with intelligence and counter-terrorism - in a bin in a central London park". Mr Dugher has written to Sir Gus O'Donnell asking for an investigation into the matter and the breach of strict procedures regarding the disposal of Government documents.
Although Downing Street have this morning said that Mr Letwin has promised not to throw official papers in to public bins in future the damage has already been done as even the Prime Minister David Cameron, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Chancellor George Osborne are mentioned in the papers as well as the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office and the NHS.
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