Ruth Davidson Twitter 'gaffe' reveals spy chief address

Former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson has unwittingly revealed the Scottish address of a UK spy chief.

Ruth Davidson's Twitter gaffe revealed the address of a spy chief.

In a now-deleted tweet, Ms Davidson responsed to the announcement of the new head of MI5, by making a comment which roughly gave away the Scottish address of his opposite number in MI6.

Ken McCallum, a Glaswegian, was revealed as the new MI5 chief today and Alex Younger of MI6 studied at St Andrew’s University and has retained a flat in Scotland.

In her social media gaffe, Ms Davidson revealed that Mr Younger lived in the “line of sight” of a well known address.

Angus Robertson, the former SNP deputy leader who was a member of Westminster’s intelligence and security committee and who hopes to stand in Ms Davidson’s constituency at the next Holyrood elections, said the tweet was “quite extraordinary and utterly reckless”.

He added: “Why on earth she thought it was a good idea to publicise the home location of the head of MI6 is utterly beyond me. This is an ill-considered act of brash negligence.”

When news of Mr McCallum’s appointment broke, SNP MP Stewart McDonald said on Twitter that MI6 chief Alex Younger had also studied in Scotland.

Ms Davidson responded: “And splits his time between Edinburgh and London” and went on to say his house was “within line-of-sight of” a well-known location.

SNP MP Stewart McDonald replied: “Assuming the bit on his house is meant to be a joke? If not, I’m not sure the head of Mi6 would be overly excited to see the rough whereabouts of his address published.”

A spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives said that Ms Davidson had thought she had sent the message privately and as soon as she realised it was public she “took it down”.

He added: “She feels like a right pillock for this mistake and wishes to apologise very sincerely to Mr Younger.”