Lord Evans of Weardale: Lord Speaker's Corner

Lord Speaker’s Corner returns for a new Parliament and Lord McFall of Alcluith’s first guest is former Director General of MI5 and Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Jonathan Evans, Lord Evans of Weardale.

‘MI5 in those days was very secretive, had a very low public profile… it was only on day two of my initial training course that I realised I'd actually joined MI5.’

In this episode, hear from Lord Evans about his experience at MI5, including his work in Northern Ireland and later tackling the threat from Al-Qaeda. You can also hear about his role as head of the Service at a time it was increasingly opening up while confronting new challenges.

‘We are faced with an increasing alignment between states that are hostile to our values and, in some cases, are actively war fighting in Europe… it's extremely important that we are as integrated in our response.’

Lord Evans also explains how threats have changed since he joined MI5, the importance of the UK’s international relationships for security and the impact of countries such as China, Iran and Russia.

‘I think the fact that we are operating in so many countries demonstrates that conflict is one of the big drivers of problems in the world, one of the biggest humanitarian challenges in the world.’

Lord Evans is the Chair of the HALO Trust and shares his thoughts on the work the charity does and why it is important, explaining that ‘communities impacted by conflict can't rebuild’ without support.

Lord Evans also reflects on his work in ethics as the former Chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life under previous prime ministers: ‘There may be a short-term advantage in bending the rules, but there's a long-term advantage in being seen to be acting with integrity.’

 See more from the series https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/house-of-lords-podcast/ 

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