THE UK Government has been compared to Wayne Rooney’s partner Coleen for plans to catch a Cabinet-level leaker, after those plans were also leaked to the press.
Westminster’s top brass are furious that details of England’s second lockdown were seen by several newspapers before Boris Johnson was able to inform parliament.
In an effort to catch this leaker, the Government is considering giving “different messages to different Cabinet ministers”, the Telegraph reports.
This method, known as a “canary trap”, would then allow Johnson to see who had leaked information to the press based on which version of the information the press publish.
English plans for a second lockdown were given to select right-wing newspapers on October 30, after a meeting chaired by Johnson and attended by just three other Cabinet ministers. These were Rishi Sunak, Michael Gove, and Matt Hancock.
All three of the top Tories deny any wrongdoing. Gove and Hancock had their phones probed as part of the inquiry to find the leaker.
READ MORE: Michael Gove and Matt Hancock have phones searched for probe into lockdown leak
The unknown leaker was accused of “discourteous and unacceptable behaviour” by the speaker of the House of Commons, who also urged Johnson to stick to his promise to go to “great lengths” to uncover their identity.
As part of those “great lengths”, Johnson is reportedly considering the canary trap. This method is striking in its similarity to the one used by Coleen Rooney late last year.
Rooney noticed that stories from her private instagram account were being leaked to the press. To track down the leaker, she began inventing fake stories about her life.
Rooney made sure these fake stories were only visible to a few select accounts, which then allowed her to narrow down her suspects.
On October 9, 2019 Rooney went public, stating that the leaks had been coming from the account of Rebekah Vardy, another footballer’s wife.
After the Government’s plans became known, social media users were quick to note the similarities between the Tories’ strategy and Rooney’s.
This is exactly the same move Coleen Rooney pulled to find out it was Rebekah Vardy. https://t.co/tfa1xJhsjO
— James McManus (@JamesMcManus1) November 8, 2020
However, a key reason Rooney’s strategy was successful was that no-one was aware of what she was doing. In the Government’s case, its tactics to catch a top-level leak have themselves been leaked to the press, which would seem to undermine their efficacy.
Responding to the story on Twitter, Scots satirist Armando Ianucci pointed out that when Bill Clinton tried the "canary trap" strategy, every different version was leaked.
Bill Clinton tried this once. Gave 4 different wordings to 4 different people. All 4 were leaked. https://t.co/7OPjsLBKzR
— Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) November 8, 2020
The inquiry to find Westminster's leak is ongoing.
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