Patten under investigation

Patten Suspected of Leaking Secrets

The Minister Without Portfolio, Peter Mandelson, said he did not know whether Mr Patten would be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act.

"All I know is that the issue - the matter, rather than the individual - is under investigation by the authorities," Mr Mandelson told the BBC. "That will be done in a proper, objective and authoritative way."

Mandelson confirmed Patten investigation

Authorities "have no alternative but to investigate...."

Lord Steel on the Today programme: "It is a very bizarre story" Dur: 3'40"

Mr Patten is on holiday and has not responded to the allegations.

The Foreign Office is saying it has no comment to make, but on Sunday senior Whitehall sources confirmed that an investigation was under way into whether intelligence reports were passed to the journalist, Jonathan Dimbleby, while he was writing his book on the handover of Hong Kong to China. The journalist and broadcaster has said that he won't discuss his sources.

It is thought that MI6 is involved in the inquiry because the alleged leak relates to sensitive intelligence material.

Sources have confirmed that Mr Patten requested a large number of classifed documents relating to the 1980s while he was governor.

Journalist Jonathan Dimbleby is said to have received intelligence reports

The investigation is said to have been launched after the Sunday Times published extracts from Mr Dimbleby's book, The Last Governor, on Mr Patten's five-year term in office. The extracts revealed Mr Patten's frustration at London's failure to introduce direct elections in Hong Kong from 1988. It was claimed this could have paved the way for a democratic administration to be in place by the time the territory was handed over to Beijing.

There has been longstanding antagonism between certain sections of the Foreign Office and Mr Pattern over his stance on the democratisation of Hong Kong before the handover. Sunday's disclosure is likely to fuel suspicions among friends of the former governor that this is no more than an attempt to smear him.