Intelligence Corps

Today, my guest, well, we've got a lot to discuss.

So not only is he an intelligence corps veteran, he is an Invictus Games bronze medalist.

He's a co-founder of the UK Afghanistan veterans community.

He's host of his own veterans in politics podcast.

And I think it's probably because of those situations that you've been in at a young age, and then amplify that to when you're in Afghanistan as well.

It's kind of the theme that's followed throughout Afghanistan.

Which kind of brings me on to the next part of your career, which I'm sure we'll touch on, but, well, go into detail on rather, is the Intelligence Corps.

But how did that all come about, right? Because one moment you're with the PWRR, the next moment, what it seems, is the Intelligence Corps.

So I traveled down to Luton Careers Office and, and signed up.

Um, I served five years, um, with Intelligence Corps.

Did three operational tours.

Uh, two to, uh ...

I went through the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

I was sponsored by the Intelligence Corps.

I signed up to fight for the Intelligence Corps for 35 years, and that's what I should still be doing.

As it turns out, um, I was also epileptic, and the British military figured that an epileptic with seizures and a semi-automatic weapon wasn't in the best interest of the country.

[laughs]

I mean, the former recent head of the royal household is the next head of MI5.

The Queen's private secretary, Christopher Gite, was in the Intelligence Corps.

They spent a lot of time visiting MI6 headquarters.

There is actually an MI6.

So what happens is you have a mission that you want, uh, to be not part of the military records, and you want it to be quite literally deniable.

You know, it didn't happen, or as Prime Minister John Major said, "No serving British military personnel on the plane." So the Increment, they recruit from the SAS, the SBS, the Intelligence Corps, and MI6, and they're put together for secret missions, and they kind of formally leave.

So they're almost operating as private contractors, although as I said, it's just a silly blurring of the lines really.

And did you meet any of these people, these men who were part of the Increment and indeed part of this mission?