NEW rules are needed to give diplomats the same rights as politicians to reveal all after leaving office, the former ambassador under fire for his own memoir said yesterday.

Sir Christopher Meyer attacked his critics, including Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, over the newspaper serialisation of his book about his time as British Ambassador in Washington. Instead of civil servants being ordered to stay silent, Sir Christopher said that there should be new rules to improve their rights to tell all.

“I would like to see a new dispensation with clarity, and above all consistency, across the board on these issues,” Sir Christopher said on the BBC Sunday AM programme. It was unfair that politicians could write memoirs as soon as they left office, many revealing intimacies about civil servants who were still in posts.

“I think, against the background of a slew of books either by ministers or special advisers, civil servants are now at a disadvantage,” he said.

Sir Christopher, now chairman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), had warded off criticism that he was profiteering from his memoir by announcing he was giving the money from newspaper serialisation to charity.

However, he conceded yesterday that the estimated fees of nearly £300,000 were largely being given to a charity called Pact, run by his wife, Catherine. The deal had been agreed by the Press Standards Board of Finance, which oversees the PCC, he said.

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