OPPOSITION parties last night demanded that the new head of MI6 continues to be genuinely independent after confirmation that Sir Richard Dearlove will step down from the post next year.

With the succession process under way, and the frontrunner rumoured to be a contemporary of Tony Blair at Oxford University, the Tories said that the tradition of impartiality at the top of the intelligence agency must be maintained.

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative homeland security spokesman, said it was essential that Sir Richard’s successor was a fully independent figure. “Sir Richard Dearlove has been a highly competent and principled MI6 chief. He will be missed as the war on terrorism proceeds and I trust his successor will follow as independent and analytical line as he has,” Mr Mercer said.

“I very much hope that the new head of MI6 hasn’t shared a flat or played in the same band as Tony Blair.”

The Foreign Office denied reports that Sir Richard, 58, was retiring early because of the row over the use of intelligence in the Government’s case for war with Iraq.

It said that his departure was as previously arranged and “in no way connected to events relating to Iraq”.

Almost all of Sir Richard’s recent predecessors had served for no more than five years, a spokesman said.

However, with the dispute over the Iraq dossier still raging, Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, pointed to strains between the intelligence services and ministers. “There is no doubt that there has been considerable tension between the security services and 10 Downing Street which dates back long before the present controversy,” he said.

“In order to re-establish a proper relationship, it is almost certainly necessary for the head of MI6 to go. Sir Richard Dearlove, who has been a distinguished public servant, is taking the honourable way out.”

Sir Richard was recently reported to have appointed a deputy chief, a move which signals that a successor is already being groomed. Although it is not necessarily automatic for the deputy to succeed the head, this is what has happened in recent years. Sir Richard was appointed assistant chief by Sir David Spedding, his predecessor, in the year before he retired.

The new head of MI6 will be appointed by Mr Blair, after advice from Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary. Under the traditional procedure, candidates can be considered from both within and outside MI6. It is also possible for people to put forward their own names.

Sir Richard’s deputy is a career intelligence officer who has served in Asia and been closely involved in monitoring intelligence on weapons of mass destruction, including in Iraq. He cannot be named unless he is officially appointed as the new chief.

The head of MI6, also known as “C”, and his service provided the information from an Iraqi military source that Saddam Hussein’s troops would be able to launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes of an order.

Sir Richard approved the wording and agreed that it represented the latest intelligence on Iraq’s weapons capability. He has also been very supportive of the Prime Minister and Alastair Campbell, his director of communications, in their row with the BBC after a reporter alleged that No 10 had “sexed up” the dossier.

But senior ministers have admitted that there was considerable resistance within the intelligence community to Sir Richard’s decision to make the material available, not because it posed a security risk but because it could easily be misinterpreted by the public.

Sir Richard helped to draw closer links between British and American intelligence agencies and developed operational co-operation between MI6 and the SAS.

It was the work of MI6 officers and the SAS in southern Iraq that helped to bring about the fall of Basra. Through contacts in the city, MI6 was able to pinpoint key Baathist strongholds, which enabled the SAS to mount sabotage attacks before 7th Armoured Brigade took control.

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