BY THE end of her 29 months as Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam appeared to be so chummy with Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams that Unionists were complaining publicly and her own officials were voicing concern.

The extraordinary transcript of her telephone conversation with Mr McGuinness in an evening call to Hillsborough Castle on July 18, 1999, will confirm many of their worst suspicions.

Dr Mowlam’s “kiss and hug” approach had annoyed David Trimble so much that only a month before he had called for Dr Mowlam to be replaced. In her autobiography, Momentum, she barely bothered to hide her admiration for Mr McGuinness, of Sinn Fein, and referred to him and Mr Adams as “serious, committed human beings” with whom to negotiate.

But her closeness with the man once labelled “Britain’s No 1 terrorist” went far beyond this, according to transcripts of bugged telephone conversations published this week by the authors Liam Clarke and Kathryn Johnston in a revised biography of the Sinn Fein MP, Martin McGuinness: From Guns to Government.

In the call, made three days after an attempt to form an executive at Stormont had collapsed because of the deadlock over IRA decommissioning, the Northern Ireland Secretary told Mr McGuinness of her plans to become a thorn in Tony Blair’s side if he sacked her, but that she was fighting “like f***” to stay. After discussing their separate holiday plans the two said farewell in the language of old friends. Dr Mowlam called Mr McGuinness “babe” and the Sinn Fein MP told her “God Bless”. The transcripts reveal a cosiness between Dr Mowlam and Mr McGuinness that will enrage Unionists and raise fresh questions about her judgment.

At the time she would have been receiving regular intelligence briefings indicating that he was a leading member of the IRA’s ruling body, its Army Council. She was well aware that the conversations were being listened to, having signed warrants authorising the intercepts, which are believed to have started in the summer of 1997.

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