Signal failure: US officials know they 'screwed up' over messaging leaks, says Defence Secretary
26 March 2025, 08:16 | Updated: 26 March 2025, 08:28
US officials "know they have screwed up" and need to answer for the message leaks, Defence Secretary John Healey has said.
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Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast, Mr Healey said the leak was a reminder that extra care should be taken when it comes to the security of communications.
It comes after US national security advisor Mike Waltz invited a journalist to a group chat where top White House officials discussed sensitive war plans.
"When you work in defence, you have to be conscious of security," Mr Healey said. "We have very secure communication channels here at the MoD.
"For me, I spend most of the day without my phone – I work in locations where I have to leave my phone outside – so that takes a bit of getting used to."
Pushed on whether the leak was "incredible buffoonery", Mr Healey said: "It's for the Americans to answer for that - they know they've screwed up and they're having an investigation.
"It's a reminder for all of us that work in this field that foremost in our mind must be the security of the communications that we undertake.
"We take great care in the UK to safeguard that."
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Mr Waltz, who accidentally leaked the plans to the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, said he took "full responsibility" - but also accused the journalist of being "the bottom scum".
The group chat on encrypted app Signal saw him, vice-president JD Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and others discuss secret plans to attack the Houthis in Yemen.
It also featured Vance and Hegseth criticise European countries for relying on the US military, calling them "pathetic".
The extraordinary leak has led to some commentators questioning if officials involved could lose their jobs - but Donald Trump has sought to play it down.
Addressing the remarks, Mr Healey told Nick: "I think the Americans have a point about. It's actually an argument I've been making for nearly four years that European nations in Nato have to do more of the heavy lifting.
"And I think you've seen the UK go into the last election with a unique commitment to increase defence spending, which we're doing three years earlier than anyone thought.
"So we're leading on defence spending, we're leading on European security, we're leading on the support for Ukraine. And this is the challenge the Americans are rightly putting on Europe within Nato.
"Every European nation now recognises that we have to do more. We are and we will. It requires leadership. It requires the sort of leadership that Keir Starmer has been giving and that the UK can provide within Nato. And we will."
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Mr Waltz previously told Fox News: "We made a mistake, we’re moving forward and we’re going to continue to knock it out of the park for this President.”
Asked if an aide could be blamed for the error, Mr Waltz insisted: "A staffer wasn’t responsible. And look, I take full responsibility. I built the group."
Mr Waltz then attacked Mr Goldberg, who is the editor of the Atlantic, a liberal magazine, calling him a “loser” and the “bottom scum of journalists”.
Mr Trump initially told reporters he was not aware that the highly sensitive information had been shared, more than two hours after it was reported. He later appeared to joke about the breach.
Mr Trump on Tuesday in a brief interview downplayed the incident as "the only glitch in two months" of his administration "and it turned out not to be a serious one".
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday said in post on X that no war plans were discussed and that no classified material was sent to the thread".
Ms Leavitt said on Monday the president still has the "utmost confidence" in Mr Waltz and the national security team. Mr Trump told NBC News on Tuesday that Mr Waltz "has learned a lesson, and he's a good man".
Earlier on Monday, Mr Trump told reporters: "I don't know anything about it. You're telling me about it for the first time." He added that The Atlantic was "not much of a magazine".
