Meyer defends his memoirs

The former ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer has accused ministers of double standards as he defended himself against allegations of betraying confidences.

Sir Christopher has been criticised over the newspaper serialisation of his tell-all memoirs.

The Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned the former diplomat for breach of trust, while Lord Heseltine has led calls for him to resign his current post as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. But Sir Christopher yesterday insisted he would not resign, and suggested that politicians were in no position to demand secrecy from civil servants.

Sir Christopher said his book had been cleared for publication by the Cabinet Office without changes. But he suggested he might have gone ahead with publication anyway: "My instinct is publish and be damned, because I do think that there are areas of activity in foreign policy and in government where it is right to shine the light of day."

Retired diplomats and civil servants who criticised him were unaware of the extent to which the rules of the game had changed since Labour came to power, he said. Ministers were now rushing into print with memoirs as soon as they left office, he said.