Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth content for Sir Mark Allen to sit on the board

A St John’s Wood hospital has not taken any action after it emerged that under-fire ex-MI6 director Sir Mark Allen sits on its board.

Recent reports have linked the former director of counter-terrorism with documents suggesting that Britain was complicit in the rendition of people to Libya where they were tortured under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

A spokesman at the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth confirmed that Sir Mark remained on the board of directors but declined to comment further.

The board met on Tuesday night but the Wood&Vale understands the issue of Sir Mark’s position was not discussed.

Documents believed to be from Sir Mark were found in Tripoli earlier this month. They suggested that MI6 was compliant with Libya’s torture techniques and information gained by the country’s secret police through torture was shared with MI6. The ex-spy, who left MI6 in 2004 to work for BP, is known to have had close links with Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam who has a house in Hampstead Garden Suburb.

Sir Mark also sits on the London School of Economics’ advisory board.

Concerns

He was a key figure in negotiations which led to Colonel Gaddafi surrendering weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

But the plaudits he received for his work have recently been overshadowed by the revelations of a close link to Libyan intelligence.

Questions have been raised about his suitably as a senior figurehead for the hospital.

An anonymous source told the Wood&Vale: “He’s on the board of the hospital and that does raise concerns that someone on the board of a hospital could have been involved in torture.”