The Dozen with Liam Tuffs
Ex-MI6 Agent REVEALS What He Really Saw Inside British Intelligence
29 May 2026
Chapter 1: What experiences led to the guest's involvement with MI6?
Secret service specialised in kidnap and ransom.
We're always taught never get into a vehicle. When you've got armed people around you, believe me, you're going to get into that vehicle.
You were falsely imprisoned and interrogated. Did you just say torture?
My fingers were cut, beatings, had a pool cue inserted up my rectum. Alcohol doesn't solve PTSD.
Who are these people that kidnapped you and raped you with a pool cue? Norman. Liam. Thanks for coming on.
It's a pleasure.
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Chapter 2: What shocking events did the guest endure during his missions?
Thanks for having me.
Secret Service, 16 years. Yes. Specialised in kidnap and ransom. Yes. Lots to unpack. Before we get into the nuts and bolts of your story. Just give my audience your origins and your credentials so they know that you are the man for the job to deliver what you're just about to.
Sure. It goes back to when I was 16 years of age, which is quite an unusual age to be involved in this type of business. But kind of long story short, I joined a youth training scheme and I ended up working for a firm of political risk brokers, specialist credit and political risk brokers.
I then moved into war terrorism and political violence, and they were the largest specialist broker and consultancy in the world in that particular market. Unfortunately, I went through a personal crisis. My wife passed away when I was 26 years of age. I lost my wife and child. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go from there because I'd been in political risk for a very long time.
I'd worked with several government departments, such as the Export Credit Guarantee Department and various other government departments. So MI5 had come to me a few years prior. My wife had warned me against that. She had concerns. And this was before, you know, she'd passed away, obviously. And I just thought, OK, I'll give it a miss.
But once she'd passed away, things were a bit different because I didn't want to continue in the type of work I was doing. So I started doing stuff with MI5, going through the process. But the job they offered me was mobile surveillance. And I was a risk guy. I'd been in that business for 10 years.
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Chapter 3: How does MI6 differ from MI5 in their operations?
So it didn't really make sense, Liam, to be honest with you. So what then happened was MI6 came along and said, we've got a position. Would you be interested in doing this? So I joined as an agent. Now, There's a difference between an agent and an intelligence officer, and there's a distinct difference, and many people get this confused.
And I think if an intelligence officer was here, they would probably agree with me that they don't tend to take the risk. What tends to happen is the intelligence officer is recruited, they're employed, they are a government member of staff. They will then be responsible for recruiting agents who will go out and get the information for them. The agent is not employed.
They're an agent and they build and manage those networks across the world.
So what was your, and I'm very sorry to hear about your wife. Thank you. Very sorry. What was your wife's concern about MI5 and then what did MI6 ask you to do?
Yeah, my wife's concern really was pretty much what a lot of the public have. It's secretive, it's cloak and dagger, I'm a bit worried. So she had security concerns. And that came from a lack of understanding. When you actually understand what the Secret Service does, if I was to take you around Secret Services and show you the various departments, you would be proud to be British.
That's reassuring.
I can tell you that now. You'd be proud to be British. You would walk out of that building... And you would say I had no idea because there's a massive misconception about what the secret services actually do. The primary reason they're established, it's not about we're running around doing things that are all cloak and dagger. That's not what we're doing.
What we're doing is we're gathering intelligence. We just don't want you to know how we're gathering that intelligence so it can't be replicated. But the intelligence we're gathering is to protect society. MI5 is gathering intelligence to protect the UK. Right. MI6 is gathering intelligence to protect our way of life in the United Kingdom. And we're gathering that intelligence from overseas.
So typically MI6 will be overseas. MI5 will be UK. So what they were asking me to do is I came from a special risk background. So I was dealing daily with war, terrorism, political violence, kidnap for ransom, that kind of stuff. They knew that. I was also doing some stuff for special forces, which was intelligence on markets that they may well be operating in.
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Chapter 4: What role does the insurance industry play in intelligence gathering?
And then somebody's been rang and says, well, if you don't do this, we're going to do that. And that happens all the time. Now, does it happen at high level? Yeah, I've seen claims of executives that have had to put a claim in and we've had to activate stuff to protect them.
Chapter 5: How does the guest view the impact of political corruption on intelligence?
So, yes, it does happen. Is it frequent? Again, I go by how many policies do we sell and are the premiums increasing? And if the answer is we're selling more policies and the premiums are increasing, then I can safely assume that the risk is increasing. So it does happen. Is it likely to happen, for instance, with a senior figure that had real influential power? Unlikely.
I'm not saying it won't, but it's unlikely. One of the things we specialize in and what I specialize in is risk management. So my clients, for instance, on the private side, not on the government side, I would sit down with them and I would go through the do's and the don'ts. So we control the risk before it happens. Don't get yourself exposed by doing this, by doing that.
If something happens and somebody blackmails you, you come to me straight away and we'll deal with it. And the best way to deal with blackmail is to not have blackmail in the first place. Have something they can't blackmail you over.
Behave yourselves.
Yeah, exactly. And the worst thing you can do is sometimes, depending on what it is, is try and cover it up.
You think the best way is just to own it?
The best way is to own it. Honesty is the best policy. You know, you see people all the time and, you know, you get... they call PR companies and PR companies will put a spin on something. And then you see it drags on and drags on and drags on. I could probably close that off in an afternoon by issuing an honest statement.
Because if you've genuinely made a mistake, providing it's not something horrific, you know, where people have been harmed in some way, then the public will generally respect honesty than somebody who tries to spin a yarn and then subsequently drag it out over a period of time.
What's the biggest lie? that the British public has been fed about how intelligence agencies actually work.
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Chapter 6: How does the guest describe the relationship between MI6 and big business?
So for instance, you've heard of a butterfly knife.
Yes.
A butterfly knife is illegal in the UK. It's a prohibited weapon. A switchblade, where you press the button and the blade comes out, is a prohibited weapon.
self-contained gas cartridges because you can adapt them and very easily make them firearms they're illegal and that's what they thought i had now that carries a sentence of five years per weapon right and i had four so 20-year stretch if they wanted to penalize me for all of it I'm there arguing, not arguing with the judge, but I'm sort of saying, Your Honour, I've got the receipts.
But anyway, I was remanded in custody. So that was the first time. And it took two years. Cut a long story short, it took two years to sort it out. I was fortunate enough to get judge in chambers, which is where you apply to get off remand. And I was taken off remand after a period of time. How long was you on remand for? It was just over two weeks originally. But of course, when I came out,
Business has gone because it's not long been set up. Two weeks makes a big difference when you're trying to set up a business. There was all kinds of issues because of the charge. And don't forget, the conviction hadn't been, well, not the conviction, but the charge hadn't been wiped off. They were still charging me with this. And it went on for two years.
In the end, I said to the judge, went to a hearing, and I says, look, I've got the guns. Here's the receipt. The police haven't been to where I bought the guns. If I had a legal gun, surely they would get raided and shut down. So the judge said, okay, well, let's have an independent report. At that point, the police produced a report, says, oh, sorry, we found this.
They had it 16 days after my arrest, which shows that you could buy the guns anywhere, you know, in the UK. So effectively, because it goes through the Crown Court, it shows as a charge. So the judge quashed those charges out, but it took two years. So that was the false imprisonment side of it. On the torture side of it, it was 2001. I hadn't really been in the role that long.
I had a few years' experience. Did you just say torture? Yeah, yeah. And what happened was I was going into a certain market, and the route going into that market had been sorted out for me. So I arrived in one market, I went into another market, and I was there to get the information and come home. But the mistake that happened was where the return flights were going.
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Chapter 7: What are the primary threats that MI6 is currently focused on?
When he drops me off, he always just hangs around for a bit and just makes sure things are all right. And he saw the people approach me, saw me get in the car, knew something was wrong, raised the alarm.
And who were the people?
The people were, they worked for the government of that territory.
But we can't mention the territory.
But I'm not allowed to. I can tell you off camera, but I'm not allowed to.
I mean, that's outrageous what they can do to you. And that's all above board and legal.
Well, it's not supposed to be legal.
No, but they've got clearance to do that.
I assume they have clearance to do it in their country. I don't know. I wasn't planning on staying around long enough to find out. But if you look at other countries and stories in the press... of similar situations that Western countries, let's be honest about it, have been involved with, where they have created centres where they've detained people.
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