The wife of Britain’s new’s MI6 foreign intelligence chief, Sir John Sawers, published intimate photos and family details on Facebook.

And the security breach isn’t the worst thing about this story — because her entries on Facebook also revealed that Sawers’ brother-in-law is a friend of notorious Holocaust denier David Irving.

Lady Shelley Sawers’ extraordinary lapse exposed the couple’s friendships with senior diplomats and well-known actors, including Moir Leslie, who plays a leading character in The Archers. And it revealed that the intelligence chief’s brother-in-law - who holidayed with him last month - is an associate of the controversial Right-wing historian David Irving.

Immediately after The Mail on Sunday alerted the Foreign Office to the astonishing misjudgment, all trace of the material – which could potentially be useful to hostile foreign powers or terrorists - was removed from the internet.