Ed Davey ‘turned down James Bond job’ while studying at Oxford

The Liberal Democrats leader said he was approached by MI6 while at Jesus College in Turl Street.

Sir Ed, who The Telegraph said was “more Benny Hill than James Bond” due to his election campaign stunts, received a tap on the shoulder but refused the offer.

Years ago, a simple tap on the shoulder was the clandestine way that MI6 chose to recruit before formal applications were brought it.

READ MORE: New town planned around RAF base with 2,700 new homes

MI5 and MI6 would often target students at Oxford or Cambridge with the tap in a bid to find a spy.

Among those who claim they were once tapped include Richard Osman at Cambridge and Roald Dhal who went on to work as an intelligence officer and spy for MI6.

Sir Ed told the Walking the Dog podcast that he declined the offer believing he would have made a “very bad spy”.

He said: “I applied for the Civil Service and they [MI6] sent me this letter out of the blue, saying there were some positions open in the Civil Service that weren’t open to competition and we’d like you to apply.

“I went and you had to tell them the inside leg measurement of your great aunt with all these sort of background checks.

Liberal Democrats leader Sir Ed Davey before he tries his hand at hobby horsing during the launch (Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire)

“And then I went to an interview. He said before we go any further I’d have to sign the Official Secrets Act, so I did.

“He said, you’ve probably guessed this is for the Secret Service and he told me what we’d do, how I’d learn to be a spy. You’d learn languages, all that sort of training.

“There’s a joke about ‘007 Davey’ but I don’t labour that point, I probably would be a very bad spy.”

He said the life of a spy “wasn’t attracting me” having said he “possibly” could tell his wife or girlfriend about being a spy.

“I like James Bond films and all that, but I realised it wasn’t like that,” the senior politician added.

Sir Ed was studying politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) at Jesus College in the late 1980s when he was approached.

In 2021, MI5 director general Ken McCallum said that “no one is chosen” for spy roles any more.

Instead, “everyone applies”, indicating that the traditional shoulder-tapping recruitment method is a thing of the past, The Telegraph reports.

St Antony’s, a graduate college in North Oxford, became notorious during the Cold War as a “spy college” for its focus on Soviet affairs and rumours of high levels of recruitment.

Nigella Lawson was also allegedly approached by MI5 following her graduation from Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford, but was warned against it by her dad.