MI6 chief and civil service head resign from all-male Garrick Club

Both decide to quit after membership list revealed in Guardian

- Amelia Gentleman

The head of the civil service, Simon Case, and the MI6 chief, Richard Moore, have resigned their memberships of the Garrick Club after intense criticism of their decision to join a club that has repeatedly blocked the admission of women as members.

Both men were revealed as members two days earlier, when the Guardian published the club's closely guarded membership list, which includes judges, senior lawyers, lords, MPs, leaders of publicly funded arts institutions and King Charles.

The decisions by Case and Moore are likely to put pressure on other high-profile members to rethink.

Case, who as cabinet secretary is the leader of half a million civil servants, had faced condemnation for arguing that he had joined the London gentleman's club only in an attempt to overturn its all-male policy. The Cabinet Office confirmed yesterday afternoon that Case had resigned his membership.

It is understood that Moore, the chief of the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, decided to quit the Garrick after internal criticism from colleagues within MI6, which has repeatedly restated its commitment to improving the service's poor record on equality and diversity.

Moore is understood to have written to all MI6 staff twice within the space of 24 hours. The first message, sent to thousands of the service's employees on Tuesday morning, addressed the Guardian's coverage and acknowledged the reputational hit that news of his membership posed to the service, and in particular the risk of it undermining its work to attract more women to join MI6. In that note, he said he would not be resigning because he was campaigning from within the club for women to be allowed to join.

But at 9am yesterday he sent a shorter note to staff saying that on further reflection overnight he had decided to quit the Garrick, the Guardian understands.