The duties of a close protection officer involve spending interminable hours with a minister's family and acquiring intimate details of their private life, according to a former Metropolitan police bodyguard.
The difficulty of preserving a professional relationship under the pressure of enforced proximity has been the subject of romantic Hollywood thrillers – Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, for example, in The Bodyguard – and tabloid speculation over Princess Diana's love life.
But in reality, says the former protection officer Brian Isdale, very few cross the line or betray confidences. Training for recruits to Scotland Yard's Protection Command (SO1) even includes specific warnings not to identify too closely with the "principals" they are detailed to guard.
"You have to be impartial," said Isdale, a former detective sergeant who worked in Special Branch and as a close protection officer, or bodyguard. He left to set up Envoy Protection, a personal security business, in 2008.
"It's about keeping people safe, it has little to do with politics," he said. "While you are not always best friends with the principal, you do your best. The amount of time and effort spent with someone is extraordinary; you [can] spend more time working with them than you do at home.
"You are thrown together and go to places together. You sit in people's homes, cars and everywhere. You need to know the intimate details of their private life ... [and everyone] in their professional and private life. That allows you to back off and give them space if it's appropriate. That can be as important as protecting them."
Isdale once ran Met training courses. "One of the first things I would say to [new officers] is that you are not leading the life of the people you are protecting. Some people start believing the trappings are for them," he said.
"It's certainly been true of officers on the royal side. It's quite noticeable; they start to adopt the mannerisms of those they are protecting. It's known as 'red carpet fever'. It can happen, though most experienced protection officers guard against that."
Isdale said he did not know Alan Johnson's former personal bodyguard, who is alleged to have had an affair with Johnson's wife. But he said: "It's a lonely occupation being a minister's wife and it's lonely being a close protection officer.
"You are thrown very close together with people on occasions when it's just you and them and it certainly presents many opportunities to get closer than most.
"The foundation and basis of good close protection is down to getting on with people and good people skills. And sometimes you do get on."
The relationship does not always blossom. "Government ministers and protection officers work long hours and they [sometimes] don't gel as much as they want to. I have seen officers asking for transfers and principals saying 'this guy is not gelling with me or the family' and they ask for a move. It's normally done with no malice and everyone accepts it as part of the profession."
With the rise of terrorist threats, the number of police cars ferrying armed officers across London from the Met's Diplomatic Protection Group and Specialist Protection squads has grown.
"You work with [ministers and diplomats] from the moment they leave in the morning until they go to bed," Isdale said. "Then you hand over to those working the night shift. Often, with ministers, you are talking about armed police officers and it makes sense to have them working in pairs."
Bodyguards can find themselves working for ministers one day and then their political opponents the next if there is a change of government. "It's like the civil service," Isdale said. "For example at No 10, the outgoing prime minister leaves behind a lot of people who know how the place works so that it can run smoothly."
