Neil Heywood 'was MI6 informant' Mr Heywood was perfectly placed to be of use to MI6. He had been a member of Mr Bo's inner circle for many years as the Chinese politician rose up through the Communist party. Clockwise from top left: Gu Kailai, her husband Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, the Chongqing police chief, and Neil Heywood He helped the family with all sorts of requests, especially in their dealings in the UK. One friend described him as a "sort of butler," another as a "bag man." He parlayed his access to Mr Bo into a career, earning retainers from the likes of Aston Martin and Hakluyt, the corporate intelligence company, as well as other firms keen to do business in Chongqing and who wanted a connection to the city's leader. Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, who was convicted earlier this year of murdering the Briton, was his daughter's godmother. According to the former police chief of Chongqing, Mrs Gu said she had "killed a spy" at the time of Mr Heywood's death. Mr Heywood's ties to the family had become increasingly distant as Mr Bo moved closer to the top table of Chinese politics: the Politburo Standing Committee. The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr Heywood had not met with Mr Bo for a year before his death. In the knowledge that his relationship might have been drawing to a close, he had asked the Bo's for money, a final pay-off, according to two of his friends. And when he was summoned to Chongqing on November 13 last year, he was nervous about how a meeting might unfold. He was found dead in a hotel room in the city shortly afterwards. Nevertheless, the Chinese investigators struggled to pin down a firm motive for his murder, first suggesting that Mr Heywood had threatened to expose the flow of Bo family cash overseas and then switching tack to suggest he had kidnapped and threatened Mr Bo's son, Guagua, after a property deal turned sour. The revelation that he may have been an MI6 informant also has implications for the Chinese authorities, who are likely to have been watching Mr Heywood, and tailing him in Chongqing, if they were aware that he was providing information to the intelligence services.