Mitt Romney made another gaffe on his London trip Thursday by acknowledging he met with the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, according to reports. 
 
 Romney’s meeting with MI6 head Sir John Sawers was not on the Republican’s public schedule — and Romney made a major blunder by revealing it, CBS News and The Guardian reported. 
 
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 (Also on POLITICO: No gold medal for Mitt from British press) 
 
 “I can only say that I appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6 as we discussed Syria and the hope for a more peaceful future for that country,” Romney told reporters at a press conference Thursday. 
 
 Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office told CBS News that “Sir John Sawers meets many people, but we don’t give a running commentary on any of these private meetings.” 
 
 (See also PHOTOS: Romney in UK) 
 
 As The Guardian pointed out, MI6 was not officially acknowledged until 1994. “For our American readership, this isn’t like bragging you just met David Petraeus. The British take on the national secret intelligence service comes with an extra-heavy dollop of the whole secret thing,” the Guardian’s Tom McCarthy wrote. ||||| Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney walks out of 10 Downing Street after meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron in London, Thursday, July 26, 2012. / AP Photo/Charles Dharapak 
 
 (CBS News) Mitt Romney gave an update Thursday on his meetings during the first day of his London trip, including some details that, apparently, are usually kept under wraps. 
 
 A meeting with Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency, was not on Romney's public schedule and didn't come to light until he shared it with the world at a news conference Thursday. 
 
 (Watch Romney's comment in the video to the left.) 
 
 "I can only say that I appreciated the insights and perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6," he said following a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron at 10 Downing Street. "[W]e discussed Syria and the hope for a more peaceful future for that country." 
 
 Interestingly, when asked for comment, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which handles press for MI6, wouldn't acknowledge the meeting, "Sir John Sawers meets many people, but we don't give a running commentary on any of these private meetings." 
 
 The British press suggested that Romney slipped up by talking about the meeting, suggesting that intelligence-related meetings are usually not discussed publicly. When asked for reaction, a Romney senior policy official said he didn't have a reaction and that Romney's "said all he'll say on that." 
 
 ||||| Mitt Romney handed Barack Obama a potential gift for the US presidential election campaign when the presumptive Republican nominee blundered on his first diplomatic outing by questioning whether London was capable of staging a successful Olympic Games. 
 
 In a move that astonished Downing Street, hours before it laid on a special reception for Romney at No 10, he told NBC there were "disconcerting" signs about the preparations for the Games. One senior Whitehall source said: "What a total shocker. We are speechless." 
 
 David Cameron wasted no time in rebuking Romney hours after his remarks were broadcast. On a visit to the Olympic Park, the prime minister said: "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities in the world. Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." 
 
 Cameron's remarks were intended to be a light-hearted jibe at Romney, who used his famous management skills honed at Bain Capital to rescue the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. 
 
 Boris Johnson, the London mayor, joined in the jibes at a celebration to greet the Olympic torch in Hyde Park. "I hear there's a guy called Mitt Romney who wants to know whether we're ready," Johnson yelled from the stage to a cheering crowd. 
 
 "He wants to know whether we're ready. Are we ready? Are we ready? Yes, we are." 
 
 Romney rowed back after a 45-minute meeting in Downing Street where the prime minister expressed his unease about his remarks. "I am very delighted with the prospects of a highly successful Olympic Games. What I have seen shows imagination and forethought and a lot of organisation and [I] expect the Games to be highly successful," he said. 
 
 When asked about the preparations for the Olympics in an interview on Wednesday night with the NBC anchor Brian Williams, Romney said: "There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the private security firm not having enough people, supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging. Because there are three parts that makes Games successful. 
 
 "Number one, of course, are the athletes. That's what overwhelmingly the Games are about. Number two are the volunteers. And they'll have great volunteers here. But number three are the people of the country. Do they come together and celebrate the Olympic moment? And that's something which we only find out once the Games actually begin." 
 
 In Washington, Democrats pounced on the comments. Harry Reid, the majority leader in the Senate, said they were an embarassment for the US. "It's not good for us as a country – it's not good for him – but as a country to have somebody that's nominated by one of the principal parties to go over and insult everybody," Reid told the Huffington Post. 
 
 Romney's campaign team set up a conference call with US reporters in an attempt to limit the damage from the faltering UK visit. The campaign fielded Lousiana governor Bobby Jindal and Virginia governor Bob McDonnell in Romney's defence. "We're not worried about overseas headlines. We're worried about voters back here in America," Jindal said in comments reported by Talking Points Memo. 
 
 The Olympics blunder came on top of what had been an inauspicious start to Romney's week-long overseas trip, designed in part to establish his foreign policy credentials with voters back home. His camp was forced to repudiate comments by an un-named adviser who told the Daily Telegraph that Barack Obama, the first black US president, had mishandled Anglo-American ties and that Romney better understood the "Anglo-Saxon heritage" between the two countries. 
 
 On Thursday, Romney also took the unusual step of acknowledging that he had met the head of MI6, Britain's secretive foreign intelligence agency, when asked about his discussions with British officials about Syria. Such conversations are not normally discussed publicly by government leaders. 
 
 "I can only say that I appreciated the insights and the perspectives of the leaders of the government here and opposition here as well as the head of MI6 as we discussed Syria and hoped for a more peaceful future for that country," he said. 
 
 Romney also met Ed Miliband, the leader of the oppositon Labour party. Miliband took questions from two reporters from what he called "my side", but Romney would not take questions from US journalists. At one point, Romney called Miliband "Mr Leader", which prompted suggestions he had forgotten Miliband's name. 
 
 There were also meetings with foreign secretary William Hague, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and former PM Tony Blair. 
 
 Romney later went on to a fundraiser at the Mandarin hotel in London, at which he repeated his promise to restore a bust of Winston Churchill to the Oval Office in the White House if he is elected. Obama replaced the bust with one of Abraham Lincoln after his election, in what was interpreted in the British media as a snub to the transatlantic relationship. 
 
 His campaign team claimed the event took $2m in donations, but there were reports earlier that ticket prices had been lowered, and that some people had been offered free passes.
– I say there, old bean, that's not quite the way it's done. Mitt Romney put his foot in his mouth again across the pond. After irking the Brits with some comments about Olympic preparations yesterday, he also "blabbed" about a meeting with the head of British intelligence agency MI6. "Such conversations are not normally discussed publicly by government leaders," sniffed the Guardian. The meeting with Sir John Sawers was not on Romney's official schedule, and it was supposed to stay hush-hush, notes Politico. “I can only say that I appreciated the insights of the leaders of the government and opposition here, as well as the head of MI6, as we discussed Syria and the hope for a more peaceful future for that country,” Romney told reporters. A spokesman from Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office told CBS News that "Sir John Sawers meets many people, but we don’t give a running commentary on any of these private meetings."