Labour's Kremlin cronies.....

How many Kremlin spies were there in the House of Commons during the Cold War?

Well we shall never know for sure. The KGB was very busy destroying records on the collapse of the Soviet Union, but I suspect the answer is ‘plenty’.

We can be pretty sure that Jack Jones, the trade union boss, was on the payroll. Allegedly, the Kremlin financially supported ‘Tribune’ when Michael Foot was editor, although that does not imply that anything criminal was afoot (pun unintended).

A long-forgotten Junior Minister in a Labour Government, Barnett Stross,  was identified as a spy by a Czech intelligence defector, but died before MI5 could investigate.

Then there was Will Owen who was also a spy for the Czechs. He was actually prosecuted. He was acquitted but confessed later.

But going right to the top, the conspiracy theorists believe that Harold Wilson was a Kremlin agent, and that they bumped off Hugh Gaitskell, who died in strange circumstances, so as to get their man in place. However, it seems that the only ‘evidence’ is in ‘Spy-catcher’ and from a Soviet defector who was regarded as unreliable. The CIA is alleged to have tipped-off MI5 which carried out a lengthy investigation, but nothing ever came of it. However, I do remember that at the time there was a lot of ‘nudge-nudge, wink-wink’ about the circumstance of Wilson’s unexpected resignation. The Cabinet Room and the PM’s study were bugged by MI5 from 1963 to 1977, so there must have been serious security concerns.

The defector Gordievsky, who was a goldmine of valuable information, having been the London bureau chief, outed Joan Lestor, Jo Richardson, and Joan Maynard, all left-wing Labour MPs, although whether they were into espionage or just peddling the Kremlin line is impossible to say. Spies or just useful idiots?

Somewhat bizarrely, the DT blogs that Ray Mawby, a Tory MP, was a Czech agent, but as he was known for his fondness for the occasional tincture, it is probable that he was no more than a pretext for the Czechs to justify their expense accounts.

As the Cold War is no more, does this mean that we no longer have to be concerned about traitors in Parliament? As ‘integrity’ no longer features in the political lexicon and all politicians are regarded as dishonest poltroons until the contrary is proved, it would be pretty safe to assume that hanky-panky is still rife. If so, which are the alternative loyalties? Still the Russians who are spying as much as ever? Islamists? Israelis? Big business?

Whose cat is up whose drainpipe?