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JEZ SPY SCANDAL
Jeremy Corbyn urged to come clean over ‘links to Soviet bloc spy agencies’ as MI6 chief raps ‘naive’ Labour leader
PRESSURE is mounting on Jeremy Corbyn for answers about a Communist spy scandal - as a former MI6 chief branded him “incredibly naive or complicit”.
Politicians from across the political divide demanded the hard left Labour leader comes clean over all his links to Soviet bloc spy agencies.
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The furore exploded after The Sun revealed lifelong Socialist Mr Corbyn met a Czech spy in the House of Commons.
Bombshell files in the now defunct StB spy service’s archives document Mr Corbyn’s use as an asset - with the code name COB - during three meetings with a Czech intelligence officer between 1986 and 1987.
The 68-year-old Opposition Leader admits meeting “a Czech diplomat” in Parliament, but denies passing him any privileged information.
Speaking to The Sun, former head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove described the approaches to Mr Corbyn as “a classic cultivation”, after studying the archive documents that we published.
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Sir Richard, who was one of Britain’s best Czechoslovakia experts during the Cold War, said: “Either Jeremy Corbyn was incredibly naïve or he knew exactly what was happening to him, so he was complicit in all this”.
As the furore grew:
- Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson dubbed any meeting in Parliament with a Soviet bloc spy as “an utter betrayal of this country”.
- Senior Labour figures also shared the anger, with Gordon Brown’s former security minister Lord West branding it “the behaviour of a student agitator, who has no idea how he could have been used”.
- It emerged the Czech spy, Lieutenant Jan Dymic, was booted out of Britain by then PM Margaret Thatcher in 1989.
- The Labour boss’s aides sparked uproar by accusing critics of his links to Lt Dymic of radicalising far right terrorism.
Sir Richard, who lead MI6 from 1999-2004, was also the Secret Intelligence Service’s head of station in Prague in the 1970s.
The ex-spymaster added: “These are genuine documents which shows he was targeted and the case was advanced, at a time when a very unpleasant Czech regime was persecuting dissidents. They were the enemies of the West.
“They wouldn’t have targeted him unless they believed he was a Communist fellow traveller.”
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Intelligence officers from Warsaw Pact countries were often used by their Russian masters in the KGB to target MPs as they attracted less attention, Sir Richard also recalled.
Mr Corbyn and others were approached either to be used as an 'agent of influence', or to provide the East with useful background on other politicians for them to exploit.
Some of the MPs approached may well have thought they were dealing with just a straight forward diplomat.
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Others knew they were spying, including former Labour minister John Stonehouse, who was exposed as a Czech spy by a defector in 1979 for selling secrets to the StB.
Tory Security Minister Ben Wallace last night insisted Mr Corbyn cannot “just brush off these extremely serious allegations” and said they cast serious doubt on his ability to be PM.
Mr Wallace added: “He must provide answers, including why he thought it appropriate to invite a Czech official into parliament at the height of the Cold War, how many times he met with this person, what exactly they discussed.
“If he cannot provide full transparency then this raises serious questions about his fitness to hold high office.”
Mr Wallace added: “History is littered by people who dressed up their betrayal of their country as a search for peace”.
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Defence Secretary Mr Williamson also insisted the 68 year-old Opposition Leader also agree to the publication of a file on him also held by the Stasi.
The Sun has also revealed East Germany’s notorious former spy service also has documents on Mr Corbyn, but only he can give permission for its public release under German law.
Mr Williamson said: “He has to fess up to what happened and must make the Stasi file public to set the record straight and show his loyalty to this country”.
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Tory MEP Daniel Hannan added: “In normal times, this story would disqualify Corbyn from holding any elected office, let alone aspiring to lead the nation. But these are not normal times".
Mr Corbyn’s aides sparked uproar by accusing critics of his links to a Soviet bloc spy of radicalising far right terrorists like Finsbury Park mosque attacker Darren Osborne.
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In an extraordinary reaction to The Sun’s revelations, the Labour leader’s spokesman lashed out to brand them “smears, which as we know from Darren Osborne, can have a potentially deadly effect”.
Also hitting out at ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard, Mr Corbyn's spokesman added: "Richard Dearlove, who as head of MI6 was involved in the infamous dodgy dossier that helped take us into the disastrous Iraq War, should not be trying to give credence to these entirely false and ridiculous smears".
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