Jeremy Corbyn has ‘no regrets’ over Czech spy meetings and said they spoke about ‘disarmament and peace’
Labour leader hit back after The Sun exposed his secret meetings in Parliament with Jan Sarkocy saying he did ‘what I believed any other MP would have done’
JEREMY Corbyn has claimed he only agreed to see an undercover Soviet bloc spy to help broker world peace.
The hard left Labour finally addressed questions about the Czech spying scandal yesterday – 11 days after The Sun first revealed a log of his meetings with StB intelligence officer Lt Jan Dymic.
But he refused to apologise for any controversial liaisons, insisting “any MP” would have done the same thing.
Mr Corbyn’s defence came after ex-MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove claimed it was “absurd” that the Labour MP thought Dymic was just a diplomat.
Asked if he regretted meeting the spy, Mr Corbyn told ITV News “not at all”.
He insisted: “I met him, as did a number of other people, he was the diplomat working in the Czech embassy and his job was to talk about peace and detente.
“This was a time when Gorbachev was president of the USSR there was a real chance of detente developing – of more peace within Europe.
“We spoke about those matters.”
Mr Corbyn added: “If you’re a serious member of parliament and serious about international affairs you meet people, you don’t agree with most of them, but you have to meet them to understand what their position is and try and put forward your own view on peace, justice and human rights.
The Labour leader also told the Wolverhampton Express & Star yesterday: “I did what I believed any other MP would have done”.
The archives of the now defunct StB spy service reveal at least three meetings with Lt Dymic in 1986 and 1987, two held in the House of Commons.
But Mr Corbyn insists he can only recall one of them.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson branded Mr Corbyn’s meetings as “a betrayal of this country”.
Fellow Tory Cabinet minister Liam Fox dubbed Mr Corbyn “a useful idiot”.
He was also questioned over the spy meetings by the newspaper, saying: “The links are nonsense. What was printed in the papers was nonsense.”
It comes as the Society of Editors has called on the Labour leader to clarify his party’s stance on press freedom, after releasing a video last week attacking some outlets and announcing that “change is coming”.