Corbyn Tory says sorry for spy jibes
A Conservative MP has been forced to apologise and will make a “substantial” donation to charity for a tweet claiming Jeremy Corbyn had links to Cold War spies.
Labour said Ben Bradley had also agreed never to repeat the allegations after his online attack on the party leader.
Bradley will make his apology on Twitter – the same forum he used to make the fa lse claims in the wake of allegations that Corbyn had met Czech agent Jan Sarkocy in the 80s.
The Tory will say: “On February 19, 2018, I made a ser iously defamator y statement on my Twitter account, ‘ Ben Bradley MP (@ bbradleymp)’, about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold Brit ish secrets to communist spies.
“I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed t o pa y an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice and I will also pay his legal costs.
“I fully accept that my statement was whol ly untrue and false.
“I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.
“I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my u n r e s e r v e d a nd unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.”