Corbyn’s judgment is now clearly open to question

By meeting Czech agents, the Labour leader showed a lack of caution that is a cause for grave concern

Afew years ago, at the height of the Crimea crisis, a group of senior Russian diplomats invited me to lunch to discuss the various issues raised by their government’s invasion and illegal annexation of the autonomous republic. The lunch, arranged through a mutual contact, was cordial enough, and we agreed to disagree on most of the important matters, such as Russia ignoring its obligations under international law over its handling of the crisis.

A few days later the Russian Embassy contacted me again, this time to ask whether my wife and I would like to join the Ambassador in his box at the Royal Opera House to watch a performance by the Mariinsky Opera. Tempted as we were to see one of the world’s most famous companies in action, I politely declined. The image of the Kremlin’s representative to London sitting with The Telegraph’s Defence Editor at Covent Garden was one, I believed, that might send all the wrong signals about Russia’s aggressive actions in the Black Sea, as well as compromising my own position.

I recall this anecdote because it helps to illustrate some of the difficulties anyone involved in the complex world of global conflict – whether a politician, diplomat or journalist – has to consider. On one level, you need to engage with representatives of countries and interests that are deemed hostile in order to gain a better understanding of their position. But in so doing, it is also important not to cross the line between gathering information and facing accusations of aiding and abetting the enemy.

In short, negotiating your way through this complex political landscape comes down to a question of judgment, which is why Jeremy Corbyn’s meetings with a Czech secret agent at the height of the Cold War are proving so problematic for the Labour leader.

That Mr Corbyn met Jan Sarkocy, a spy with Czechoslovakia’s Statni bezpecnost (STB) secret police, during the 1980s is not in dispute. Where the contention lies is in the precise nature of the veteran campaigner’s dealings with the Czech agent, who was expelled from London by Margaret Thatcher for – to use the standard Foreign Office parlance at the time – “activities not conducive to the public good”.

Classified documents just released show that Mr Sarkocy met Mr Corbyn on three occasions at his Commons office and at his constituency. The Czech agent claims the information provided by Mr Corbyn, who was codenamed Agent Cob, was “rated in Moscow as the number one (sic)”.

Mr Corbyn has denied wrongdoing, including passing privileged information, as have other Labour politicians, such as Ken Livingstone and shadow chancellor John Mcdonnell, whom Mr Sarkocy claims had contact with Eastern bloc agents. Yet the fact that so many prominent Labour MPS have been alleged to be STB contacts – no politicians from other political parties have so far been mentioned – inevitably raises questions about their motives.

During the 1980s, anyone with an interest in the subject knew the grey, soulless fortress in Notting Hill that housed the Czech Embassy was effectively run as an intelligencegathering operation on behalf of the KGB, which is why large numbers of the “diplomats” based there were expelled from London on a regular basis. At the very least, the dozen or so Labour MPS said to have had dealings with the Czechs at this time made the wrong call.

Nor should we tolerate the excuse that this all happened a long time ago in the now forgotten era of the Cold War. There are arguably more enemy agents and hostile foreign interests active in the UK today than there were during the Cold War, and, thanks to social media, they operate on a variety of levels.

Apart from representatives of hostile intelligence agencies scouring Whitehall’s watering holes for gullible Left-wing politicians, there are state-funded television stations, such as Iran’s Press TV and the Kremlin’s RT, that do just as good a job at attempting to undermine the confidence of the British public in our political institutions. Mssrs Corbyn and Livingstone have featured prominently on both channels, while the former First Minister of Scotland is now the proud presenter of RT’S The Alex Salmond Show.

Another area of concern is the output from government-controlled troll factories such as the Internet Research Agency in St Petersburg, which is currently under investigation in America for meddling in the 2016 US presidential election contest.

In short, the need to be on our guard against the subversive activities of hostile states has never been greater and, rather than tolerating their activities, our political leaders need to be able to exercise extreme vigilance. But, to judge by Mr Corbyn’s Cold War dalliance with the Czech secret police, caution is not his forte. A politician who feels more at home socialising with terrorists from the IRA, Hamas and Hizbollah is never going to find the courage to confront regimes that seek to destroy our way of life.