Czech agent claims 15 Labour MPs met spies
Livingstone and McDonnell deny encounters with Soviet bloc operatives during the Cold War
KEN LIVINGSTONE, John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn were part of a group of at least 15 senior Labour figures who shared information with Eastern bloc agents, it is claimed today.
Jan Sarkocy, a former Czechoslovak spy, described the MPs as “great sources” to himself or his colleagues in the KGB.
The new claims come after he said on Friday that the Labour leader had shared information with the Communist Czechoslovak regime.
Speaking to The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Sarkocy claimed that:
Mr Livingstone also discussed information with the Czechoslovak regime;
The future London mayor made frequent visits to the Czechoslovak embassy, where he drank whisky;
Mr McDonnell met a KGB agent on several occasions;
Between 10 and 15 Labour MPs held meetings with the Czechoslovak secret service.
Labour yesterday described the latest claims as “absurd”, while Mr Livingstone said they were a “tissue of lies”. He did admit meeting a Russian “representative” at the time, but said “nothing happened”.
The shadow chancellor dismissed the claims as “ridiculous”.
It is not known what information the politicians could have supplied.
The claims by Mr Sarkocy, who was revealed to have met Mr Corbyn three times in classified documents released by the Czech government, will place further pressure on the Labour leader over his attitude towards the Soviet bloc during the Cold War.
He admits meeting Mr Sarkocy on a small number of occasions, but vigorously denies supplying information to a foreign power.
Mr Sarkocy worked for the Statni Bezpecnost, or StB, at Czechoslovakia’s London embassy under the identity of a diplomat called Lieutenant Jan Dymcic. He was in the country from 1986 to 1989, when he was expelled.
He said there was “no question” that Mr Corbyn and the other sources knew that he was a spy, adding: “Everything was absolutely clear at the time.”
Mr Sarkocy claimed Mr Livingstone, then a Labour MP who had been leader of the Greater London Council until it was abolished in 1986, was a “good boy” and in a “very strong position in the Labour Party”.
He also recalled how Mr Livingstone used to come to the embassy to drink whisky.
Speaking from his home in Bratislava, Mr Sarkocy told The Telegraph that official records that survived the fall of Communism only showed part of
the picture, and that he had actually met Mr Corbyn – codenamed Agent Cob – “more than 10 times”. He said that the Islington North MP was a very “smart and polite guy” and was a communist “from the inside”, something which went “right back to his parents who held similar beliefs”.
He also said that when the StB carried out background checks on Mr Corbyn they found no evidence of him joining communist cells in Britain, which was felt to work in their favour.
Mr Sarkocy alleges that during one meeting, Mr Corbyn warned him about British operations by handing him a newspaper cutting showing MI5 was investigating suspected spies.
Mr Sarkocy said: “From Mr Corbyn we obtained good information that we could use. It is like a crossword.”
He said that meeting sympathetic politicians such as Mr Corbyn served to establish a relationship with people who might one day be in government.
“At this period of time nobody knew what would happen. I wish Mr Corbyn luck, but talking with us might turn out to be a mistake for him.”
He said that he did not pay Mr Corbyn personally, but believes that other officials in his department would have dealt with any money, should any payments have been made.
The former spy went on to claim that Mr McDonnell, who was deputy leader of the GLC under Mr Livingstone then worked in London local government until becoming an MP in 1997, regularly met a Soviet agent named P. Tibor, saying he once witnessed a meeting between the agent and Mr McDonnell in Guildford.
When asked how many MPs he had met, Mr Sarkocy said: “Me personally? From Labour? I would say about 10 or 15.” Mr Sarkocy, 64, recalled how he was introduced to Labour Party figures through the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, meeting them in Parliament or taking them to an Italian restaurant on Edgware Road, to enjoy “fresh fish, profiteroles and a glass of good wine”.
The revelations come a year after The Telegraph disclosed that MI5 opened a file on Mr Corbyn amid concerns over links to the IRA, and that he was monitored by Special Branch for two decades for fear he was trying to undermine democracy.
Mr Corbyn’s version of events appears to have been confirmed by Svetlana Ptacnikova, the head of the Czech Security Forces Archive, which keeps documents from the now-dissolved StB.
“Mr Corbyn was neither registered [by the StB] as a collaborator, nor does this [his alleged collaboration] stem from archive documents,” she said.
A spokesman for the Labour Party said: “The former Cold War agent Jan Sarkocy is a fantasist, whose claims are entirely false and becoming more absurd by the day. These ridiculous smears should be given no credence whatsoever.”
A spokesman for Mr McDonnell said: “These are ridiculous and false allegations. John never met any Czechoslovak or Soviet agent, nor visited the
Soviet or Russian embassy and has only visited Guildford once in his life, which was last year for a Labour Party public meeting.”
Mr Corbyn denies ever receiving payment from a foreign power.
Mr Livingstone dismissed claims he had been a source of information for Soviet bloc agents.
He said: “Information? What information would I have? I was a backbench MP and didn’t have access to anything. It’s just a tissue of lies.”
He added: “Whisky is not my drink of choice, it’s brandy. I have no recollection of meeting anyone from the Czech embassy at all. I do remember meeting people from the Russian Embassy.”
Asked if he could have known Mr Sarkocy by the name Jan Dymic, he said: “I remember a representative in 1987 who worked for the Russians but it was not him and nothing happened.”
‘Nobody knew what would happen. I wish Mr Corbyn luck, but talking with us might turn out to be a mistake for him’