Corbyn should ‘come clean’ on Cold War spy link
THERESA May yesterday challenged Jeremy Corbyn to be “open and transparent” about his alleged Cold War contacts with a Communist spy.
The Prime Minister spoke as a Tory MP urged an influential Commons committee to summon the Labour leader for questioning.
The Foreign Affairs Committee is likely to discuss the request in private session when it meets today.
Mrs May said: “It is for individual MPs to be accountable for their actions in the past.
“But also I think that where there are allegations of this sort that MPs should be prepared to be open and transparent.”
Meanwhile, thousands of people have signed a petition demanding that Mr Corbyn authorise the release of any files held on him by former Soviet bloc secret services.
The controversy centres on claims by alleged former Czech agent Jan Sarkocy, who worked in the UK from 1986 to 1989 under diplomatic cover as lieutenant Jan Dymic, before he was expelled. He said he had several meetings in London with then backbench Labour MP Mr Corbyn, who had the codename COB, and fellow Left-wing MP Ken Livingstone.
Mr Sarkocy claimed John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, regularly met a KGB agent and provided some “valuable” pointers.
The three politicians all deny the claims. A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “Jan Sarkocy is a fantasist, whose claims are entirely false and becoming more absurd by the day.
“These claims are ridiculous smears, entirely false and should be given no credence whatsoever.”
But Conservative MP David Morris yesterday called for a Foreign Affairs Committee probe.
He said: “There are strong grounds to warrant further investigation of these reports.
“These are very serious and disturbing allegations given that the Leader of the Opposition wants to scrap Trident, debasing our defence capability and national security.”