No sign of dossier on his holiday with Diane Abbott

THE Stasi archives have failed to find any files on Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott in a ‘recent’ search, it emerged last night.

Officials at the archives for East Germany’s security service had previously declined to say whether dossiers existed on the pair, who reportedly went on a romantic motorbike tour of the Eastern Bloc state in the 1970s.

But after intense speculation about the Labour leader’s past, they last night agreed to an unprecedented statement to clarify the situation. A spokesman said they had chosen to make an ‘exception to our rule’ of not giving out details of files other than to those spied on by the Stasi.

He added: ‘The most recent searches in the written records of the Ministry for State Security of East Germany have not produced any records or any other information on Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott.’

If Mr Corbyn and his now shadow home secretary did visit East Germany, the Stasi would have recorded their arrival and departure as they did with all foreigners. But this would not mean they would necessarily have created a file on the pair. With thousands of spies and well over 100,000 unofficial collaborators, the Stasi kept an iron grip on the country.

Its 887million surviving secret dossiers occupy almost 100 miles of shelf space, half of it kept at its Berlin office. Almost 7million people have applied to view their own files since they were made partially public 1992. They are open to foreigners spied on by the Stasi as well as Germans.