Stasi agents infiltrated Corbyn Labour group
Jeremy Corbyn helped run a Labour peace group during the Eighties that Stasi spies claimed to have infiltrated in the hope of influencing defence policy, files released in Berlin show. The Labour leader was vice-chairman of Labour Action For Peace when the East German spy agency compiled files on it marked “top secret”. The spies lobbied its members, who included several MPS, on issues including unilateral nuclear disarmament and scrapping chemical weapons.
JEREMY CORBYN helped run a Labour peace group that Stasi spies claimed to have infiltrated in the hope of influencing British policy on defence, files released in Berlin show.
The Labour leader was vice-chairman of Labour Action For Peace when the East German spy agency compiled files on it marked “top secret” in the Eighties. Three separate dossiers held in Stasi archives, running to 41 pages in all, show that it regarded Labour Action For Peace (LAP) to be of “special importance” during the Cold War. The spies lobbied its members, who included several MPS, on issues including unilateral nuclear disarmament and scrapping chemical weapons.
The documents do not mention Mr Corbyn by name and his spokesman said he was not aware of any infiltration by East German officials or contact between them and members of LAP.
Yesterday, following days of speculation over the extent of the Stasi’s interest in Mr Corbyn, a spokesman for the Stasi archives said it had found no record of any files on him or Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, with whom he visited Communist East Germany in the Seventies. However, the emergence of files relating to LAP shed new light on the extent to which Stasi agents tried to influence Labour MPS during the Cold War.
The files leave no doubt about the intentions of the former German Democratic Republic (DDR). One document states: “The possibilities for developing bilateral relationships between movements, organizations and individuals working against the arms race should be exploited systematically.”
The Stasi files state that East Germany had “good relations” with the LAP which had “positions on fundamental issues that are largely in line with those of the socialist states”.
The spy agency believed that the LAP could influence Labour policy, saying: “Under the present conditions, with resolutions at the Labour Party’s annual conference... preparing for the upcoming [1987] election campaign and focusing on the party’s security policy and a future Labour government, the activity of the LAP is of special importance.”
In a self-congratulatory passage, the Stasi authors cite a parliamentary campaign by a former chairman of LAP, William Mckelvey MP, which followed lobbying by East German officials. The document states: “The proposal for a framework programme for the creation of chemical weapon free zones in Europe prepared by the SED and the SPD [East German political parties] received considerable attention among UK Labour MPS. William Mckelvey MP, who is also chairman of the LAP, initiated a signature campaign in the House of Commons in support of the SED and SPD initiative.”
On Oct 24 1985 three men and a woman from the “DDR Peace Council” arrived in the UK as guests of LAP. Among the topics for discussion were the US’S “Star Wars” weapons project, Trident, Polaris, and the issue of Nato membership.
Members of LAP made a reciprocal trip to East Berlin on Feb 21 1987 arriving at 1pm local time, according to an itinerary attached to Stasi files. They were met by a member of the Peace Council, and over the following days they attended debates on the elimination of chemical and nuclear weapons.
Accompanying the report is a copy of LAP’S newsletter dated July 1987. Its headline declared Margaret Thatcher’s re-election as prime minister as “a black day for peace”, adding: “There is no doubt that a Labour Government would have scrapped Trident and Polaris.” A Stasi document written three weeks before LAP arrived in East Germany remarked: “From previous contacts with LAP, and in evaluating their activities, it must be noted that the basic positions of the proposals of the USSR regarding peace and disarmament are shared”.
A file prepared on March 26, 1987, days after LAP had left the country, offered detailed insight into the group’s movements during their stay. It named three LAP delegates but the name of the fourth – who had been expected to be a male Labour MP – is redacted.
The document concludes: “Relations with Labour Action for Peace should continue to be developed and strengthened.” A second visit should be planned for the following year, it said, while the DDR should consider sending its own delegation to the UK for further “bilateral discussions”. The dossier emerged as Mr Corbyn faced continued
‘There is no doubt that a Labour Government would have scrapped Trident and Polaris’
‘We were not infiltrated by anybody from East Germany that I’m aware of ’
questions over his contact with Jan Sarkocy, a former Cold War spy for Communist Czechoslovakia.
Yesterday Mr Sarkocy repeated his assertion that Mr Corbyn, who was given the codename “Cob” by the Czechoslovakian secret service the STB, was “a very, very good source”.
Mr Corbyn has admitted meeting Mr Sarkocy in the Eighties but has denied knowing he was a spy, passing sensitive information to him or accepting any payment. At the time of his contact with Mr Sarkocy, Mr Corbyn was a member of LAP as well as being a backbench MP. Coincidentally, the honorary secretary of LAP in the Eighties, failed Labour parliamentary candidate Cynthia Roberts, was later accused of spying for the STB, which she denied after moving to Prague.
The chairman of LAP at the time was Gavin Strang, the then Edinburgh East Labour MP. Mr Strang told The Daily Telegraph it was “possible” that members of the group had met East German officials, but said he had no recollection of Eastern European or Soviet officials attending meetings of the group. Asked
if the Stasi had infiltrated the LAP, Colin Bastin, its current chairman, 69, said: “There is no truth in that suggestion whatsoever. We were not infiltrated by anybody from East Germany that I’m aware of.”
A spokesman for Mr Corbyn said: “Over the years a number of people on all sides of politics have been identified as having been intelligence agents of different kinds and their colleagues in the Labour Party or Conservative party were not aware of that. And so Jeremy has not been aware of who has been an undercover officer working for any intelligence agency or attempting to infiltrate any organisation.”
Yesterday a spokesman for the Federal Commissioner of the Stasi Records in Berlin said it had found no evidence of a Stasi file on Mr Corbyn himself, despite him visiting East Germany with Diane Abbott in the Seventies. The spokesman said: “The most recent searches in the written records of the Ministry of State Security of East Germany have not produced any records or any other information on Jeremy Corbyn or Diane Abbott.”