Stasi 'infiltrated' Labour peace group that Jeremy Corbyn helped to run

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn was vice chairman of LAP Credit: Getty

Jeremy Corbyn helped run a Labour peace group that Stasi spies claimed to have infiltrated in the hope of influencing British defence policy, files released in Berlin show.

The Labour leader was vice chairman of Labour Action For Peace when the Stasi compiled files on it marked “top secret” in the 1980s.

Three separate dossiers held in Stasi archives, running to 41 pages in all, show that the East German spy agency regarded Labour Action For Peace (LAP) to be of “special importance” during the Cold War and 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 or contact between East German officials 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 the shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, with whom he visited Communist East Germany in the 1970s.

stasi file
A Stasi file on the LAP

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 exploited systematically.”

Any moves towards unilateral disarmament by Britain would have weakened the country’s defences and provided a strategic advantage to the Warsaw Pact countries.

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”.

Corbyn with activists
Jeremy Corbyn with members of LAP at the 2017 Labour conference Credit: LAP

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 October 24, 1985 three men and a woman from the “DDR Peace Council” - including a journalist and a "political specialist" - arrived in the UK as guests of LAP, staying until the end of the month.

Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn addressing a picket line in London  Credit: Michael Pattison

Among the topics for discussion were the US's “Star Wars” weapons project, Trident, Polaris, and the issue of NATO membership.

"Interest in turning the weapons industry into a peace industry was considerable," one document stated.

Members of LAP made a reciprocal trip to East Berlin on Sunday, Feb 21, 1987 arriving at 1pm local time, according to an itinerary attached to the Stasi files.

There they were met by a member of the Peace Council, and over the following days they attended a series of 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.”

jeremy corbyn
Jeremy Corbyn in his days as a backbench MP Credit: Clifford Ling for The Telegraph

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, just 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 in the file.

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".

stasi file
A Stasi file relating to the 1986 Labour Party Conference

The dossier emerged as Mr Corbyn faced continued 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 1980s 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 1980s, failed Labour parliamentary candidate Cynthia Roberts, was later accused of spying for the StB, which she denied after moving to Prague.

cynthia and denis roberts
Cynthia Roberts with her husband Denis

The chairman of LAP at the time was the then Edinburgh East Labour MP Gavin Strang, who went on to become a transport minister in Tony Blair’s first government.

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, its current chairman Colin Bastin, 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, the shadow home secretary, in the 1970s.

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.”

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