M16 thought ex-Labour leader Michael Foot was a paid Soviet informant
MI6 believed claims made by a Soviet defector that former Labour leader Michael Foot was a paid KGB contact, according to a new book.
Intelligence chiefs were reportedly briefed on the politician’s KGB history in 1982 and were prepared to pass on the information to the Queen had he become prime minister after the following year’s general election.
But documents, published in The Spy and the Traitor, show that MI6 thought the evidence presented by Mr Gordievsky was strong enough to pass on to the Queen.
In a 1982 debriefing, the former agent allegedly said the KGB had paid Mr Foot the equivalent of £37,000 in today’s money, according to the new book.
Even though he was supposedly paid by the Soviets, Mr Gordievsky said that the politician was not a ‘spy or consciou...