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MI5 kept a file on the London Labour MP Joan Ruddock after she held meetings with a Soviet spy, a history of the Security Service revealed today.
Scrutiny of Ms Ruddock, who is a government energy minister and MP for Lewisham, began in 1982 amid concern that being chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament might make her a subversive.
The next year a permanent file was opened because of her contacts with the KGB officer Mikhael Bogdanov — even though there was no evidence of disloyalty. Interest in Ms Ruddock and other members of CND had waned, however, by 1985 after an official assessment that she and other prominent anti-nuclear campaigners were not engaged in espionage.
The disclosures were made today as the first official history of MI5 was published to mark the 100th anniversary of the Security Service.
Reader views (3)
The only information a Labour energy minister would have for the Russians is how much gas and oil we need! Maybe he talked her into not investing in any new energy production capacity for 12yrs?
- Mark, London
She's barely even left enough to count as New Labour these days.
- Ian, Brockley, London
The Labour party with connections to communists, who would have thought such a thing (lol)?
- Brandon Thomas, SW7
