UK Labour Party slams tabloid's Corbyn spy allegation

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - Labour Party has slammed a British tabloid’s allegation that its leader Jeremy Corbyn was an asset to the Eastern Block intelligence services during the Cold War.

“The claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear,” a party spokesman said Thursday.

The Sun in its report published on Thursday’s issue claimed Corbyn met and warned “Soviet-backed spies of a clampdown by British intelligence during the height of the war.”

“Like other MPs, Jeremy has met diplomats from many countries. In the 1980s he met a Czech diplomat, who did not go by the name of Jan Dymic [the name quoted by the Sun], for a cup of tea in the House of Commons,” spokesman said.

The news story -- titled Corbyn and the Commie Spy -- alleges that Corbyn "passed on material about the arrest of an East German and was allegedly put on a list of Czechoslovakian state security team’s agents and sources.”

The article also claims that Corbyn was even given a code name: COB.

According to the story, based on “secret” Soviet files, a Lieutenant called Jan Dymic said he had visited Corbyn as a Labour MP twice in the House of Commons.

“Jeremy neither had nor offered any privileged information to this or any other diplomat,” the Labour spokesman said.

“During the Cold War, intelligence officers notoriously claimed to superiors to have recruited people they had merely met. The existence of these bogus claims does not make them in any way true.”

Jeremy Corbyn has been a Labour MP for Islington North constituency since 1983. He was elected as the party leader in 2015, succeeding former leader Ed Miliband.