Security chiefs today rebuked one of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest aides over his suggestion that the “deep state” is working to block a Labour government.
Security minister Ben Wallace dismissed the claim by Unite official Andrew Murray, saying British intelligence agencies would not “waste their time” on him.
Mr Murray suggested in an article that the “deep state” was behind newspaper reports that he had been barred from the Ukraine for three years over his alleged links to Vladimir Putin’s “propaganda network”.
He also questioned why his year-old application for a pass to enter Parliament had been met by a “stoney silence”.
But Mr Wallace tweeted: “Oh dear. Sorry to pop the vanity of your own self importance Andrew but our spooks don’t waste their time pumping out stories to the Mail on Sunday about someone no one has ever heard of. They are too busy trying to stop terrorism & Russian assassination attempts.”
Mr Murray is chief of staff to Unite union boss Len McCluskey and was the founding chairman of the Stop the War Coalition, from 2001 and 2011.
In a New Statesman article yesterday headlined “Is the “deep state” trying to undermine Corbyn?” he denied any links to the Russian regime and wrote: “Someone else is doing the hard work — possibly someone being paid by the taxpayer. I doubt if their job description is preventing the election of a Corbyn government, but who knows?
“We are often told that the days of secret state political chicanery are long past and we must hope so. But sometimes you have to wonder — this curiously timed episode seems less rooted in a Kiev security scare than in a political stunt closer to home.”
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson expressed doubt over his claim, saying the comments were “a bit John le Carré”. He told Radio 4’s Today programme: “I genuinely don’t know why he has reached that conclusion. If he thinks the intelligence services are in some way trying to undermine the official opposition, he should provide evidence.”
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