Ex-MI6 boss savages Jeremy Corbyn aide who said 'deep state' blocking path to Downing Street
2 min read
A former top spy has savaged claims by allies of Jeremy Corbyn that a “deep state” is working to prevent the Labour leader forming a government.
Ex-MI6 boss Richard Dearlove said the “rubbish” conspiracy theories were “inappropriate in a political context in a modern democracy”.
Andrew Murray, a Unite official advising the Labour leader, suggested the intelligence services were out to block the party taking office after it emerged he was denied a security pass into parliament.
Unite boss Len McCluskey agreed that "dark forces" could be trying to undermine Mr Corbyn's attempts to become Prime Minister.
But in an interview with Sky News show Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Sir Richard blasted the theories, saying: “That’s rubbish.”
He added: “Every government has been loyally served by the British security and intelligence community and I imagine every future government will be loyally served, so I absolutely do not agree with that...
“It’s sort of conspiratorial thinking which I think is inappropriate in a political context in a modern democracy.”
Mr Murray, who was in the Communist Party of Great Britain before joining Labour in 2016, was banned from entering Ukraine for allegedly being part of Vladimir Putin's “global propaganda network”.
When reports about that and about his being denied a parliament pass emerged, he wrote in the New Statesman: “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.”
Mr McCluskey meanwhile told the House magazine last week: "Of course, there is this view, and my God we’ve lived through it all our lives, that the security forces play an unhealthy role in the democratic processes that exist in our nation, both in trade unions and indeed in our political life.
“Would I be surprised if there were dark forces at play? No. But is it something I particularly worry about? Not at the moment, I haven’t got time to worry about that.
“I’m more concerned about what’s happening in the real world. It’s not something that occupies my mind.”
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