Labour MP Used by Communist Spies to Spread Soviet Propaganda Against Thatcher Government

Declassified Cold War archives have revealed that Frank Cook, a Labour shadow minister who later served on the Defence Select Committee, was deliberately used by Communist spies to deliver KGB propaganda aimed at discrediting Margaret Thatcher’s government during a crucial period of nuclear disarmament talks.

According to documents unearthed by the Daily Mail, Cook spoke at a Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) event in 1987, spreading Russian disinformation that portrayed Britain as a secret warmonger. Czech intelligence files show that Cook was targeted by the Czechoslovakian StB agency, whose agents were operating under diplomatic cover in the UK.

The operation was deemed successful by Soviet intelligence handlers after Cook reportedly boasted about giving a “very sharp speech” based on talking points fed to him by their agents. He allegedly shared these falsehoods with delegates from major Western powers, who apparently accepted them without question.

Cook was just one of many CND figures who had contact with Communist intelligence agencies during the Cold War. The files indicate that four serving and future CND General Secretaries were targeted in operations during the 1980s, with spies gleaning information about missile movements, arms exports, and confidential reports about chemical weapons.

These revelations come to light from documents held in Czech state Security Service archives, highlighting a sophisticated influence operation aimed at a time when CND wielded significant political power in Britain. With over 100,000 members, the organization was an influential left-wing force that exerted considerable pressure on the Labour party and regularly organized massive demonstrations calling for unilateral nuclear disarmament and UK withdrawal from NATO.

CND activists were also instrumental in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp, protesting against the deployment of US cruise missiles at the RAF base in Berkshire.

According to the files, Czech spies cultivated Cook for two years before listing him as an official “contact” who had provided “good results.” In June 1987, they proposed using him in what they termed an “active measure” as part of a long-term propaganda operation to undermine NATO.

Cook’s handler, Lieutenant Vlastimil Hnizdil, reported to Prague that the aim was to “discredit and damage the Conservative Party and British government in respect of their disarmament and defence policies.” The MP was tasked with promoting a narrative “requested by the USSR intelligence agency” that claimed Thatcher was cynically claiming to support nuclear disarmament talks while secretly planning a major upgrade of the UK’s nuclear capability and US military bases in Britain.

When approached about spreading this disinformation, Cook was reportedly “spontaneously positive” and interrupted his handler to affirm that he would “do that for sure” as it aligned with his “inner beliefs.” He promised to incorporate these ideas into his speech at the Scottish CND Congress and to promote them to international delegates attending a related conference in the Shetland Islands.

In a subsequent meeting, Cook informed his handler that he had delivered a “very sharp speech” using all the arguments they had discussed, including those “supporting the USSR’s and other socialist countries’ peace policies.” According to the files, Prague-based spymasters officially rated the operation’s outcome as “effective.”

Cook, who died in 2012, remained a valuable contact for the spy network. In 1988, he introduced his handler to future Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam and later briefed him about then-Labour leader Neil Kinnock’s plans to abandon the party’s policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament.

The files also detail how Communist intelligence agencies plotted a propaganda campaign in 1981 to provoke nationwide anti-Thatcher protests by comparing her military spending policies to Hitler’s. The disinformation plan sought to exploit public concern about cuts to social services while military funding increased, suggesting headlines like “canons instead of butter” – a notorious Nazi rearmament slogan.

Professor Anthony Glees, a security and intelligence expert at the University of Buckingham, described the files as “very important finds” that provide “hard evidence of the extent to which the KGB and its surrogates in the Czech secret service tried to manipulate the British political system.”

“We have long suspected that CND was the handmaiden of Soviet foreign policy and these documents indicate this,” Glees said. “The useful idiots of CND who jumped about saying they wanted peace were actually helping the Soviet’s interests.”

Glees noted a continuity between Soviet foreign policy and current Russian strategy under Vladimir Putin, saying “hatred of NATO is in the Russian DNA because it stops its Western expansion.”

CND did not respond to requests for comment on these revelations.