As Jeremy Corbyn dismissed a “ridiculous smear” by the Sun alleging he briefed a Czechoslovakian communist spy during the cold war after a photo of the two emerged, another more current embarrassing photo of a Russian agent expelled from the UK with a UK politician has come to light.

The Labour Leader’s spokesman insisted that he met a Czechoslovakian diplomat in the 1980s but “neither had nor offered any privileged information.”

But that did not stop Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson claiming that Corbyn could not be trusted. “That he met foreign spies is a betrayal of this country,” Williamson told the Evening Standard. Corbyn’s spokesman slammed Williamson for giving credence to “entirely false” allegations.

We wonder if the Tory minister would be as quick to rush to judgement about his Conservative colleague, the current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson meeting a Russian diplomat who had his UK VISA revoked in 2015 in a spat over intelligence activities when he was London Mayor. – Sergey Nalobin lost his permission to stay in the UK after the inquiry into the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko concluded Russian Vladimir Putin had probably ordered the killing.

Nalobin has been described as a known Russian spy with Russian secret service connections, including his father a top-ranking member of the FSB – the successor to the KGB, and invited members of the Conservative Friends of Russia on expenses paid trips to Moscow and St Petersburg.

In this photo the prolific social media operator tweeted, he dubbed Boris Johnson a “good friend.”

Eagle-eyed blogger Tom Pride spotted the photo of the Foreign Secretary with the figure exposed as a pro-Putin intelligence agent with FSB family credentials.

UPDATE:

So if meeting a Russian agent is enough for Tory minister Gavin Williamson to declare “betrayal of this country”, what would he make of this other photograph that has also emerged of his Conservative colleague the Foreign Secretary with Joseph Misfud, the academic named by the FBI as central to their investigation of alleged Trump – Russian collusion? – This after his spokesman denied he recalled meeting Misfud who is alleged to have offered Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign during the US election:

Questions, anyone??

Photo surfaces of Boris Johnson with Joseph Mifsud.

The "London professor" named in FBI docs who's now gone to ground..

..and who Boris specifically denied meeting.

(H/t to @gavinsblog for top digging.) pic.twitter.com/jJwRsLfs9k — Carole Cadwalladr (@carolecadwalla) November 11, 2017

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