Jeremy Corbyn valued Soviet leadership. He was worried about the break-up of the Soviet Union. He believed Nato was an instrument of Cold War manipulation. And he informed the communists of this, in order to inspire a revival of socialism.

I do not know this because of some recently unearthed file, or the evidence of a maverick agent. I do not know it because I am a Tory peer seeking fabricated allegations with which to smear the Labour leader. I know it because he said so himself.

No one would have had to pay Mr Corbyn to take a sympathetic view of the Soviet Union’s world role because he saw that as all part of the service as MP for Islington North. And far from