MEMBERS of Parliament were said to have been receiving classified information from an MoD electrician who was engaged in an espionage campaign, The National can reveal.

Inverclyde councillor Chris McEleny was working for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) when he was alleged to have taken unauthorised images of nuclear submarines on the Clyde and passed these to the SNP.

Yesterday The National told how these claims, which came from senior military security figures, were dismissed as false by top national security vetting experts who said McEleny should be cleared to access restricted areas and carry out unsupervised work.

Today we can reveal that McEleny was further alleged to have leaked information to Scots members of Parliament over a three-year period.

READ MORE: Spy ‘lies’ over SNP's Chris McEleny made by top officials

Questions posed to the Secretary of Defence by the SNP politicians were likely based on details provided by McEleny, bosses alleged.

The disclosure was made on the third day of evidence as McEleny pursues a discrimination case against his former employers, claiming he was ill-treated over his political stance.

Appearing before the panel in Glasgow, McEleny said he was aware of the claims and said he would not identify the MPs who were said to have been involved to avoid publicly involving them in “false accusations”.

But an internal email read to the panel, led by employment judge Lucy Wiseman, stated: “A number of parliamentary questions to the Secretary of State for Defence have been raised by the local MP of the area over the past three years. Our analysis of the questions suggests that the parliamentary questions were formulated using insider information.”

Dr Andrew Gibson, representing the MoD, said that claim did not appear on a detailed internal log on McEleny because there was no evidence to prove it.

READ MORE: Tribunal reconvenes for Chris McEleny vs MoD – here's the story so far

McEleny worked in a number of roles at HM Naval Base Clyde, home to the Trident fleet, and a contractor base in Beith before being suspended in 2016, when his security clearance was revoked.

The suspension lasted 10 months and McEleny subsequently resigned, claiming the relationship with his employer had broken down.

The tribunal heard how two senior figures, named only as Mr C and Mr D due to reporting restrictions, had raised the spying claims, while a third had said he was “disturbed” at the idea of McEleny returning to work after passing security vetting processes.

However, none of the men referred the supposed espionage to military police and Mr F, an experienced vetting officer, said the claims against McEleny were “part fiction, part subject to interpretation, part down to the author putting two and two together and getting 357”.

Yesterday Gibson said bosses regarded McEleny as a “troublemaker who was both unreliable and untrustworthy”, adding: “They say that you were someone who challenges authority and bends the rules.”

McEleny branded the rule-bending claim “malicious”, adding: “As a shop steward for many years I would have no qualms of challenging authority for members.”

Gibson said managers thought McEleny held a grudge after having permission to carry a mobile phone removed. McEleny denied this, saying it was part of efforts to paint him as a “disgruntled employee”.

The tribunal further heard that McEleny sought a “protected conversation” with bosses to resolve matters around the suspension of his security clearance, and left his job in 2017 after this was denied. He then turned to mediation service ACAS, but began tribunal action when no resolution was found.

A written judgement will be issued in due course.