Cold War documents report that Geoffrey Robinson (pictured) divulged highly sensitive information about Britain's nuclear deterrent with a spymaster from Communist Czechoslovakia

One of Jeremy Corbyn's most senior MPs was a spy who passed confidential Government documents to an enemy state, according to intelligence files unearthed by The Mail on Sunday.

The Cold War documents report that Geoffrey Robinson, a Minister under Prime Minister Tony Blair, divulged highly sensitive information about Britain's nuclear deterrent over the course of 51 meetings with a spymaster from Communist Czechoslovakia.

The files also describe alleged contact between Mr Robinson and Russian KGB agents.

Given the codename Karko by the Czechs, Mr Robinson, who was then an ambitious Labour Party apparatchik, allegedly:

Passed the Czechs 87 pieces of intelligence between 1966 and 1969, including highly sensitive details relating to Britain's Polaris missile programme and Nato briefing notes;

Accepted gifts worth more than £12,000 in today's money, including Harrods vouchers, cases of wine and a gallon of whisky;

Declared himself a 'Leninist' and was hailed as one of Czechoslovakia's 'most productive sources' in the UK.

The documents held in an official Prague archive claim that Mr Robinson acknowledged at the time that he 'was involved in espionage' and would be 'sent to prison' if caught.

Last night Mr Robinson, Labour MP for Coventry North West since 1976, strenuously denied the allegations. He issued a statement through lawyers denying any wrongdoing.

'At no time did he ever pass confidential government documents or information to any foreign agent and he did not have access to such material,' it said.

'The allegations made by the Czech authorities 50 years ago are a lie.'

One of Parliament's wealthiest MPs, Robinson was a central New Labour figure, closely allied to both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

Well connected: With Gordon Brown, the then Chancellor, and Economic Secretary Helen Liddell at 11 Downing Street on Budget Day 1998) The files also describe alleged contact between Mr Robinson and Russian KGB agents. Last night Mr Robinson strenuously denied the allegations

But he was forced to resign as Paymaster General in 1998 after it was revealed that he gave Peter Mandelson an undeclared £373,000 loan to buy a house in Notting Hill.

During a successful business career which made him millions, he became involved with a number of disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell's engineering interests. Maxwell was a Czech national who was himself accused of being a spy.

The extraordinary claims are contained in 390 pages of Cold War files archived by the current Czech government.

Complied by the StB security service, they are now administered by the country's State Security archive, which allows applicants to 'trace files… on persons of interest about whom dossiers were maintained'.

The Mail on Sunday has written permission to publish extracts. They detail Mr Robinson's alleged cultivation as a source and how he was expensively wined and dined at exclusive London restaurants and clubs.

Polaris, the ballistic missiles that could wipe out Moscow by Mark Hookham Geoffrey Robinson handed over sensitive information about Britain's nuclear weapons to the Czech communist regime, the files claim. It was a critical time in the Cold War. After years of development, Polaris, the UK's first submarine-based nuclear weapons programme, was just entering service. HMS Resolution, the first of four submarines armed with nuclear missiles, was commissioned into the Royal Navy in October 1967. HMS Resolution, the first of four submarines armed with nuclear missiles, was commissioned into the Royal Navy in October 1967. Pictured is a Polaris missile breaking through water from the submarine off Cape Kennedy Each sub was designed to be able to obliterate up to ten Russian cities, including Moscow. But even as HMS Resolution completed sea trials, a debate raged about the effectiveness of Polaris. By the late 1960s, the Soviet Union and the US were drawing up plans for how to intercept incoming ballistic missiles with a 'defensive shield'. The successful introduction of such a system would mean that Polaris warheads would be unable to penetrate Soviet defences unless they were redesigned. The Czech files claim that in June 1967, Robinson told his handler that US Vice President Hubert Humphrey had tried to persuade the UK to replace Polaris with Poseidon, a costly new US missile system. The Czechs regarded this as 'interesting information' and noted that their informant had learnt it from Defence Secretary Denis Healey and an aide to France's President de Gaulle. Robinson informed the Czechs that the British had rejected the US offer both on economic and political grounds. The MoD, he reported, had drawn up an alternative plan to try to extend the working life of Polaris and enhance the warheads. Two months later, the files claim Robinson told his handler that the 'Government had decided to purchase the new nuclear warhead for the Polaris missiles from the US'. This information appears to have been wrong but it came amid uncertainty over the future of Polaris, and talks were held on whether it should be abandoned. However, Polaris was saved at a Cabinet meeting in 1968. Advertisement

Even after the Czech regime and its Soviet allies brutally suppressed the Prague Spring uprising in 1968, killing 137 civilians, the Labour official allegedly continued to collaborate with the StB.

The revelations follow a series of claims about high-profile Labour politicians' contact with hostile Cold War spies.

Former leader Michael Foot was accused of acting as an 'agent of influence' for Russia's KGB, and last year it was revealed that Mr Corbyn met a Czech spy on four occasions in the 1980s.

A highly placed senior British intelligence source was shown the Robinson file on Friday.

Stationed in the Eastern Bloc during the same period, the source initially suggested that Robinson was, perhaps, working for the British security services as a double agent.

The documents held in an official Prague archive claim that Mr Robinson (pictured) acknowledged at the time that he 'was involved in espionage' and would be 'sent to prison' if caught

But several hours later, following discussions with former colleagues, he was less certain of this, adding: 'I have spoken to people who would have known him and they have no recollection of him.'

In the files, Czech agents told of meetings in which Robinson was plied with drink and given expensive gifts.

His interest to them lay partly in the access they believed he had to Defence Secretary Denis Healey and Foreign Secretary George Brown.

Several sections of the documents give a revealing insight into the way the StB worked closely with Russia's intelligence services, describing alleged contact between Robinson and KGB agents – called 'Soviet friends'– and how Robinson was said to be passing them 'classified' information.

According to the documents, the two countries apparently vied for control of the Labour official, before the Russians eventually backed down.

The files say that Mr Robinson developed a close relationship with his Czech handler Karel Pravec – codenamed Comrade Pelnar, the head of StB's bureau in the London embassy. Pravec is now 88 and living in New Jersey.

His reports from the time are included in the files. He wrote that meetings with Robinson were often oiled with copious amounts of alcohol, particularly 'large quantities' of the Labour official's favourite: whisky and ginger ale.

But the documents claim the meetings would always return to 'business', with Robinson passing information and bundles of documents – sometimes marked 'confidential' – to be copied by Pravec.

The MP was then working in the Labour Party's Transport House research department during Harold Wilson's Labour Government, before moving to the newly formed Industrial Reorganisation Corporation (IRC), Wilson's attempt to restructure British industry.

He first met Pravec at the Labour conference in October 1966 in Brighton, where he is reported to have introduced the spymaster to Healey.

He offered to meet Pravec again and then began passing a steady flow of information to his handler, which he Czech agents described as 'reliable'.

Robinson (pictured) is said to have handed over information on US-UK discussions over the replacement of Polaris

It included details on the withdrawal of British troops from West Germany and across much of the rest of the globe, 'confidential' Nato military briefing files, and details of discussions on replacing Britain's Polaris nuclear deterrent.

By December 1966, the Czechs were already in possession of a briefing note on Britain's plans to reduce its troop numbers in West Germany – six months before Healey told the Cabinet of the planned cuts.

At a meeting in June 1967, Robinson is said to have given Pravec information on US-UK discussions over the replacement of Polaris.

Robinson is said to have told how US Vice-President Hubert Humphrey was placing 'pressure on the UK to purchase the Poseidon rockets', America's upgraded nuclear missile. Apparently the information came 'straight from Healey'.

The report added: 'The Defence Ministry here has drawn up an alternative plan under which the first step will be to try to extend the working life of the existing Polaris missiles as much as possible.'

Later, in September 1967, Mr Robinson is reported to have also tipped off his handlers that the UK intended to buy its 'new nuclear warhead for Polaris from the US.'

The files state Robinson implored Pravec to 'handle this information carefully, as it could have unpleasant consequences [for him] if he were linked to the disclosure.' Ultimately the UK decided against buying new warheads from the US.

Earlier, in March of the same year, Robinson allegedly informed Pravec about planned British troop withdrawals East of the Suez Canal, including the Middle East.

The report came ten months ahead of the Government's official announcement by Wilson in January 1968. But the Czech agents were sceptical about this report and said they could not verify its accuracy.

An agent in Prague, writing in September 1967, said: 'This report is incomplete as it fails to recognise the importance of the simultaneous construction of new military bases in the area. Verification of this report by our Near East and Middle East units was negative.'

The files say that Mr Robinson (pictured with his wife Marie Elena after his 1976 election victory) developed a close relationship with his Czech handler Karel Pravec – codenamed Comrade Pelnar, the head of StB's bureau in the London embassy. Pravec is now 88 and living in New Jersey

At this time, the documents allege, Robinson was also passing information about sensitive discussions between the UK Government and foreign heads of state, including negotiations about Britain joining the European Economic Community. In June 1967, the files say Robinson reported that French President Charles de Gaulle was 'devoting exceptional attention to stopping the UK from joining the EEC'.

Pravec always opened his reports with a matter-of-fact description of his spycraft, in one case stating: 'No surveillance or other problems were detected.'

One rendezvous, in February 1968, came at a time when Robinson was moving from Transport House to the IRC, which the Czechs feared would make his asset less valuable.

But in an apparent bid to help his handlers, Robinson is reported to have handed over any material he could get his hands on before leaving his old job.

In the files, Pravec wrote that Robinson 'increased his intelligence service activities to the maximum. He handed over quite a number of reports and materials – virtually everything he could give us from the position he held.'

During one meeting, Robinson is alleged to have handed over bundles of documents to be copied by StB agents, including Foreign Office and Cabinet Office files and a proposed speech by Healey on Britain's military plans.

A 'hasty and tense' pub rendezvous later that month saw Robinson pass four bundles of 'confidential Nato materials' including some titled 'East-West relationships', 'Development outside the Nato region', 'Ideological basis of Nato' and 'Problems with Nato', said to have had Robinson's handwritten notes in the margins.

The Czechs reportedly rewarded Robinson with expensive gifts during his collaboration including £200 of Harrods vouchers – worth around £3,500 today – as a gift following his wedding to Marie Elena in 1967.

He also is said to have accepted a gallon of whisky, a briefcase and requested a case of wine worth £50 in the summer of 1969, worth £800 in today's money.

But he later reportedly turned down another £100 of Harrods vouchers, saying it should be returned as '[Czech] labourers worked really hard' for the money. He also refused explicit financial reward from the agents.

The spy agency described their satisfaction at the low cost of their operation, writing: 'Karko's intelligence results were highly profitable from the financial point of view.'

Assessing Robinson's motives, agents suggested he enjoyed to 'eat very well' with Pravec and that this is 'typically what he asks' for – while he also appeared to have a 'personal liking' for the agent.

In the files, it is reported he also described himself as a 'Leninist' to Pravec in one of their early meetings and that he was also active in the Left-wing Fabian Society.

To disguise the true nature of the meetings, the files say Robinson had told his boss he was having regular discussions with diplomats as part of his research role. But he admitted to his handler that knew Pravec was 'not a straight diplomat'.

And in another report, Robinson is said to have admitted to Pravec that the Czech 'could send him to jail immediately' by revealing his actions.

At several meetings, the Labour official is said to have displayed crippling anxiety at the thought of being discovered, particularly with a stream of Soviet spy stories in the British press.

The Czech agents stated that they 'never detected any surveillance' of their meetings, but became concerned at Robinson's few calls to the embassy, which they believe would have been noticed by MI5.

By 1969, the Czech agents were preparing to induct Robinson into full 'agent' status from his ranking as 'DS' – a confidential informant who knowingly commits espionage.

But Pravec was suddenly removed from the Czech embassy in 1969, causing a break in the relationship and 'complicating the situation'.

Prior to this episode, it had apparently been Robinson's transfer to Wilson's economic project which unsettled the relationship.

Pravec reported that the economic reports he began to hand over in his new role were not of the same use and that his 'intelligence gathering possibilities' had 'declined considerably'.

The files said the StB had offered to make up his salary had he stayed at Transport House, and Pravec is said to have told Robinson 'that the help from foreign governments to prospective politicians is common and that there are people in the British Cabinet who have moved up in their posts only thanks to the help from abroad.'

Robinson is reported to have declined the offer. It left Pravec to conclude: 'I think he was drawn by the certainty of higher income, whereas working for me only gave him the hope of a pay rise.'

The 'Leninist' accused of sharing secrets over fine wines, fillet steak - and shows at the Pussy Club

Famed for its caviar and oysters, it was the society haunt where Edward VIII wooed Mrs Simpson. But on October 21, 1966, according to intelligence files seen by The Mail on Sunday, the first act in an altogether different courtship was unfolding inside Maison Prunier in St James’s, Central London.

That night, two men, anxious not be overheard, were in the Art Deco dining room discussing politics in muted tones over a lavish seafood meal.

One was Geoffrey Robinson, then an ambitious but unknown 28-year-old Labour Party apparatchik. The other was Czech spymaster Karel Pravec, who was eager to recruit him.

One was Geoffrey Robinson, then an ambitious but unknown 28-year-old Labour Party apparatchik

Guided to their table a few minutes earlier, they might well have passed a Cabinet Minister or two, landed aristocrats down from the shires, captains of industry, or possibly stars of stage and screen. Once a favourite of Winston Churchill, few restaurants were as celebrated as Maison Prunier.

Given the two men’s political beliefs, it certainly made for an incongruous backdrop to their discussions. According to the files, both Russian-speaking Robinson and Pravec, 35, claimed to be Leninists, yet their tastes were anything but proletarian.

They became acquainted two weeks earlier at the Labour Party conference in Brighton and their dinner was the first of 51 assignations. They always ate and drank in style.

And as the cultivation of Robinson intensified, so too did the two men’s friendship. Before his wedding in 1967, the files say that Robinson even suggested they go on a ‘wild’ stag weekend in Paris ‘from where he would go straight to the altar’.

Mostly their playground was the Establishment heartland of St James’s. The irony of grooming an aspiring British politician under the noses of the elite must have tickled Pravec.

For his part, Robinson – who told his handler he broke off contact with his factory-owning father partly because he didn’t want to be labelled a capitalist – is portrayed in the previously secret reports as a man who relished both the high life and Pravec’s largesse.

Their favoured haunts amounted to a Who’s Who of late 1960s fine dining. They included Overton’s – once popular with 007 author Ian Fleming, who said its pate maison was the ‘best in town’ – and San Frediano in Chelsea, whose regulars included Princess Margaret.

Quaglino’s in St James’s was another favourite, as was Veeraswamy on Regent Street, the oldest Indian restaurant in the country, and the Paramount Grill, off Leicester Square, which claimed to serve the best steak in the world.

Once a favourite of Winston Churchill, few restaurants were as celebrated as Maison Prunier

This was the apogee of Swinging London: the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper’s, the beau monde thronged the catwalks of Carnaby Street and the Kings Road, and, thanks to fashion designer Mary Quant, miniskirt hemlines had never been shorter.

But while neither Robinson nor Pravec could be called groovy, they were determined to have fun.

They visited nightclubs, among them The Georgian Pussy Club, staggering distance from Quaglino’s – it featured ‘gorgeous hostesses’ who waited on tables dressed in cat outfits comprising leotards and knee-high boots.

Another venue was the Pigalle nightclub in Piccadilly Circus, which was often frequented by the Kray twins and known for its racy cabaret shows.

And sometimes they ventured into Soho to watch the ‘fabulous floorshow’ at Tolaini’s Latin Quarter nightclub in Wardour Street.

According to the files, Robinson handed over confidential documents on numerous occasions. Once, during a restaurant meeting, he wrote down instructions from his handler on a napkin.

Occasionally, the two men played squash at Dolphin Square, the giant ten-storey block of flats looking out over the River Thames at Pimlico, which has long been home to MPs, spies and other notables.

If they needed to request an urgent rendezvous, Robinson’s handler telephoned his home using the cover of arranging a squash match.

On that first night at Prunier, though, beyond the political tenor of their conversation, what the two men discussed is not recorded in the files, only that Karko – Robinson’s Czech codename – ‘provided three items of information’.

Famed for its caviar and oysters, Maison Prunier in St James's, Central London, was the society haunt where Edward VIII wooed Mrs Simpson

Their meeting began at 7pm and ended at 11.40pm.

If their rendezvous had been the following evening, October 22, Robinson might well have been markedly more nervous.

That day George Blake, the Soviet double agent, escaped over the wall of Wormwood Scrubs and fled to Moscow.

As it was, the first move in a carefully calibrated operation to try to ensnare Robinson, later a Minister under Tony Blair, was a success – at least that’s how it seemed to the StB, the Czech intelligence service.

Robinson, according to the files, was ‘impressed’ by his new friend – ostensibly first secretary at the Czech Embassy – and saw him ‘as an interesting partner from his personal point of view’.

At the time, Robinson worked in the international section of Labour’s research department, apparently affording him access to sensitive material.

A Czech interior ministry memorandum would later state that: ‘[Robinson] regularly provides our unit with information of a political nature, as well as classified materials pertaining to his line of work.’

This appeared true of another meeting three days before Christmas 1966 at the Golden Carp, an upmarket fish restaurant in Mayfair. It was here, the files say, that Robinson claimed to have access to coded communications from British missions abroad.

At first he was reluctant to reveal them, though it is later claimed that he changed his mind.

The two men also discussed the European Economic Community. ‘Karko announced that his arguments [in favour of joining] were backed up by a speech’ made by George Thomson, a Minister in Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s Cabinet, given to the Western European Union, an international organisation and military alliance.

The files, which use the codename Comrade Pelnar for Pravec, state: ‘After the meeting, Comrade Pelnar reminded Karko that he had promised to show him Thomson’s speech.

‘At first Karko hesitated, but then (after he had been given a gallon jar of whisky as a Christmas gift) he took Comrade Pelnar to his car and allowed him to read the speech… marked “confidential”.’

It was at this meeting that the Czechs first noted what they called Robinson’s ‘tendency to boast’.

They visited nightclubs, among them The Georgian Pussy Club, staggering distance from Quaglino’s – it featured ‘gorgeous hostesses’ who waited on tables dressed in cat outfits comprising leotards and knee-high boots

Explaining why he had to cancel a rendezvous earlier that month, he said he had been delayed in Paris because the French Prime Minister, Georges Pompidou, invited him to dinner. ‘The explanation he gave was that the French PM wanted to talk to him on an unofficial basis about various views on the British joining the EEC,’ said one report.

As they finished their meal, the files say that Robinson expressed concern that his handler was lavishing too much money on him.

‘He was delighted to hear that Comrade Pelnar had a monthly allowance and it made no difference to him whether he spent it with someone all at once or bit by bit.’

At this time, newspapers were full of stories about Cold War traitors and Robinson, according to the files, was prone to jitters. In the spring of 1967, he met his handler in the Georgian nightclub but for once was unable to enjoy the entertainment. He became nervous about the presence of a man sitting at the next table. The files report that he was probably a musician since he was making notes on sheet music, but Robinson was ‘uneasy’ and, believing they could be overheard, insisted on moving elsewhere.

‘You can’t talk freely here,’ he is said to have told his handler.

The files claim that the two men were never followed – the Czechs always carried out counter-surveillance measures.

Yet in July that year, returning from a meeting with Robinson, Pravec ‘was dazzled close to his front door’ by a ‘spotlight fitted on to an unknown vehicle’.

And once inside his London flat, where he lived alone, the spy noticed that the light was on in his bedroom, though it was off when he left for work in the morning.

There had been another unsettling episode some months earlier. Over dinner at Veeraswamy, Robinson noticed a Labour MP, whom he knew well, sitting at the next table with his lover. ‘As he [the MP] clearly felt uncomfortable about being spotted by Karko he left... after a short while.’

There was interest in Robinson from other foreign agents, among them a Russian identified in the files as Mogilevcik.

In one report, Pravec writes: ‘When Mogilevcik finally reached Karko on the phone at work, Karko accepted his lunch invitation in order to prevent further unwelcome phone calls.

According to the files, Robinson handed over confidential documents on numerous occasions. Once, during a restaurant meeting, he wrote down instructions from his handler on a napkin

‘Mogilevcik asked Karko what restaurant he prefers and Karko unfortunately mentioned Paramount, a restaurant that I go to for short lunches when Karko does not have much time and has to go to eat somewhere near his office.

‘Karko accepted my criticism that it was not a very smart thing to do… I think it would be correct to warn Soviet advisers that Karko is being recruited and that the approach of their staff is damaging [and] gravely irresponsible.’

According to the files, Robinson appeared to have had serious qualms about his meetings with Pravec, initially at least.

One report from November 1967 notes that ‘he is most likely aware that he is walking on the edge of a risky adventure that can jeopardise his future career. In order to maintain balance, he appears to have created a notional red line that he strives not to cross.’

But the files suggest he later was in a more useful position to help, although he was far from being in the pay of Communist Czechoslovakia. ‘He made it clear in several interviews that he knew he was involved in espionage and that [Pravec] might “send him to prison any time”. He restricted his co-operation by refusing to share information that might lead to harm to his country in the case of war.’

On one occasion he met his handler at The Red Lion pub in St James’s, tucked away in Crown Passage, a 17th Century alleyway, and perfect for secret assignations. After ‘handing over materials’, the files claim Robinson left to attend a meeting in Parliament before reconvening with Pravec an hour and a half later at a restaurant.

Another venue was the Pigalle nightclub in Piccadilly Circus, which was often frequented by the Kray twins and known for its racy cabaret shows

In early 1968, Robinson was offered an executive job with the Industrial Reorganisation Corporation, set up by Harold Wilson to shake up British industry. Pravec tried to dissuade him from taking it and offered to make up the difference in salary. Robinson declined.

A report from that month says: ‘He [Pravec] indicated that the help from foreign states to prospective politicians is common and that there are people in the British Cabinet who have moved up in their posts only thanks to help from abroad. Karko reacted that he knew something about these cases.’ Robinson ‘made clear that money is not the main thing for him and he has the bonds from his father’s company but that he doesn’t use them because he wants to stay faithful to his political principles and that he wants… a political career.’

The report adds that Robinson believes Pravec has ‘given him a lot’ by sharing ‘his life experience’.

Still, though, the contact continued. From around the same time, another report outlined Robinson’s position: ‘He doesn’t get the codes on his desk as he stated before but he reads them during various contacts at FO!! [Foreign Office] Concerning a confidential material, he has the possibility to make a photocopy or to borrow the material and copy it at his workplace. But he cannot make the photocopy with the secret materials and… take them out of the building.’

What would have taken Robinson to the next level – full recruitment as a spy – was to have taken place during the World Ski Championships in February 1970 in Vysoké Tatry, Czechoslovakia.

‘He was very excited about his planned stay and was fully prepared for a further specification of his existing collaboration,’ claim the files. But they go on to say this never happened because ‘the connection with Karko’ was lost.

Stranger than fiction life of Champagne socialist who was friends with Robert Maxwell, hosted Blair's Tuscan holidays and had a torrid affair with an Italian actress

By Glen Owen, Political Editor for the Mail On Sunday

The high life: Armed by the £30million Mr Robinson (pictured with his wife Maria Elena and their pet dalmatian outside their Surrey mansion in 1998) made from series of propitious business deals he managed to inveigle his way into the tight clique being formed by Mr Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson

Until today's dynamite claims, Geoffrey Robinson was best known as the bon vivant Labour MP whose fortune helped to oil the wheels of Tony Blair's New Labour.

Armed by the £30 million he made from series of propitious business deals – many of them cloaked in mystery and linked to the crooked Czech-born media tycoon Robert Maxwell – Robinson managed to inveigle his way into the tight clique being formed by Mr Blair, Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson.

It was his passport out of the backbench obscurity that he had endured since entering the Commons as MP for Coventry West in 1976.

His champagne lifestyle soon came to symbolise Mr Blair's break with Labour's socialist roots, with the Labour leader jetting off for free holidays at Mr Robinson's Tuscan villa, where he enjoyed its 50ft outdoor pool and landscaped gardens dotted with cypress trees and lavender bushes.

Mr Robinson also owned Orchards, a Lutyens-designed Elizabethan-style mansion set in 50 acres of Surrey countryside near Godalming – where he was once caught flouting a hosepipe ban by using water from a private borehole – along with properties in the South of France and a Park Lane penthouse.

His pivotal position in the Blairite establishment was cemented in 1996 when he bought the Left-wing New Statesman magazine, only relinquishing it 12 years later, after Mr Blair had left Downing Street.

His champagne lifestyle soon came to symbolise Mr Blair's break with Labour's socialist roots, with the Labour leader jetting off for free holidays at Mr Robinson's Tuscan villa, where he enjoyed its 50ft outdoor pool and landscaped gardens dotted with cypress trees and lavender bushes

Mr Robinson's deep pockets also, infamously, allowed him to lend £373,000 to Mr Mandelson to help him buy a townhouse in Notting Hill in 1996.

When the cosy deal was exposed, it triggered Mr Mandelson's first Cabinet resignation and forced Mr Robinson to quit his Government role as Paymaster General.

The publicity also drew attention to Mr Robinson's boulevardier lifestyle of fine wines, lavish dining – and women.

In 1998, The Mail on Sunday revealed Mr Robinson and Italian film star Annabella Incontrera had been lovers since 1973, when he was managing director of British Leyland's Italian arm, Innocenti.

'Geoffrey was a very good lover and very persistent in his proposals of marriage,' she said.

'He even introduced me to friends as 'Mrs Robinson'. He would say 'With me, Annabella, one day you will be in Downing Street.' '

Italian lover: In 1998, The Mail on Sunday revealed Mr Robinson and Italian film star Annabella Incontrera (pictured) had been lovers since 1973, when he was managing director of British Leyland's Italian arm, Innocenti

Mr Robinson's wife, Maltese opera singer and pianist Maria Elena Giorgio, was not impressed, saying: 'So many times it was supposed to have been called off and then I discovered that it's not called off at all.'

It came just months after Mr Robinson had received an inheritance of more than £12 million from his close friend, Joska Bourgeois, who at one time had been the world's 12th richest woman.

He was even said to have 'charmed' and 'beguiled' Harold Wilson's wife, Mary, after first joining the Labour Party in 1958. Mr Wilson had persuaded him to sign up after giving a lecture at Yale University, where Mr Robinson was studying after graduating from Cambridge.

He has been married to Marie Elena since 1967, but the relationship was tempestuous from the start.

Mr Robinson's biographer, Tom Bower, quotes Robinson as saying of their frequent arguments: 'We've lost three alarm clocks in three months. I just duck and run.'

The couple have two children, Alexander, 40, whom Mr Robinson accidentally shot in the foot with a shotgun in 1991, and Veronique, 48.

The Czech spy files cover the period after 1964, when he joined Labour's research department.

He had previously done National Service – today, he is the last MP to have done so – and built up a formidable grasp of languages after serving in the Army's Intelligence Corps, becoming fluent in German, French and Russian.

It led to him being assigned to the party's international section, where his opposition to the Vietnam War brought him into contact with MPs on the party's far Left, including Tony Benn.

Crook: Maxwell worked with Robinson and helped make him rich

The path to Mr Robinson's fortune started in 1973 when – to the surprise of the industry – he became chief executive of Jaguar at the age of just 34.

But the explosion in his wealth only took place after he entered the orbit of Mr Maxwell in the 1980s.

Just days before the businessman died in 1991, after falling off his yacht in unexplained circumstances, Maxwell had been accused of being an Israeli spy by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.

The author claimed that the billionaire publisher had close links with Mossad and was involved in Israel's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

Separate sources claimed that Maxwell had spied on the West for Eastern Bloc countries.

Maxwell faced posthumous disgrace when it emerged that he had plundered hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies' pension funds to shore up the shares of the Mirror Group to save his companies from bankruptcy.

Robinson was dogged for years by claims that he had not been transparent about his business relationship with Maxwell, which started in 1986 when he founded TransTec, a technology concern, by merging one of his companies with one of Maxwell's.

It was originally called Central & Sherwood, but changed its name in 1991.

It went on to become a £200 million international conglomerate focusing on aerospace customers.

In 1991, Mr Robinson oversaw the £2.9 million sale of two subsidiaries of Hollis Industries, a company which he once chaired, to a Maxwell business.

That same day, the companies were sold to another Maxwell business for £4 million.

Months later, Hollis collapsed owing creditors £16 million.

Questions were been asked about how Maxwell was able to make such a large profit in a single day, and exactly what Mr Robinson's involvement had been.

He faced a series of inquiries by MPs, and in 1998 he was questioned by the then Downing Street chief of staff Jonathan Powell after it emerged that he had received £150,000 as a director of Central & Sherwood – a payment which never appeared in the register of MPs' interests.

Mr Robinson insisted that he declared the payment in January 1991, but 'missed the printer's deadline' for the annual list.

He faced faced further embarrassment shortly afterwards when it was revealed that he had received a second payment of £1 million from Maxwell just months before the collapse of his business empire.

Mr Robinson has argued that these payments came at a time when the rules on disclosure of directorships and payments were more vague than they are now.

Mr Robinson, who will be 81 later this month, has also long been a director of Coventry City Football Club but he has scaled back his business commitments and his pursuit of the high life as his health has started to fail.

He suffered a stroke last December which has affected his speech, but he remains a familiar figure in the Commons, where he is now permanently accompanied by Marie Elena.

He confided to spy about his sex life

by Jake Ryan

Geoffrey Robinson's relationship with his Czech spy handler reportedly grew so close that the Labour official even asked him for advice on his sex life .

According to the files, Robinson poured his heart out to agent Karel Pravec and asked: 'How many times a week should be enough'?

Pravec, writing his report of the May 1969 meeting in the high-society restaurant San Frediano in Chelsea, explained drily that Robinson 'demonstrated how [his wife Marie Elena] is, for example asking him to 'kiss me', 'come closer', etc, and he genuinely complained about too much attention from his wife.

Intimate advice: Mr Robinson (pictured with his wife Marie Elena after his 1976 election victory) grew such a close relationship with his Czech spy handler that the Labour official even asked him for advice on his sex life

He didn't want money but took £200 Harrods vouchers The files reveal how Geoffrey Robinson explicitly refused 'financial remuneration'. But shortly before his wedding in Malta to Marie Elena Giorgio in 1967, he did accept a gift of £200 of vouchers from Harrods, the files allege – equivalent to about £3,500 in today's prices. On another occasion, Robinson refused £100 of vouchers because it was money for which Czech 'labourers worked really hard and should be returned'. The Czechs appear to have regarded Robinson as good value for money. 'Karko's intelligence results were highly profitable from the financial point of view,' the files record. Advertisement

'He then asked me for advice on how many times a week should be enough and how is my situation in this regard.'

A slightly taken-aback Pravec added: 'He then asked me when we are in Tatra mountains [a planned trip to Czechoslovakia] if my wife could talk to his wife.

'I told him that a woman has to be sometimes wise when she sees that a man is tired, etc, etc, just to give him courage.

'I think that overwork has a negative influence on [Robinson's] sexual life and it depresses him a bit.'

In the files, Pravec also carried out an assessment of Robinson's character, which included one summary falling under the category 'Relationships with women'.

The extract reports that he is 'shy', adding: 'He wants to 'mix' but only if someone else makes the necessary arrangements, of course.'

On one evening in May 1967, Robinson was invited by Pravec – who was codenamed Pelnar – to a cabaret nightspot called The Georgian Pussy Club in St James's, Central London.

But the files state he was 'very shy there and asked Comrade Pelnar to introduce him to some of the girls in the place.'

Robinson and his handler were later said to have taken another trip to a dancing club called La Dolce Nota, yet 'despite being rather drunk and jolly', the aspiring politician was again 'shy to go and dance, even though he had the opportunity and wanted to'.

'A good spy would never answer your stupid questions!': Czech agent's stunned response after the Mail on Sunday tracks him down in the US over alleged meetings with Labour grandee

Now living in a £800,000, five-bedroom home that could easily be mistaken for one of the properties featured in hit crime drama series The Sopranos, Karel Pravec appears to have put his spying days behind hi

By Jonathan Bucks for the Mail On Sunday

The Mail on Sunday tracked down Karel Pravec to a sleepy suburban street in the American state of New Jersey – a world away from Czechoslovakia of the 1960s.

Now living in a £800,000, five-bedroom home that could easily be mistaken for one of the properties featured in hit crime drama series The Sopranos, Mr Pravec appears to have put his spying days behind him.

The 88-year-old was at first stunned into silence when The Mail on Sunday confronted him with his past at his front door.

After demanding to know how this newspaper had unearthed details of his alleged secret meetings with the Labour grandee, Mr Pravec was shown a dossier of secret files that laid bare his past association.

Still on the doorstep and hunched over a Mail on Sunday laptop screen, the former spymaster bowed his head and appeared dumbfounded as he scrolled through the cache of declassified files. After pausing for a moment, Mr Pravec looked up and, in a thick, gravelly Czech accent, tinged with a slight American twang, said: ‘I’m not discussing what happened in the 1960s. This is all a very long time ago and I won’t talk about any of it.’

When pressed further about his past life, Mr Pravec, who has lost none of the quick-wittedness typical of a Communist agent operating in London, said solemnly: ‘Do you think if I was a good spy I would answer any of your stupid questions?’

Little is known of exactly how Mr Pravec found his way to suburban America. But it seems that as relations between East and West worsened, Mr Pravec became disaffected with the Communist regime.

According to a biography by his son Karel, an experienced Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt who fights under the moniker Silver Fox, Mr Pravec was forced to flee Czechoslovakia in 1980 after he denounced Soviet rule. Nearly 40 years later, Mr Pravec and his family appear to have blended seamlessly into American society.

Their enormous US house, about 20 miles north of New York City, is nestled in an acre of land and surrounded by forest.

With its double garage and typically American postbox at the front, no one would suspect that the occupant once compiled detailed reports for the Soviet regime. Mr Pravec seemed shocked that the MoS had managed to track him down.

Little is known of exactly how Mr Pravec found his way to suburban America. But it seems that as relations between East and West worsened, Mr Pravec became disaffected with the Communist regime

When pressed further about his past life, Mr Pravec, who has lost none of the quick-wittedness typical of a Communist agent operating in London, said solemnly: ‘Do you think if I was a good spy I would answer any of your stupid questions?’

Locals said Mr Pravec and his wife had lived in the house for years, and that he was a quiet and mild-mannered man.

It is hardly surprising that Mr Pravec chose to relocate his family here. With several schools in the area and a high street filled with diners, the town offers a slice of typical US life.

With a population just shy of 8,500, it is the perfect place to escape a past that could have been lifted straight out of a John le Carré novel.

One resident said: ‘They’re a friendly couple but keep themselves to themselves.

‘We know that they came over here from Czechoslovakia but he doesn’t really talk about what went on before that.’

‘This is a very peaceful town,’ another neighbour said. ‘We are friendly but we don’t pry into people’s lives. We certainly respect people’s privacy.’

Penny pincher nabbed handler's strawberries - and flew in to rage at waiter's £2 cover charge

By Mark Hookham

He may have been seen as a champagne socialist during the New Labour years, but 30 years earlier Czechoslovakian spymasters painted a very different picture of Geoffrey Robinson, reporting that he appeared to be a penny-pincher.

An intelligence report reveals that at meeting in a restaurant in July 1967 between Robinson and Karel Pravec, his Czech intelligence handler, Robinson ‘got angry’ that waiters had added a £2 cover charge to their bill.

He may have been seen as a champagne socialist during the New Labour years, but 30 years earlier Czechoslovakian spymasters painted a very different picture of Geoffrey Robinson, reporting that he appeared to be a penny-pincher

He insisted that they should not get a tip and picked up the ten shillings that had been left on a plate by Pravec.

‘Although he was holding the money in his hand up until the time they parted, he did not return it to Comrade Pelnar [Pravec],’ the report states.

‘At the next meeting, he apologised for taking the money and not returning it but did not return it even then, showing pleasure when Comrade Pelnar declined to take the money.’

Nevertheless, Pravec ordered strawberries for dessert and pretended not to want them

The handler meticulously recorded ‘noteworthy’ incidents involving money but a report detailing meetings in 1966 and 1967 shows that the Czech spies had not been able to confirm that their informant had an ‘interest in material gain’.

Pravec, however, appears to have engineered scenarios to test how his informant would react. During the July 1967 meeting, Robinson finished his main course and insisted he did not want any more to eat. Nevertheless, Pravec ordered strawberries for dessert and pretended not to want them. ‘Karko [Robinson] ate not only his own portion but also Comrade Pelnar’s, without first asking Comrade Pelnar’s permission,’ an intelligence report notes. The Czechs assumed their informant’s ‘financial situation was not too good and that it prevented him from having an active social life’.

During a visit by the pair to the Pigalle club in Piccadilly, Robinson ‘showed a lively interest in gambling’ but while his handler played roulette, Robinson opted to ‘play on the gambling machines at six pence a time’.

Meanwhile, the files show that Robinson told his handler that he was getting married in Malta in 1967 and was planning to stop off briefly in Italy on the way home.

‘He literally said that he didn’t have enough money for a longer trip,’ a report notes.

During a night out in October 1966, Pravec discovered that he did not have enough money to pay a bill and the entrance fee of a nightclub where he wanted to take Robinson.

He borrowed £3 from his informant, which ‘was all the money Karko had on him’. ‘At the next meeting, when Comrade Pelnar repaid him the sum, Karko pretended that he didn’t want the money, but then held open his jacket pocket so that Comrade Pelnar could put the money in,’ a report in the files adds.

The perfect gift for a bon viveur: a gallon of whisky

Karel Pravec knew that a surefire way of gleaning information from a loose-lipped informant was with copious amounts of alcohol.

The intelligence files claim that Geoffrey Robinson grew to trust his Czech handler during boozy lunches and dinners and nights out in pubs and clubs.

A report of Pravec’s early encounters with Robinson detailed the informant’s ‘tendency to drink’, along with his ‘tendency to boast’.

The pair first met over drinks at a pub at the 1966 Labour Party conference in Brighton, where Robinson introduced the Czechoslovakian spook to Labour MPs, including the then Defence Secretary Denis Healey. Pravec noted that Robinson ‘drinks almost exclusively whisky with ginger beer, and in considerable quantities at that’.

Pravec noted that Robinson ‘kept himself together quite well’ until the last whisky ‘when there was a sudden change and he started showing signs of mild drunkenness, closing the eyes from time to time, speaking loudly and gesturing widely (other than that, however, he restrained himself)’

A few weeks later, the pair had dinner together at the Maison Prunier restaurant in London, at which Pravec told his spy bosses that Robinson ‘got rather drunk’.

He added: ‘I had to make an effort to keep up with him to an acceptable extent. He drank several double shots of whisky with ginger beer (even after dinner instead of cognac) and, as part of dinner together with me, two bottles of wine.’

Pravec noted that Robinson ‘kept himself together quite well’ until the last whisky ‘when there was a sudden change and he started showing signs of mild drunkenness, closing the eyes from time to time, speaking loudly and gesturing widely (other than that, however, he restrained himself).’

At a meeting three days before Christmas in 1966, Robinson ‘very willingly’ accepted a gallon of whisky as a gift from Pravec.

And at a later meeting, he asked his handler for a few bottles of whisky because he knew that Czech diplomats could buy them for a heavily discounted price.

Spy expert: 'Robinson knew he was sharing intelligence with agents...'

By Abul Taher in Bratislava

A leading Cold War expert last night said declassified files obtained by The Mail on Sunday provided evidence that Geoffrey Robinson knew he was passing information on to a Communist intelligence agent.

Cold War ghosts haunting Labour There is a long list of Labour MPs and officials caught up in alleged spy scandals. The most high-profile claims swirled around former Labour leader Michael Foot. KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky claimed Foot received payments and was an agent. Foot, who died in 2010 aged 96, denied it. Last year it was reported that Jeremy Corbyn had meetings in the 1980s with a Czech StB spy. Mr Corbyn denied the claims. MP John Stonehouse was accused in the 1960s of spying for the StB. He disappeared, presumed drowned, in November 1974, but was later found in Australia. In 2010, National Archives papers revealed that he had indeed been a paid spy. Bob Edwards, a West Midlands MP from 1955 to 1987, was identified by Britain as a KGB informant. He was later honoured by the Soviet Union. Advertisement

Dr Daniela Richterova, a lecturer in intelligence studies at Brunel University in London, said that if accurate, the documents from the archive of the StB, the Czech secret police, appear to disclose that Robinson ‘was consciously making a decision to share sensitive information with the Czech intelligence service and the Russians.’

Dr Richterova is a highly regarded expert on the StB and has pored over the secret police’s archive to research other MPs who were spying for Czechoslovakia, including former Labour Government Minister John Stonehouse.

Dr Richterova last week examined the Karko file, detailing the StB’s handling of Geoffrey Robinson between 1966 and 1969. A Czech-speaker, she studied both the original documents and the English translations.

She confirmed that she had previously come across Karel Pravec, Robinson’s Czech handler who was codenamed Comrade Pelnar, during her own research, and that other files show that he was getting information from ‘at least one other British informant during that time in London’. She said: ‘The documents appear to me to be genuine.

‘If accurate, it is clear that Robinson knew that Pelnar was not a straight-up diplomat, he knew he was an intelligence agent.

‘He was consciously making a decision to share intelligence with the Czech intelligence service and the Russians.’

She added: ‘Governments rightly expect their employees not to pass sensitive information to their adversaries. From what we know of Robinson, he consciously provided such information to Britain’s Cold War adversaries – Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.’

Dr Daniela Richterova, a lecturer in intelligence studies at Brunel University in London, said that if accurate, the documents from the archive of the StB, the Czech secret police, appear to disclose that Robinson ‘was consciously making a decision to share sensitive information with the Czech intelligence service and the Russians’

Dr Richterova said it is not clear how important the StB spymasters in Prague regarded Robinson.

‘His handler Pelnar thinks he is a very good asset, but officials in Prague were sometimes sceptical of Robinson, as they thought he tended to exaggerate or sometimes lied.’

The academic confirmed that the StB had assigned Robinson ‘DS’ status – one level down from a full agent – but with no access to equipment capable of sending coded messages.

She added it was ‘probable’ that MI5 might have become aware of what Robinson was doing but she added: ‘It also cannot be ruled out that he was put up to this by MI5.’