Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Former Czechoslovak spy alleges Jeremy Corbyn took money for information The Labour leader’s office calls the claims a ‘ridiculous smear’ worthy of a ‘bad James Bond movie.’

PRAGUE — A former Czechoslovak intelligence agent claimed Friday that Jeremy Corbyn took money in exchange for passing on information during the Cold War.

The allegation by the former agent, Ján Sarkocy, was called into question by the head of a Czech intelligence archive. A spokesperson for Corbyn called the claim a "ridiculous smear."

Sarkocy told Czech TV station ČT 24 that the Labour leader — who was then a backbench MP — knew he was collaborating with Czechoslovakia's StB security service and that he was paid for the information he provided.

“[Corbyn] was recruited. He was getting money [for information],” the former StB agent said, adding that he did not pay any money himself to Corbyn. He also said Corbyn was not the only member of the British Labour Party to be recruited.

According to the Sun newspaper on Wednesday, the Labour leader was "vetted by Czech agents in 1986 and met one spook at least three times — twice in the [House of] Commons." Corbyn allegedly warned the spy of "a clampdown by British intelligence." The paper claimed that the Czechs even had a codeword for the then Labour backbench MP — COB.

Sarkocy said that he had passed Corbyn on to the former Czechoslovak secret service and that the recruitment had been carried out “under Russian supervision.”

"All the information we received, not only from him but also from another, supporting source, was regarded in Moscow as first-rate,” Sarkocy said. “I knew what [former British Prime Minister] Margaret Thatcher would have for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

Asked whether Corbyn would have known that he was an StB member, Sarkocy — who was operating under the cover name Ján Dymic — said that there would have been no doubt at the time that all Czechoslovak diplomats were members of the secret service.

Světlana Ptáčníková, who heads the Czech Security Forces Archive disputed the new allegations. “If Corbyn had been an agent, his file would have been under a different category,” she said, explaining that the StB had strict rules regarding file management, and that once someone was recruited, the new agent’s file would have been categorized differently. "The former agent's [Sarkocy's] allegations are in direct contradiction with archival materials,” she said.

Sarkocy was expelled from Great Britain in 1989 along with several other agents. In the final report about their meetings, Corbyn was described as "RS," a person of interest, rather than an agent, ČT 24 reported. There are passages in the files indicating that the secret service was trying to dispel any suspicion that Corbyn may have regarding possible StB involvement, Ptáčníková said. The file, which uses capital letters for the Labour leader's name, states that all expenses should be handled so that "CORBYN could not deduce any operative interest," from the StB.

A spokesperson for Corbyn said: “Jeremy was neither an agent, asset, informer nor collaborator with Czechoslovak intelligence. These claims are a ridiculous smear and entirely false. The former Czechoslovak agent Ján Sarkocy’s account of his meeting with Jeremy was false 30 years ago, is false now and has no credibility whatsoever. His story has more plot holes in it than a bad James Bond movie.”