Whistleblower reveals police compiled secret files on political activities of Corbyn and nine other MPs, even after they had been elected to the Commons

One of the many unanswered questions hanging over the police’s undercover operations has recently become more acute - to what extent did they covertly monitor Jeremy Corbyn, the new Labour leader, and other elected politicians?

A whistleblower, Peter Francis, has revealed that police compiled secret files on the political activities of Corbyn and nine other MPs, even after they had been elected to the House of Commons.

Francis disclosed that he had read the files on the 10 MPs while he worked for the Metropolitan Police’s special branch.

He added that he had personally collected information on Corbyn, and two other MPs, while he was working undercover infiltrating anti-racist groups in the 1990s. Read this and this for more details of his revelations that were made in March this year.

But with the transformation of Corbyn from an obscure backbencher to the leader of the opposition, police chiefs are potentially facing more embarrassment.



Police continued spying on Labour activists after their election as MPs Read more

In March, Corbyn, who has been the MP for Islington North since 1983, told the Islington Tribune that he should be given the full file that the police had compiled on him “without any redactions.”.



“I am a democratically elected person and it turns out I was put under surveil­lance for a long time because I campaigned on human rights issues and was involved in justice campaigns.

“At the Metropolitan Police somebody authorised this and I want to know who. I want to know who ordered the spying higher up, and whether there was any co-operation between the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS) and MI5”.



Francis worked for the SDS, the secret undercover unit that spied on hundreds of political groups between 1968 and 2008.

Just before he was elected Labour leader on September 12, Corbyn was asked again about this issue by Jason Kirkpatrick, a film-maker who is making a documentary on undercover police officers (for more details, see this and this).

This is how Corbyn replied:

Spied Upon film (@SpiedUpon) I asked @jeremycorbyn what he'd do as UK Prime Minister about the undercover spy scandal. Here's his answer: pic.twitter.com/vJqugPFGL6

In March, Francis named the other Labour MPs whom police had kept files on - Harriet Harman, Diane Abbott, Joan Ruddock, Peter Hain, Dennis Skinner, Jack Straw, Ken Livingstone and the late Bernie Grant and Tony Benn.

The revelations prompted criticism from some of the MPs who swiftly went to the Commons and demanded answers from the police. (This here is a transcript of the parliamentary debate, and Guardian articles here and here).

The MPs wanted to see the secret files on themselves and pressed for the surveillance to be examined by the public inquiry into the undercover infiltration of political groups since 1968. This inquiry is headed by a senior judge, Lord Justice Pitchford.

It is not yet known if the monitoring of politicians will be included in the public inquiry since its remit has yet to be clearly defined in public. The inquiry is starting to gather evidence and is not due to start its public hearings before next summer.

John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons, has told MPs that the revelations were “extremely serious”, warning :”This matter will not go away”.

Hain, a former cabinet minister, (here) wanted to know why he was being watched by the police when he was an MP, adding that the revelations raised “fundamental questions about parliamentary sovereignty”.

Why were special branch watching me even when I was an MP? | Peter Hain Read more

Two politicians have established that the police maintained files on their political activities in recent years. Neither of them - Jenny Jones, a Green Party peer, and Ian Driver, a Kent councillor who stood against UKIP leader Nigel Farage at this year’s general election - have a criminal record. Even Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, condemned the monitoring of Jones as “absolutely absurd”.

Last year, the police were unable to say how many elected politicians have been monitored by its ‘domestic extremism’ unit (whose formal name has been the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit.)

So far, the police have said little, other than to suggest that Pitchford’s inquiry “represents a real opportunity to provide the public with as complete a picture as possible of what has taken place”.

