A public inquiry is to scrutinise allegations that police covertly monitored Labour MPs including Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Livingstone in the 1990s.

Lord Justice Pitchford, the senior judge leading the public inquiry into undercover policing, ruled this week that an important part of his inquiry would focus on the claims that the police collected information about the political activities of politicians.

His decision comes after a former undercover officer said in March that police kept secret files on Corbyn, Livingstone and eight other Labour politicians after they had been elected to parliament.

In a ruling earlier this week (pdf), Pitchford said: “Matters of importance to the inquiry are whether undercover police operations were directed at politicians, and if so, for what purpose.”



It is one of a series of allegations that will be looked at during the inquiry, which will examine how undercover police units infiltrated hundreds of political groups over more than 40 years.

The Pitchford inquiry was launched after a series of revelations about the conduct of the covert police units that have monitored political groups since 1968.

The inquiry will, among other things, examine how the undercover police gathered intelligence about protesters, deceived women into forming long-term relationships, and hid evidence in court cases.

In March, Peter Francis, the former undercover officer who blew the whistle on the police’s covert activities, revealed that they kept files on the 10 Labour politicians during the 1990s..

Francis said he read the files on the politicians – including Corbyn – during the 11 years he worked for the Metropolitan police’s special branch.

Following Francis’s revelations, Livingstone, who was the MP for Brent East between 1987 and 2001, said he backed the idea of an inquiry scrutinising the surveillance of politicians.

He said at the time: “I wish I could have been a threat when I was an MP but I was completely powerless. My phone was being bugged in the 80s when I was on the Greater London council. MI5 always denied it was them. So this was done by special branch?

“Did they think we were a threat to the western system? If only this were true. What a load of crap. What’s so ridiculous is that we were being subjected to IRA bombings right the way through that period and they were wasting officers spying on me and Tony Benn.

“It’s a complete waste of police resources. People like me and Tony Benn were sadly never a threat to capitalism because we never had the powers. I’d love to see the files. My kids would love to see the files. They’re most likely full of rubbish.”

Livingstone was the mayor of London between 2000 and 2008 and in the 1980s had been leader of the Greater London council before Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government abolished it.

Francis has identified the other politicians whose political activities were recorded by the police: Harriet Harman, Diane Abbott, Joan Ruddock, Peter Hain, Dennis Skinner, Jack Straw, and the late Bernie Grant and Tony Benn.

In his ruling, Pitchford also announced that Livingstone had become the first politician to be given a key role in the inquiry. He granted an application by Livingstone to be a “core participant” in the inquiry.

This status means that Livingstone is given access to evidence, and can have his legal costs funded by the inquiry.

Pitchford has also granted an application from Grant’s widow, Sharon, to be a “core participant” in the inquiry. However none of the other politicians have applied for the status so far.



At a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, Pitchford made it clear that his inquiry’s interest in the monitoring of politicians was likely to be more wide-ranging than just Livingstone and Grant.



The police’s surveillance of politicians in more recent times has also been criticised. Jenny Jones, a Green Party peer, and Ian Driver, a Green councillor, discovered that the police’s “domestic extremism” unit stored details of their political activities.

In total, around 200 people have been given “core participant” status in the Pitchford inquiry (more details here).

The inquiry is not expected to hold public hearings to examine evidence before next summer.