Senior Labour politicians including a Cabinet minister passed information to communist spies during the Cold War, a Daily Telegraph investigation has found.

Stan Orme, who went on to serve as a minister under James Callaghan, met with agents on a monthly basis and passed on information about foreign policy decisions, reports from Czechoslovak agent to their bosses in Prague claim.

Mr Orme - codenamed Manchester - was listed as a “confidential contact” by agents who targeted Labour MPs by wining and dining them.

Intelligence files seen by this newspaper reveal that his handler Frantisek Hruza, who was codenamed Hilner, also had contact with Alf Lomas, who went on to be Labour’s leader in the European Parliament.

Mr Hruza also met with Raymond Mawby, who was a Tory Cabinet Minister and paid informant, and Barnett Stross, the Labour MP codenamed Gustav who was exposed by a Czech defector to the CIA in 1969.