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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at a miners' rally in Midlothian. Jane Barlow/PA Images

Jeremy Corbyn hits back at The Sun's 'commie spy' claims, calling them 'a little bit James Bond'

The British Labour leader says UK ‘media barons’ are running scared.

BRITISH LABOUR LEADER Jeremy Corbyn has accused some of the UK’s biggest newspapers of going “a little bit James Bond” with claims about him.

Last week, The Sun published a front page story containing claims from a former spy for then-Czechoslovakia that Corbyn had knowingly cooperated with the communist intelligence agency.

The right-wing tabloid published documents purportedly from the Czech State Security Archive referring to meetings between an agent and Corbyn in 1986.

A spokesperson for Corbyn declared the claims to be a “ridiculous smear” adding that the report had “no credibility whatsoever”.

Corbyn was a relatively new far-left Labour MP at the time, having been first elected to parliament in 1983.

A spokesman for the Labour leader said he met a diplomat but never knowingly talked to a spy and “neither had nor offered any privileged information”.

The spy, 64-year-old Jan Sarkocy, worked at the Czechoslovakian embassy in London before being expelled from Britain in 1989.

PastedImage-26932 The Sun's front page story last Thursday. Twitter Twitter

Following a weekend in which a number of other British newspapers have also published The Sun’s claims, Corbyn today came out with a video statement criticising the story.

“In the last few days The Sun, The Mail, The Telegraph and The Express have gone a little bit James Bond. They’ve found a former Czechoslovakia spy whose claims are increasingly wild and entirely false,” Corbyn said.

“He seems to believe I kept him informed about what Margaret Thatcher had for breakfast and says he was responsible for either Live Aid or the Mandela Concert – or maybe both,”

It’s easy to laugh, but something more serious is happening. Publishing these ridiculous smears that have been refuted by Czech officials shows just how worried the media bosses are by the prospect of a Labour government. They’re right to be. Labour will stand up to the powerful and corrupt and take the side of the many, not the few.

https://www.facebook.com/JeremyCorbynMP/videos/10156211468253872/

“A free press is essential for democracy and we don’t want to close it down, we want to open it up. At the moment, much of our press isn’t very free at all. In fact it’s controlled by billionaire tax exiles, who are determined to dodge paying their fair share for our vital public services,” Corbyn added.

The general election showed the media barons are losing their influence and social media means their bad old habits are becoming less and less relevant. But instead of learning these lessons they’re continuing to resort to lies and smears. Their readers – you, all of us – deserve so much better. Well, we’ve got news for them: change is coming.

In The Sun’s story, it’s claimed that Corbyn had been given the codename “COB”.

Speaking to BBC News, the head the Czech Security Forces Archive says the way Corbyn’s name was recorded in their records suggests he was ‘a person of interest’ rather than ‘an informer’.

“Mr Corbyn was not a secret collaborator working for the Czechoslovak intelligence service,” Svetlana Ptacnikova told the BBC.

“The files we have on him are kept in a folder that starts with the identification number one.

“Secret collaborators were allocated folders that start with the number four. If he had been successfully recruited as an informer, then his person of interest file would have been closed, and a new one would have been opened, and that would have started with the number four.”

- With reporting by © – AFP 2018

Read: Nigel Farage says top EU negotiator ‘clearly doesn’t understand Brexit’ >

Read: Tony Blair has had a huge go at Jeremy Corbyn’s position on Brexit >

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    Mute windbag
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:11 PM

    The Sun ….. enough said…

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    Mute Kevin Farrell
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    Feb 21st 2018, 8:59 AM

    @windbag: As a former editor of the Sun once said: “Make it short, make it snappy, make it up!”

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    Mute Vigo the Carpathian
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:02 PM

    What information could Corbyn possibly be able to give communist agents at that time ? He was a fanboy no doubt but not useful as an asset. He’d no access to anything that wasn’t reported in The Sun anyway. Doubt his supporters give a fu#k. Those old enough to remember wouldn’t have cared back then and the USSR to younger people is just a cool logo on a retro T-shirt..

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    Mute Elizabeth Gregory
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    Feb 21st 2018, 12:24 AM

    The Sun, The Mail, The Telegraph – only useful for burning. British tabloids are the bottom feeding fish of the journalistic world. Not a piranha amongst them.

    38
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    Mute Richard Keogh
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:33 PM

    I wouldn’t give claims in The Sun any thought. Much more worrying is the fact that he worked for Iranian Press TV and is friends with terrorists in Hamas and Hezbollah, far more concerning for the security of British assets in the Middle East.

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    Mute Vigo the Carpathian
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:48 PM

    @Richard Keogh: If you’re going to condemn him for that half the Dail will have to go on your list.. It was a very different/weird time back then though… My guess is that there’s something more embarrassing in that file than he was a “commie spy”. If I were to hazard a guess I’d say that he might have been some sort of “go between” between Thatchers government and communist governments/other assorted rabble… If (deliberately) misunderstood that could be very damaging indeed. “Jezza the Tory” looks a hell of a lot worse than “Jezza the Commie” …Everyone already knows he’s redder than a baboons arse..

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    Mute Dessie Deratta
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    Feb 21st 2018, 1:01 AM

    @Richard Keogh: “Much more worrying is the fact that he worked for Iranian Press TV and is friends with terrorists in Hamas and Hezbollah, far more concerning for the security of British assets in the Middle East.”

    Yeah. He doesn’t really rate highly on the “stooges of Israel” scale, does he?

    BIG positive.

    35
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    Mute Philip G Roark
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    Feb 21st 2018, 1:07 AM

    The Sun – remember how they treated and referred to the Irish back in the day? It was such a rotten publication you couldn’t even buy it in Ireland until the mid 80s. Murdoch is a cancer on the planet.

    50
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    Mute George Costanza
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    Feb 21st 2018, 6:28 AM

    @Philip G Roark: I could never understand why anyone in Ireland would buy it. After reading a review of ‘Black 47′ yesterday I was reminded of the criticisms of the British press of ‘the wind that shakes the barley’ back in 2006. Two points I noted from a Guardian (I think) article was that the UK Sun’s headline read something like ‘IRA movie wins Cannes Palm D’Or’ while the Irish Sun headline the same day read ‘Cillian puts the run on Brits.’ All the Sun cares about is $$$$$$$$. Also Micky Gove that well known Brexiteering Alpha Male and other critics were highly critical of Director Ken Loach and ‘the wind that shakes..’ even though some had admitted not even watching it. I cannot wait to see what they say about ‘Black 47′.

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    Mute Matt Connolly
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    Feb 21st 2018, 8:06 AM

    @Philip G Roark: back in the day? …as recent as last month.

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    Mute will stamp
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:50 PM

    How can anyone take that rag seriously. Its the UK arm of fox news. I wouldnt insult my hoop by wiping it with it

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    Mute Tomas
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    Feb 21st 2018, 4:42 AM

    Corbyn is the honest politician,,100%

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    Mute Dessie Deratta
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    Feb 21st 2018, 12:56 AM

    Corbyn needs to be careful about explaining or apologising…that’s moving onto the enemy’s pitch.

    “Who gives a f***” should be his approach,

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    Mute Cantspell Sowhat
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    Feb 20th 2018, 10:51 PM

    BANANA

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    Mute Free speech has to return here
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:00 PM

    There has to be more central and more left leaning papers in these islands rather than the Tory &pro Brexit rags in UK & DOB loving rags here.

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    Mute Vigo the Carpathian
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    Feb 20th 2018, 11:25 PM

    @Free speech has to return here: I would say The Guardian but it’s almost unreadable it so left-wing. They actually had an article once complaining that Lego didn’t have any disabled characters (Lego Men) and were actually “outraged” when one of the Danish Lego designers pointed out in that cool Danish way they have that their arms and legs were detachable… You could try The Indy.. at least the business pages are OK…

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    Mute Dessie Deratta
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    Feb 21st 2018, 12:59 AM

    @Vigo the Carpathian: The Guardian now reads like a “liberal” version of Fox News (only worse and less balanced).

    It also doesn’t like Corbyn – it is the epitome of the Western Oligarch corporate press.

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    Mute Rear Admiral
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    Feb 21st 2018, 8:24 AM

    brexiteers going back 30 years to dig up dirt

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    Mute hallelujah
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    Feb 21st 2018, 12:38 PM

    Boris Johnson met the Soviet Russian spymaster in chief Sergey Lavrov last month. Did he pass on any secrets too LOL

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    Mute Pete Gilmartin
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    Feb 22nd 2018, 3:35 PM

    Murdoch tabloids are not fit to be toilet paper.

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    Mute Tony Kennedy
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    Feb 21st 2018, 6:24 PM

    While everyone agrees that the Sun has a very bad reputation, it doesn’t mean Corbyn is a moderate by any stretch. He is a far left extremist. He continues to back Hamas and Hezbollah. He recently sent “solidarity” greetings to a Communist party in the UK that is openly Stalinist. He supports stronger “hate speech” laws, has little regard for property rights, supports nationalisation of industry, and embraces identity politics under the guise of “equality”. The man is an enemy of Western Civilization. At least the Soviets had the good sense to give up Communism.

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