Express & Star

Was Bob Edwards really a Soviet spy?

Was Bob Edwards really a Soviet spy? That is the question that has dogged the mind of many who knew the former Wolverhampton MP well after questions were raised over his allegiances during the Cold War.

Published

The revelations about Mr Edwards' conduct during the Cold War first came into question in 2009 when classified information was revealed for the first time.

Now, some seven years later, a new book entitled The Black Door has been released in which fresh claims are made about Mr Edwards. The book says that not only was Mr Edwards a Soviet spy, but actually a 'fully-paid-up member of the KGB'.

It also claims Walsall MP John Stonehouse has worked for Eastern Block intelligence services.

  • MORE: Black Country MP Bob Edwards DID spy for the KGB, claims new book

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The new book

An official history of MI5, entitled The Defence of the Realm, was published by Professor Christopher Andrew in 2009 in which he made several extraordinary claims, including those about the two Black Country MPs.

In the book Mr Andrew claimed that Mr Edwards had worked for the Russians, while Mr Stonehouse had been working for the Czechs as the tensions heightened during the Cold War.

Mr Edwards died in 1990, three years after he stood down from his Wolverhampton South East seat. But the claims in the 2009 book shocked those closest to him. Lord Bilston who, as Dennis Turner, succeeded Edwards as MP for Wolverhampton South East, knew the MP well and described the claims at the time as 'astonishing'.

He also revealed that 'someone very close' to Mr Edwards thought he was a spy for the CIA, not the KGB.

Lord Bilston said after hearing the extract from the 2009 book: "Really? My God, that is absolutely astonishing to me. I knew Bob for 20 years. He was my mentor and in all his stories there was nothing hidden, nothing secret. The truth is that we will never know. But I can tell you that someone very close to Bob, and I cannot divulge who, always considered him to be a spy for the CIA."

Born in Liverpool on January 16, 1905, to docker parents, Mr Edwards was interested in politics from a young age and became one of the youngest Labour councillors in the city when he was elected in 1927 aged just 22.

It was in these early years that he led an Independent Labour Party youth delegation out to the Soviet Union where he met Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin.

John Stonehouse celebrates winning the Walsall North seat for Labour in October 1974

During the General Strike in 1926 he was a Trade Unions Congress messenger, delivering messages to the TUC from individual unions.

He began to make a name for himself during the Spanish Civil War where he led the ILP Contingent in the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) on the Aragon front.

In the POUM, which was considered the less extreme of the two communist factions during the Civil War, Mr Edwards served alongside the writer George Orwell.

Back in the UK, Mr Edwards was elected as Labour Co-operative MP for Bilston in the 1955 general election.

The constituency was abolished in 1974, so in the February 1974 election, he stood successfully for the new constituency of Wolverhampton South East.

In 1983, he became the oldest sitting British MP. Despite his communist links, the claims that Mr Edwards was working for the Russians during the Cold War also caught the veteran Bilston campaigner and former councillor Tom Larkin by surprise, who in 2009 said he found it 'extremely hard' to 'believe these allegations'.

He told the Express & Star: "I knew Bob very well for many years and shared many platforms with him. We had our differences. But I never got the impression he was an admirer of the Soviet Union. I find it extremely hard to accept or believe these allegations."

Former Wolverhampton MP Ken Purchase, who had known Mr Edwards since the 1970s, said he had discussed the claim many times with the late MP and he always 'flatly denied' it.

He said: "We talked a number of times about the claim and Bob's 'link to the KGB' and he absolutely denied it, it is utter nonsense.

"Bob had some great stories to tell about the Spanish Civil War, especially the one where he claimed to have saved George Orwell's life. I am not shocked by the claims, I have heard them many times before."

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