Ben Bradley apologises unreservedly for Corbyn spy claims

The Conservative MP Ben Bradley has apologised unreservedly and will make a substantial donation to charity for a tweet making claims about Jeremy Corbyn’s links to cold war spies, the Labour party said.

Bradley, who has more than 4,000 followers on Twitter, alleged on Monday that Corbyn had “sold British secrets to communist spies”. The tweet, which has since been deleted, followed newspaper reports claiming that Corbyn gave information to a spy during the cold war.

Corbyn was alleged to have met Ján Sarkocy, a Czechoslovakian diplomat in London who was expelled as a spy in the 1980s. Corbyn rejected the allegations as “ridiculous smears”.

Labour said on Saturday that Bradley, 28, had agreed never to repeat the allegations.

The apology was welcomed by Labour, which said the funds would be split between a homeless outreach centre and a food bank in Bradley’s constituency of Mansfield.

Labour said Bradley would tweet the following apology: “On 19 February 2018 I made a seriously defamatory statement on my Twitter account, ‘Ben Bradley MP (bbradleymp)’, about Jeremy Corbyn, alleging he sold British secrets to communist spies. I have since deleted the defamatory tweet. I have agreed to pay an undisclosed substantial sum of money to a charity of his choice, and I will also pay his legal costs.

“I fully accept that my statement was wholly untrue and false. I accept that I caused distress and upset to Jeremy Corbyn by my untrue and false allegations, suggesting he had betrayed his country by collaborating with foreign spies.

“I am very sorry for publishing this untrue and false statement and I have no hesitation in offering my unreserved and unconditional apology to Jeremy Corbyn for the distress I have caused him.”

A spokesperson for Corbyn said: “We are pleased Ben Bradley has admitted what he said was entirely untrue and apologised, and that charities in Mansfield will benefit.

“Following the botched smear campaign against Jeremy, this case shows we are not going to let dangerous lies go unchallenged.”

The choice of charities could be a nod to comments made by Bradley about people on benefits, which surfaced when Theresa May appointed him as the Conservative vice-chairman for youth in January.

In a 2012 blogpost, Bradley said the country would soon be “drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters” if workless families had too many children.

The 28-year-old apologised for the inappropriate post and said he had since matured. At the time Labour said the comments were evidence that the “nasty party” lived on.