Liam Fox: Jeremy Corbyn was 'useful idiot' to Russia during Cold War and undermined national security

Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour left were "useful idiots" to Russia during the Cold War and undermined national security, Liam Fox has said.

The International Trade Secretary said it was not necessary for Gavin Williamson, the Defence Secretary, to apologise to Mr Corbyn for saying the Labour leader "betrayed this country". 

Mr Corbyn has admitted meeting Jan Sarkocy, a spy for the Czechoslovak intelligence agency the StB, on one occasion while a backbench MP in 1986, but denies passing sensitive information to him or accepting payment.

Mr Sarkocy, who described Mr Corbyn as “a very, very good source”, has been described as a “serial fantasist” by Labour, and this week Mr Corbyn released a video message in which he claimed the Press had “gone a little bit James Bond” by publishing “ridiculous smears”.

Sir Richard Dearlove, a former head of MI6, said on Saturday that Mr Corbyn has "questions to answer" over his contact with Mr Sarkocy and cannot simply "laugh off" the disclosures.

He said it was was “absurd” for the Labour leader to suggest he thought a Czechoslovakian agent was just a diplomat when he agreed to meet him and he should have “taken care to avoid” him.

Dr Fox said: "I think that the Labour Left during the Cold War were extremely unhelpful to this country. We believed that we should see off communism. We believed that we should see off the tyranny of the East.

“I don’t think that I would use the word betray but I certainly think that the Labour Left were the Soviet Union’s useful idiots during that period.

 “I think in the broader sense he was undermining the security of our country by siding with the Soviet Union in that argument and I think that was very damaging to the country. “Luckily it was our side of the argument, not Jeremy Corbyn’s, that won the day.”

 He added that Ben Bradley, a Tory MP and vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, was right to apologise for posting a tweet in which he said Jeremy Corbyn had passed British secrets to a spy from communist Czechoslovakia.

Ben Bradley said the now deleted tweet was "wholly untrue and false". He will also donate an undisclosed sum to a charity supported by the Labour leader and has agreed not to repeat the allegation.