Tom Watson says ‘deep state’ claim by Corbyn aide ‘a bit John le Carré’

A claim by one of Jeremy Corbyn’s advisers that the intelligence services are tacitly working to undermine Labour is “a bit John le Carré”, the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, has said, saying the adviser should provide evidence of the allegation.

Andrew Murray, a union official and former chair of the Stop the War campaign who now advises Corbyn, has said he suspects he and Labour have been targeted by “the manoeuvrings of what is now called the ‘deep state’”.

Writing in the New Statesman, Murray cited examples such as a newspaper article saying he had been banned from entering Ukraine and a long delay for him to be cleared for a parliamentary pass.

“Someone else is doing the hard work – possibly someone being paid by the taxpayer,” he wrote. “I doubt if their job description is preventing the election of a Corbyn government, but who knows?

“We are often told that the days of secret state political chicanery are long past and we must hope so. But sometimes you have to wonder – this curiously timed episode seems less rooted in a Kiev security scare than in a political stunt closer to home.”

Asked about the claims on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Watson said: “I think it’s highly unlikely, but I don’t know. I read that piece. I thought it was a bit John le Carré. But I don’t know where his evidence is for that.

“I genuinely don’t know why he has reached that conclusion. Presumably he’s got more knowledge of that than me.”

Asked whether he thought Murray should provide evidence to back up his allegations, Watson said: “I think it would be helpful, because it obviously means that I’m being asked about it on the Today programme, and I don’t know what the facts of the issue are.

“But it does seem to me that if he thinks that the intelligence services are in some way trying to undermine the official opposition then he should provide evidence, because otherwise it’s just fake news, isn’t it?”

Asked whether he believed the intelligence services were seeking to undermine Labour, Watson said: “I’m assuming they don’t, but if Andrew Murray has more evidence then he should provide it.”

There was a notably ruder response from Ben Wallace, the security minister in the Home Office.

He tweeted: “Oh dear. Sorry to pop the vanity of your own self-importance Andrew but our spooks don’t waste their time pumping out stories to the Mail on Sunday about someone no one has ever heard of. They are too busy trying to stop terrorism & Russian assassination attempts.”

Murray, formerly a Communist party member who joined Labour in 2016, works for the trade union Unite along with advising Corbyn.