New: British MP Spied For Czechs In 1960s

Archives from the Czech Security Service reveal that in the 1960s a conservative British MP named Raymond Mawbry sold them information, ranging from a hand-drawn floor plan of the Prime Minister's office to harmless political gossip, usually handed over at high-end restaurants and clubs in London, according to THIS BBC News report today.

"According to his Czech file - which runs for hundreds of pages - Mawby, codename Laval, was first contacted when he attended a cocktail party in the Czechoslovak embassy in November 1960... The central weakness which the Czech spies exploited was money. 'His leisure time he spends in bars… and also loves gambling,' one noted. 'While playing roulette and other games he is willing to accept a monetary 'loan' which was exploited twice.'"

At THIS link you can watch a 30 second clip posted on the BBC website today of Mowbry appearing on BBC TV in the 1960s (while he was spying for the Czechs) and arguing sternly that homosexuals pose a potentially heightened security risk.  After that, the clip continues for another 3 minutes during which a long-retired Tory MP talks about having met and known Mawbry in the early 1980s, when he was still an MP. "Those were the days and nights of all-night sittings, when those of us who were of a drinking disposition would gather in the bars. And Ray was the old sort of full-time MP, i.e. more likely to be found in the bar than doing anything useful. And he was a very jovial character....If you would have said, 'give me 100 names,' I never would have thought of Ray, because Ray was a simple, straightforward guy."

Mawbry died in 1990.