Bevan monitored for two decades

Aneurin Bevan, the Welsh Labour firebrand who created the NHS, was monitored by MI5 for more than two decades starting in the nineteen thirties over concerns about his communist links.

Why MI5 opened the file

MI5 first opened a personal file on the backbench Labour MP for Ebbw Vale in South Wales in nineteen thirty-three.

Close ties to communist leaders

Bevan was noted to have been in close touch with Harry Pollitt, general secretary of the Communist party of Great Britain, and others who backed his plan to organise workers' freedom groups to defend against…

A Russian spy connection

In nineteen forty-nine, MI5 became concerned about Bevan's friendship with Wilfred Macartney, who had been convicted of spying for Russia in nineteen twenty-eight.

Officers questioned the surveillance

One MI5 officer wrote in nineteen forty-three that Bevan's activities were not a matter the Security Service should be involved in.

“I do not think that Bevan's activities are a matter in which we, the Security Service, should be involved.”

File described as 'remarkably tame'

After Bevan's death in nineteen sixty, another MI5 officer reviewed the file and noted that considering what a controversial character Nye Bevan was, the file is remarkably tame.

“Considering what a controversial character Nye Bevan was, the file is remarkably tame.”

File closed fifteen years later

The file was finally closed in nineteen seventy-five, fifteen years after Bevan died. The newly released papers show the extent of security service interest in the Labour politician despite finding little of substance.