Newly released official documents reveal that Aneurin "Nye" Bevan, the Labour movement figure renowned for establishing the NHS, was placed under MI5 surveillance for over two decades. Files released to the National Archives show he first attracted the attention of the security service during the 1930s as a passionate left-winger, amid growing concern over his links with prominent communists.
The surveillance persisted even after he became a minister in the post-war Labour government, during which time he spearheaded the creation of the NHS in the face of fierce opposition from the medical profession. At one point, the director general of MI5 became so concerned about his ties to a known Russian spy that he visited prime minister Clement Attlee at No 10 to raise his concerns.
Early Surveillance and Communist Links
MI5 first opened a personal file on Mr Bevan – then the backbench Labour MP for Ebbw Vale in South Wales – in 1933. Among the earliest reports is an account of a Canadian anti-Nazi rally which Mr Bevan addressed in Montreal in 1934. "Bevan has inherited the evangelical fervour of his Welsh forebears and knows how to use it in the Communist cause," it stated. "He pictured the overthrow of the Nazi regime as meaning the commencement of a united Europe under Soviet rule."
In 1943, Roger Hollis, a future director general, compiled a summary of their intelligence on Mr Bevan's activities up to that point. In 1933, he noted, the MP had been "in close touch" with Harry Pollitt, general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain, and other party figures who supported his scheme to organise "workers' freedom groups" as a defence against the "capitalists".
War Years and Internal Doubts
Set against a backdrop of widespread unemployment and the Great Depression, Mr Bevan had been closely linked to the hunger marches of 1934, receiving deputations of marchers at the House of Commons. He soon fell out, however, with his communist allies, who grumbled that he had little interest in workers' unity and was determined to build "a movement of his own" – by then known as The Sons of Freedom – with "all the elements of a fascist organisation".
By 1936, their differences had been sufficiently resolved for Mr Bevan to throw his weight behind an application by the Communist Party to affiliate to the Labour Party. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, he was reported to have adopted a policy of "war on two fronts" – targeting the Germans overseas while simultaneously attacking Neville Chamberlain's Conservative government at home. This stance persisted following the formation of Winston Churchill's coalition government, with Mr Bevan sharply censuring the conduct of the war while accusing Labour ministers of "leaning too much to the right".
While there is nothing in the documents to suggest that MI5 ever monitored his telephone calls or intercepted his correspondence, some questioned why they were concerning themselves with him at all. "I do not think that Bevan's activities are a matter in which we, the security service, should be involved," one officer recorded in 1943. "In fact he makes exactly the same remarks in the Houses of Parliament pretty frequently, as any copy of Hansard will show, and it would not therefore be possible to do anything positive."
Post-War Concerns and File Closure
Despite this, the surveillance persisted after the war – though less regularly – when Mr Bevan was appointed minister of health in Mr Attlee's new government. By 1949, MI5 was growing increasingly worried about Mr Bevan's association with Wilfred Macartney, "an unsavoury, unscrupulous character" who had been convicted of espionage for Russia in 1928. Records of his discussions indicated he was relaying information gleaned by Mr Bevan to Mr Pollitt, the Communist Party leader.
In May of that year, the director general Sir Percy Sillitoe presented the evidence to Mr Attlee – who rejected Mr Macartney's assertions as a "tissue of lies" but consented to "warn Bevan about Macartney in general terms without, of course, making any allusion to the conversation". One of the last reports comes from 1954 when Mr Bevan, by this time back in opposition, was invited to meet the Soviet ambassador, Yakov Malik, over lunch at the Polish embassy in London. The encounter "went off very badly" partly due to the Russian's difficulty in comprehending Mr Bevan's Welsh accent, which led to an ill-tempered misunderstanding. "A great deal of drink was consumed, but the party broke up in a none too friendly atmosphere," the report stated.
Upon reviewing the papers following his death in 1960, one MI5 officer observed: "Considering what a controversial character Nye Bevan was, the file is remarkably tame." The file was not finally closed until 1975 – 15 years after Mr Bevan's death.
