Newly released files reveal MI5 monitored NHS founder Aneurin Bevan for over two decades, starting in the 1930s when he was deemed a left-wing firebrand linked to communists.
01Summary
- 01MI5 opened a file on Bevan in 1933 when he was a backbench MP for Ebbw Vale.
- 02Monitoring continued after Bevan became health minister and created the NHS in the post-war Labour government.
- 03In 1949, MI5 chief Sir Percy Sillitoe warned Prime Minister Clement Attlee about Bevan's links to convicted Russian spy Wilfred Macartney.
- 04The file was not closed until 1975, 15 years after Bevan's death.
- 05One officer noted in 1943 that Bevan said the same things in Parliament, questioning the need for surveillance.
02Why it matters
This matters as it shows the extent of state surveillance on a key political figure, revealing tensions between national security and democratic oversight in post-war Britain.
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