Harold Wilson Fernyhough an aide to Prime Minister Harold Wilson who was
reported to have spied for Czechoslovakia in the 1950’s and 1960s, was
very likely unaware that he was not associating with diplomats, but
communist secret police handlers, according to Czech archivist Svetlana
Ptáčníková.
Ptáčníková, who heads the Security Services Archive, said that
according to the secret police files Fernyhough shared information
willingly, but without knowledge of who he was dealing with. The archivist
noted that secret police handlers were often placed in diplomatic posts in
order to acquire information.
According to the files Fernyhough never revealed anything confidential,
only sharing information that was either common knowledge or was later made
public.
Reports that Harold Wilson Fernyhough had spied for the Czechoslovak
communist secret police appeared in the British press at the weekend.