Mike Hancock or Dr Fox - whose was the greatest security risk?



Mike Hancock MP



As the enquiry into Mike Hancock's affair with suspected Russian Spy Ekaterina Zatuliveter continues it hit the headlines of a few newspapers today. The Metro's headline read;

THE MP AND THE "SPY" WHO LOVED HIM

The story goes on to detail how Ms Zatuliveter is fighting deportation due to espionage charges and that Jonathan Glasson, who was the Government official at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission stated:

[Ms Zatuliveter] reporting from Londongrad [and she had] eyes and ears in the House of Commons.

Dear God!

If this was forty years ago it would be a scandal that rocked the Capitalist world. A Russian, clearly a KGB operative using a prominent MP to gain access to information and power in Parliament!

This is what good Fiction is about or scandals that rock the Government. Remember the Profumo affair and Christine Keeler?

However fiction is what this seems to be. The more I read the story the less I believe that she is a spy.

As you read Ms Zatuliveter and Mr Hancock's back story the more you can see that it is nothing short of an extra marital affair and the only reason people are screaming SPY is because the girl is Russian.

They met in 2006 in Moscova where he attempted to bed her and she declined. They met a few months later and an affair started. Eventually she relocated to Britain to study at Bradford university but the affair continued with them meeting at the weekend.

In Novemeber 2006 she began working as an unpaid intern for two or four days a week. She was given security clearance to work in the Houses of Parliament and then moved later to being a full time assistant on £250 a month. As his intern and assistant she had access to his parliamentary emails - all above board because Interns often answer enquiries from constituents and help manage an often over worked MP's work load.  So is she a security risk just from that?

The affair apparently ended in March 2010. So.... she was attached to a Liberal Democrat MP between 2006-2010 and saw his emails... What were we doing in that time period?

Yeah that's right we were sitting in opposition and the party looked like it had absolutely NO prospect of affecting Government policy as New Labour held sway. She would have been better off tacking herself on to a Labour or Conservative MP!

It is claimed that Mike Hancock asked questions in parliament about renewing Trident and the renewal of Britain's Nuclear defence! Clearly something that would be of interest to the Russian Spymasters in the Kremlin.

But the renewal of Trident or scrapping of it, was a major part of our manifesto and so his questions in parliament are actually/probably to do with party politics rather than Russian military intelligence.

Ms Zatuliveter also had a fling with a NATO official and a diplomat in her time.

And?

She used to work as a chaperon for foreign diplomats in Moscova, it is possible. Also should we look at her past relationships and jump to these sort of conclusions? There is no proof.

All the actions are easily explained.

Dr Fox, however, has been cleared by enquiry as allowing his friend Mr Werrity actually into the Ministry of Defence and on official visits with the Defence Minister as posing no "risk to security".

But he was Minister of Defence with an unknown man, without security clearance wandering around the MoD building, possible access to secret documents, going on business trips with the Minister abroad.

Doctor Liam Fox MP



Yet question marks remain as to what Mr Werrity actually saw or did. I'm sure he is also innocent of any wrong doing and that all actions were just an oversight as Dr Fox allowed his friend to visit him at work etc. However has he been Russian and Ms Zatuliveter been English would Mike Hancock be on the front page still?

I doubt it.

Of course if History is to teach us anything it is that when it comes to espionage trust no one. Christine Keeler was British and supposedly passing secrets, Kim Philby and the other Cambridge spies - British and passing information to the Kremilin before defecting.

I'm not passing judgement on either case, merely making suggestions and making comparisons. If anything in my opinion the Dr Fox case is far more serious than the Hancock case and it is only because the girl is Russian that it is even news worthy.