Eye Spy - May 2018

72 EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018

Classified documents released by the UK Government under the

Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), reveal the extraordinary story of

David Floyd who admitted spying for Moscow when he worked at

UK military missions and embassies between from 1944-1947

UK DIPLOMAT AND JOURNALIST UNCOVERED AS SOVIET SPY

here is much evidence to suggest
Floyd’s spying career was far more
prolonged and complex than the
papers reveal. And perhaps equally
as relevant, the material shows
TBritain’s Foreign Office enabled a
plan to downplay and then file the story. Some
intelligence watchers believe this was a
“cover-up,” but Eye Spy sources suggest
otherwise... it was a ruse to keep him
operational.

Floyd was an Oxford student, a fully-fledged
Communist and anti-war protester who went
to prison, yet still managed to secure work
placements at three British embassies during
the Cold War. Following his ‘spy engage-
ments’, he spent the next three decades in the
employ of The Daily Telegraph as its Commu-
nist Affairs correspondent.

BURN

His story surfaced in the summer of 1951, a

few weeks after Cambridge spies Guy

Burgess and Donald Maclean disappeared and

turned up in Moscow. At this time, the Foreign

Office was under siege by the media, all keen

to ask questions how the spies could have

operated in the corridors of power without

detection.

Floyd came forward voluntarily and con-

fessed. A released Foreign Office summary of

the case stamped ‘Top Secret’ states:

‘Mr Floyd claims that he has turned King’s

evidence [provided information to clear or

lesson any punishment] because he had

come to the conclusion that he was unfit[ted]

to remain in the foreign service and it was the

honest thing to do. He has also been

influenced by the Maclean and Burgess

David Floyd

episode. There is also an indication that he

was frightened that the Russians might kidnap

him’.

Despite his confession, it took less than a

month for the Director of Public Prosecutions

to conclude the evidence was “clearly

insufficient” to support criminal charges.

Intelligence historians believe UK officials were

concerned about yet another spy scandal that

would jeopardise the strained relationship

between London and Washington. Senior US

intelligence officials had already publicly

acknowledged they were “appalled by the

Burgess/Maclean affair.” During this time,

Former Daily

Telegraph

building, Fleet

Street, London

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