Eye Spy - May 2018

EYE SPY INTELLIGENCE MAGAZINE 115 2018 73

Floyd was released from his position at the

Foreign Office.

One would have thought this was the end of

his time in the shadows, but not so. Another

released Foreign Office memorandum written

shortly after states: ‘He is already in touch

with MI5, who want to find him a job’. And a

fur ther communication, intended to reassure

UK and other friendly ambassadors who may

have picked-up gossip about the case wrote:

‘There is no evidence of [Floyd] having

received any material reward from the

Russians. We believe him now to be sincerely

repentant and we consider that his action in

confessing did him credit’. The author

concluded: ‘Would you please destroy this

letter as soon as you have read it?’

Within a year, Floyd was hired as Communist

Affairs correspondent by Malcolm

Muggeridge, then Deputy Editor of The Daily

Telegraph. Muggeridge, was of course British

Intelligence, and the newspaper’s editor, Colin

Coote, was also an MI6 contact man.

Speculation abounds that Floyd was given the

position as perfect cover to continue spying -

this time for Britain as a double agent in

exchange for his freedom. It was the type of

ruse played out by numerous intelligence

agencies, and could be bracketed in the

archives of the ‘Four th Estate’ - the use of

journalistic cover to gain access to countries

which intelligence agencies found difficult to

penetrate. It was also a position to secure

interviews with senior world figures - all at the

behest of the controlling agency, of course.

However, many questions remain as the 70-

year-old documents are still heavily censored.

MI6 and MI5 contact man Malcolm Muggeridge, who

played major roles in various British Intelligence

endeavours, including the London Controlling Section

(LCS - see Eye Spy 114), lived in this London building.

Here he received all manner of intelligence people, and

probably David Floyd as well

As for the initial harm caused by Floyd’s

adventure with Moscow, it later became clear

he was part of the Russian Embassy

secretariat, with access to a wide range of

confidential papers. Roger Allen, who was

then First Secretary at the British Embassy in

Moscow, repor ted to his superiors that Floyd

“would probably have had no difficulty in

getting hold of almost any file, with a few

exceptions, on legitimate grounds.”

A decade later, and firmly established with The

Daily Telegraph, Floyd played a small role in

the Profumo affair that rocked Harold

Macmillan’s government in the early 1960s.

The incident centred around John Profumo,

Macmillan’s Secretary of State for War, and

London socialite Christine Keeler who was

also sleeping with Captain Yevgeny Ivanov - a

Soviet intelligence officer.

The case is forever embedded in spylore and

has been widely covered by Eye Spy, but there

is a thread to Floyd. London osteopath

Stephen Ward who knew both Keeler and

Profumo, was introduced to Ivanov by one of

his clients -

The Daily

Telegraph

editor Colin

Coote.

Coote had

met Ivanov

previously

and

arranged a

lunch at the

Garrick Club

so that

Floyd, his

Communist

Affairs correspondent might make a useful

contact. The rest is history...

Was Floyd still operational as a British double

agent - or as some suggest, more cunning

than anyone realised and still working for

Moscow, now as a triple agent? Decades later

this absorbing Cold War spy chapter contin-

ues to throw up surprises, and we still can’t

be certain if the whole story has been told.

Malcolm Muggeridge’s closest friend was

famous author George Orwell, who like

Floyd and dozens of writers and media

people, worked for British Intelligence

Colin Coote

Malcolm Muggeridge

© THE INSIDER’S GUIDE TO 500 SPY SITES IN L

ONDON