Judge says plea over spy book is 'hopeless'

An attempt by the former Tory MP Rupert Allason to challenge a High Court ruling that described him as "a profoundly dishonest man" was described as "hopeless" yesterday.

Lord Justice Robert Walker heard Mr Allason, 48, the espionage writer Nigel West, apply to take his dispute over the authorship and copyright of a book to the Court of Appeal. The judge, dismissing his application, said: "I can see no prospect whatever of a successful appeal, an appeal seems to me to be hopeless."

Mr Allason had sued the publisher Random House for damages, claiming he was the author of a book published under the name John Cairncross, the so-called Fifth Man in the Cambridge spy ring.

Mr Justice Laddie threw out his case in October, ruling: "I have come to the clearest possible conclusion that Mr Allason has told me untruth after untruth in pursuit of this claim." He warned Mr Allason that he would be sending a copy of his judgment to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Mr Allason, the former MP for Torbay, had claimed to have ghost-written The Enigma Spy after reaching a deal with Cairncross in 1994 that would give him 50 per cent of the proceeds. The Enigma Spy was published in 1997, two years after Cairncross died.