Corbyn adviser claims 'deep state' could be working to undermine new Labour government

Commons authorities are investigating reports senior Corbyn aide was working in parliament without correct security clearance

One of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest advisers has claimed the “deep state” could be undermining efforts to bring in a new Labour government.

Andrew Murray, a former communist, said media speculation over delays to his parliamentary security clearance could be motivated by “manoeuvrings” by the intelligence services keen to thwart a Corbyn-led government.

Commons authorities are investigating potential security breaches by the Labour leader’s office, after it emerged that Mr Murray and Iram Awan, another senior aide, had been working without the correct security passes for nearly a year. Ms Awan has now been granted a pass.

Mr Murray also mocked claims that he had been banned from entering Ukraine for his supposed links to Vladimir Putin’s “global propaganda network”, which have been reported in several newspapers.

Writing for the New Statesman, Mr Murray said: “Someone else is doing the hard work – possibly someone being paid by the taxpayer.

“I doubt if their job description is preventing the election of a Corbyn government, but who knows?

“We are often told that the days of secret state political chicanery are long past and we must hope so.

“But sometimes you have to wonder – this curiously timed episode seems less rooted in a Kiev security scare than in a political stunt closer to home.”

He vehemently denied any links with Russia and insisted he had never planned to visit Ukraine, describing it as a country where “the parliamentary speaker is a Hitler admirer and pogromists and Nazi collaborators are national heroes”.

Mr Murray added: “The millions of people headed by Corbyn who were right on Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan when the elite, the security services included, were wrong, are near to office – in significant part because of those views.

“Britain could soon have an anti-war government. Vet that, comrades.”

Mr Murray, who is also an aide to Unite leader Len McCluskey, quit the Communist Party of Britain in 2016 to join Labour.

A long-time ally of Mr Corbyn, he held a supporting role in the election campaign and now acts as a part-time adviser to the Labour leader.