Party politics and intelligence: the Labour Party, British intelligence and oversight, 1979-1994

Abstract

For much of the 20th Century, intelligence and security was a taboo subject for Parliamentarians. While Labour backbenchers had suspicions of the secret state, there was a long-held bipartisan consensus that debates on intelligence were ‘dangerous and bad’. Yet by the 1970s, new disclosures on the activities of foreign intelligence and domestic surveillance eroded this consensus with the Labour Party willing to push for greater accountability and oversight of the UK’s intelligence agencies. This article looks at how, through the campaign to reform intelligence oversight, Labour pushed for changes reflected in later legislation. It also explores Labour’s attitudes to intelligence.