People like John Stonehouse

John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 1925 – 14 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and cabinet minister under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in 1974.

More than twenty years after his death, it was revealed that he had been an agent for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic military intelligence. In 1980, the Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and top cabinet members learned from a Czech defector that Stonehouse had been a paid Czechoslovak spy since 1962. He had provided secrets about government plans, as well as technical information about aircraft, and received about £5,000. Since the government decided there was insufficient legally admissible evidence to prosecute Stonehouse, this information was not made public.