MI5 files reveal decades of surveillance of NHS founder Nye Bevan

London, United Kingdom. British intelligence monitored Nye Bevan, the widely celebrated founder of the National Health Service, for roughly three decades, newly declassified MI5 records show. The surveillance stemmed from his Communist Party connections and opposition to Britain’s government during World War Two.

Parliamentary activity and meetings monitored

The documents, released on Thursday by the National Archives, show that MI5 tracked Bevan from 1933 until he died in 1960. Its scrutiny covered his parliamentary work as well as his movements and meetings beyond parliament.

The agency suspected that Bevan, a dedicated socialist and leading parliamentary opponent of Winston Churchill and the coalition he led during the war, sympathised with communism. The investigations, however, appear to have found no cause for concern.

According to a note written in 1955, the information available about Bevan’s Communist Party relationships since 1943 indicated that both communists and Trotskyists had periodically tried, unsuccessfully, to secure his cooperation.

A contentious political figure

Bevan, a former coal miner from Wales, took office as health secretary following the war and is credited with establishing the publicly funded NHS in 1948.

Although admired for his public speaking, he was also regarded as deeply divisive, both among Labour Party members and across Britain.

An assessment of his MI5 dossier, written two years after his death, said: “Considering what a controversial character Nye Bevan was, the file is remarkably tame.”

Other intelligence records released

The newly disclosed material also contained MI5 records concerning Wolfgang zu Putlitz, the German diplomat who supplied Britain with information about Hitler’s plans.

Other files concerned Soviet agents and people suspected of working for Soviet intelligence. They included Frank Bossard, who received a 21-year prison sentence for supplying defence information to Russian spies.