Security check: Corbyn’s adviser, the former Communist Party member

Jeremy Corbyn’s adviser and close friend Andrew Murray has been scratching his head of late as to why he still hasn’t had his request for a Parliamentary security pass granted. In search of answers, Murray has hit out at the ‘deep state’ made up of spies and sinister civil servants looking to thwart a left-wing government.

However, Mr S wonders whether there could be another reason it’s taken so long for the pass to be granted. So, in the interests of national security, Steerpike has put together his own security check to see if Murray should be given a parliamentary pass:

Previous employment

• Journalist at the Soviet news agency Novosti
• Morning Star journalist
• Chair of Stop the War coalition
• Chief of staff to Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey

Political views

• Member of the Communist Party of Britain till 2016
• Associated with the Stalinist Straight Left faction in the 70s
• Previously expressed solidarity with North Korea against America
• Quoted Nikita Khrushchev ‘who remarked in 1956 that ‘against imperialists, we are all Stalinists’’.