Britain’s MI5 spied on NHS founder Bevan, secret documents show

LONDON, Oct 22 (Reuters) British spies monitored Nye Bevan, the much lauded architect of the National Health Service, for three decades because of his links to ​the Communist Party and criticism of Britain s government in ‌World War Two, newly released papers show. Declassified secret documents from MI5 made public by the National Archives on Thursday reveal that Bevan s activities in parliament, and his movements and meetings outside, were closely watched by ‌MI5 ​from 1933 until his death in ⁠1960. MI5 had suspected that ⁠Bevan, a committed socialist and one of the most prominent parliamentary critics of Winston Churchill and his wartime coalition, was a communist sympathiser. However, the agency s investigations seem to have ​determined that there was nothing to worry about. What information we have on Bevan s relations with the Communist Party since ⁠1943 show that from time to ⁠time both the Communist Party and the Trotskyists ​have made attempts to get him to work with them ​w