The Spy Who Legged It Comes To The Union
CONTROVERSIAL EX-SPY David Shayler visited a packed but hostile Oxford Union this week.
His decision to return from exile in France to face charges of breaching the Official Secrets Act places him in personal danger of a lengthy period of incarceration - after his several explosive allegations of illegal activities in 1997 against his then-employer MI5, including, most famously, a failed plot to kill Colnel Gadaffi.
His speech attempted to justify why he had done this. He stated that his mission was to bring about a new style of government. He claimed that his experience had shown him that the problem is "not with the Tories, or Labour. British Government will always be full of sleaze and corruption while secrecy prevails, whoever is in charge" and that "the best way to bring about change would be to introduce a strong Bill of Rights."
Mr Shayler was then barraged by hostile questioning and heckling, which at one stage was so one-sided that Union Librarian Amy Harland was forced to intervene. The consensus among students at the event was clearly that Mr Shayler was not, as he claimed, a "crusader for truth and justice" but a "traitor against his queen and country" as one questioner put it.
Shayler stood up to the criticism and claimed that he "wished none of the past three years had happened", adding that he "was not in this for personal profit or publicity, despite being offered millions of pounds by Lybia for information." But he went on to admit that he had accepted £20,000 from a newspaper for his story.
The Home Office declined to comment on Shayler's appearance, saying it would be inappropriate as a criminal investigation was already underway.
26th Oct 2000