HN338 was deployed undercover from at least April 1970, though the Inquiry has only released two of his reports from that year, which concern socialist street-theatre group Agitprop. Disclosure of his reports remains patchy throughout 1971 and into the first half of 1972, when he reported on a wide range of groups associated with the IMG.
From June 1972 until mid-1973 there are more regular reports, focusing on HN338’s infiltration of the Notting Hill and West London International Marxist Group (IMG) and the Anti-Internment League. His disclosure concludes with a handful of inconsequential reports on West London IMG from November and December 1973.
As HN338 died before he could give evidence to the Inquiry, information on his deployment comes solely from his reports and a few comments by contemporary officers and two core participants on whom he spied. His nuanced intelligence on the IMG was valued highly by MI5 as well as Special Branch.
Memos on SDS expenditure dated April 1970 and February 1971 show the squad was paying for a cover flat for HN338, therefore he must have been undercover from at least April 1970 and most likely before. The Inquiry has only released two of HN338’s reports from 1970, both dated in April. There is little more from 1971, with six disclosures covering the period between 18 February and 13 December.
HN338’s reports from 1972 are more numerous but still irregular and cover a wide range of groups connected with the International Marxist Group (IMG). These include the west London branches of the: Anti-Apartheid Group , Irish Solidarity Campaign , International Communist League , Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) and the North London Red Circle.
From June 1972 to end of deployment in 1973, HN338’s reports focus almost exclusively on the Notting Hill and West London branches of the IMG and the Anti-Internment League (AIL). His last report released by the Inquiry, on the IMG, is dated 13 December 1973.
Towards the end of his deployment, in June 1973, HN338 received high praise for his 18-page report on the 1973 IMG national conference, held on 21-23 April. Describing the report as ‘quite magnificent’, the commander of Special Branch HN585 Matthew Rodger surmised it would keep MI5’s ‘Trotskyist desk well occupied for months ahead’.
HN338 was subsequently nominated for a commendation by deputy assistant commissioner HN151 Ferguson Smith. Discussing HN338’s report in his oral testimony to the Inquiry, core participant and former IMG leader Tariq Ali said: ‘I have to admit a certain admiration for his attention to detail and clear and concise explanations of the different tendencies. But was all this undercover work really necessary?’
HN338 appears to have started his deployment by targeting socialist street-theatre troupe Agitprop. He later attended regular meetings of both the Notting Hill and West London International Marxist Group (IMG) and may have been considered a member by both. He spied on a range of other organisations that worked with these IMG branches, presumably using his undercover identity as an IMG activist to gain entry to their meetings.
Agitprop
Two reports authored by HN338 in April 1970 suggest he was spying on socialist performance troupe Agitprop at the time, although they also mention the Stop the Seventy Tour. These are the only reports by HN338 released by Inquiry from 1970. There is little more from 1971, with only six disclosures covering the period between 18 February and 13 December.
HN338’s 18 February 1971 report, still based on information from Agitprop, contains information about the Angry Brigade’s recent bombing of Conservative employment secretary Robert Carr MP. A final report from 26 June 1972 notes that Agitprop has split and changed its name to Red Ladder.
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign
The handful of other 1971 reports by HN338 appear to show that he held a position of influence in the working committee of the by-then-moribund VSC. In June 1971 HN338 attended an editorial meeting of the VSC publication Indo China in a private flat. The VSC quietly folded into the IMG in November 1971, though it retained a separate organisational identity, on which HN338 continued to report until May 1972.
International Marxist Group
HN338’s reports on the IMG start on 21 October 1971 and finish at the end of his deployment in December 1973. They mainly concern the small West London and Notting Hill branches, which were considering a merger despite considerable and enduring personality clashes – the subject of many reports.
He also submitted a few reports on the IMG London aggregate , Notting Hill Spartacus League , and two conferences. The first of these was an IMG-Spartacus League fusion conference held at Conway Hall on 27-29 May 1972 and the second an analysis of the IMG annual general conference on 21-23 April 1973, for which he received a commendation.
HN338 also wrote several reports mentioning the Red Defence Force, a group of demonstration stewards trained in unarmed combat, patterned after the French Student Demonstration Force but, as there is conflicting evidence about whether this was part of the IMG, it is dealt with in a separate section below.
On 19 January 1972 HN338 attended a small meeting of the Notting Hill Spartacus League in Piers Corbyn’s private residence, which suggests he was a trusted member of the group. Later in the year, at a meeting on 21 June, HN338 reported that the West London IMG had changed its name to the International Communist League (ICL).
Shortly afterwards, at a meeting of the IMG London Aggregate that HN338 attended, he noted the IMG executive committee had turned down the proposal to use this new name and from then on reverted to calling the branch the West London IMG.
A report from 4 October 1972 contains a copy of an IMG Irish Commission document titled 'Notes on our Irish Solidarity Work', which focused on the Anti-Internment League (AIL). HN338 had begun attending meetings on the AIL as an IMG member a couple of months earlier and reported in October 1972 that the IMG had taken over effective control of the organisation.
On 19 February 1973 HN338 passed on to the SDS, for checking against Special Branch records, the personal details of three people who had asked to join the IMG. None had reference files but their details were passed to MI5 anyway.
Along with HN301 ‘Bob Stubbs’ , HN338 reported on a huge joint meeting of the IMG, International Socialists (IS) and Socialist Labour League (SLL) at Conway Hall on 16 April 1973 attended by 600 people. The subject of the meeting was ‘police oppression and victimisation’, following a series of police raids on Irish people’s homes in Coventry and the south east.
HN338 concludes the report by writing: ‘The meeting was on the surface a step towards solidarity for the revolutionary left, but it is difficult to imagine a close working relationship between the SLL and the IS/IMG lasting.’
A few days later HN338 attended the IMG annual general conference on 1 June, submitting the previously discussed highly praised report, for which he received a commendation. HN338’s last report released by the Inquiry is dated 13 December 1973 and concerns the IMG response to petrol rationing during the 1973 oil crisis, which it saw as a political opportunity.
Red Defence Force
HN338’s reports from 21 October and 13 December 1971 give information on the IMG, the former suggesting it has been providing some members, known as the Red Defence Force, with unarmed combat training and the latter reporting on the IMG’s anti-racist solidarity group the Black Defence Committee.
A January 1972 report on a private meeting of IMG youth wing, the Spartacus League, held at core participant Piers Corbyn’s house mentions the ‘Notting Hill Red Defence Force’ but contradicts the assertion that it was part of the IMG. This was confirmed by Corbyn, who explained in his testimony to the Inquiry that the Red Defence Force included many IMG members but was not part of the organisation.
In a May 1972 report, however, HN338 described the Red Defence Force as having been ‘started by the IMG’ and alleged that its members were ‘very close to the centre’ of the organisation. A final report from 4 September 1972 noted that the Red Defence Force existed mainly on paper and hadn’t been deployed at any demonstrations. It alleged that combat training had been scheduled for the 1971 and 1972 IMG summer camps, but had not taken place at the latter.
Anti-Internment League
The Inquiry has released reports by HN338 on the Anti-Internment League dating between 3 August 1972 and 5 March 1973.
A collection of three police reports on the 6 August 1972 joint AIL-IMG demonstration shows clearly how intelligence in anonymised form passed from the SDS to other parts of Special Branch and was then used by local uniformed police.
The initial report, dated 3 August 1972, is based on information gathered by HN338 undercover at an IMG meeting and records that the AIL and IMG were planning a joint demonstration and march from Speakers’ Corner to Downing Street on 6 August.
The next document, dated 4 August 1972, shows how intelligence gathered by undercover officers was transmitted to the rest of Special Branch. It is a memo, nominally from the Special Branch deputy assistant commissioner to deputy assistant commissioner ‘A’ (Ops) containing an anonymised version of HN338’s report in which he is just referred to as a ‘secret and reliable source’.
A minute sheet with the same date signed by HN1251 Phil Saunders , who had by then left the SDS and become chief superintendent overseeing a different part of Special Branch, shows all the places the information in the memo should be distributed. These include A Squad, C Squad and A8, public-order uniformed police.
For information on what the different 'alphabet squads' did in Special Branch see the page on the Metropolitan Police Special Branch.
The final document is a report on the 6 August joint demonstration, attended by uniformed officers from the Cannon Row police station, with a note that the document has been circulated back to Special Branch.
A couple of months later, HN338 co-authored a report with HN298 ‘Mike Scott’ and HN301 Bob Stubbs on the AIL’s national conference, held at the North London Polytechnic on 6-7 October 1972. In a follow-up report on 26 October, HN338 recorded that the IMG had ‘gained effective control of the organisation’ at the conference.
HN338 is dead and his cover name is not known. The Metropolitan Police applied to have his real name restricted on 27 September 2017.
Inquiry Chair Mitting issued a Minded To notice on 14 November 2017 that he was planning to restrict HN338’s real name on the grounds that, as his widow had recently experienced another family bereavement, ‘nothing should be done which risks causing her further distress’. He issued the restriction order on 15 May 2018.
You can see the accompanying documents for this section under the Procedural tab in the Documents section of this profile.