Queen kept in dark over Palace traitor for years, MI5 papers reveal

Queen Elizabeth II was not officially informed for almost a decade that one of her senior officials had confessed to being a Soviet spy, according to newly released MI5 files.

Art historian Anthony Blunt was for many years the Queen’s Portrait Investigator, in charge of the Royal Art Collection, and in 1964 he admitted that he had been a Soviet agent since the 1930s.

Documents released by MI5 show that even though Blunt confessed to them that he had spied on Russians during the Second World War, the late queen was not officially informed for nearly nine years.

When he was informed of the whole affair in the 1970s, he was unmoved, taking himself “calmly and without surprise”, according to files released to the National Archives.

The decision to inform the Queen comes as concern grows in Whitehall that the truth will emerge after Blunt, who suffered from cancer, dies. Journalists were already investigating the story and were no longer constrained by concerns about libel.

Blunt first became suspicious in 1951, when fellow spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean fled to the Soviet Union.

He was a close friend of Burgess’s from their time at Cambridge together in the 1930s – part of the so-called Cambridge Five spy ring.

During the Second World War Blunt worked for MI5, after 1951 he was interviewed 11 times by the Security Service, but always denied espionage.

Then American Michael Straight told the FBI that he had been hired by Blunt as a Russian agent.

In April 1964 MI5 interrogator Arthur Martin met with Blunt, promising him no objections.

His full confession is included for the first time in these files. As well as admitting his military service, he admitted that he joined the Russian Intelligence Service after the war.

Blunt said he met a Russian named Peter before Burgess and Maclean left, but he couldn’t remember why. He also said that Peter whom he called also encouraged him to run away, but he refused.

The interviewer said Blunt was not “comfortable” speaking, and each question was “followed by long pauses” during which he “seemed to be debating with himself how to answer”.

Despite Blunt’s popularity, few outside MI5 were told of this confession. The home secretary and a senior civil servant were notified.

The Queen’s private secretary was only told that Blunt was involved and that MI5 wanted to question him.

It was agreed that if Blunt became seriously ill, he would be notified, as this would lead to the publication of his profile.

In March 1973 another file recorded that the Queen’s private secretary had spoken to her about the Blunt case. It says: “He took it all calmly and without surprise: he remembered that he was already under suspicion after the Burgess / Maclean case”.

Miranda Carter, Blunt’s biographer, said her “idea” was Elizabeth II was told by chance sometime after 1965.

He believes that the authorities “want to maintain a veil of denial”. That the king took the matter “calmly and without surprise” shows what Carter must have known.

Blunt’s past was finally revealed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in a speech to the Commons in 1979. She died in 1983 at the age of 75 after being disqualified.

• Cambridge spy Kim Philby has announced he would do it all over again after revealing he spent years as a Russian agent.

• Blunt feared that his KGB captor would turn violent if he refused to join fellow spies Burgess and Maclean and fled to Russia.

• Filmmaker Dirk Bogarde has been warned by MI5 that he could be the target of a gay “capture” by the KGB.

• MI5’s chief interrogator was baffled by Philby, admitting that he could not tell if he was a Soviet spy.

Unlike government departments, MI5 is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act. It unpacks its files as it wants and some files are slightly modified.

Some of the documents released today will be on display at an upcoming exhibition at the National Archives.

The Director General of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, said: “While much of our work must remain confidential, this exhibition demonstrates our ongoing commitment to be open wherever we can.”