Great-nephew of MP who faked death in 1974 says there was ‘psychological grooming’ by Czech spies but no honeytrap
The true story of John Stonehouse’s entanglement with espionage and faked death was far more fascinating than the television drama airing this week, according to his great-nephew Julian Hayes.
Hayes, who has clear childhood memories of Stonehouse and the impact of his disappearance in 1974 on the family, said little of the dramatised version was strictly factual. A honeytrap executed by the Czech secret services has been substituted for the real-life “slow insidious grooming” of the Labour MP for Wednesbury and Walsall North, he said.
