Ex-Spy Chief Gay but Not Security Risk--Thatcher

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told Parliament today that the former head of the MI6 intelligence service, the late Sir Maurice Oldfield, had been a practicing homosexual.

However, she said that a thorough investigation of Oldfield, who died in 1981 after serving as security coordinator in troubled Northern Ireland, had concluded that he was not a security risk.

Thatcher was replying to a written question from a member of Parliament following allegations against Oldfield in a book by Chapman Pincher, a specialist in intelligence matters, currently being serialized in the press.

In her written reply, Thatcher said that after Oldfield, MI6 chief from 1973 to 1978, was appointed to Northern Ireland in 1979, “reports were received which caused his positive vetting clearance to be reviewed.”

“In March, 1980, in the course of that review, he made an admission that he had from time to time engaged in homosexual activities,” the prime minister said. “His positive vetting clearance was withdrawn.”

By this time, he was already a sick man, she said, adding that he gave up his Northern Ireland job in 1980.

Thatcher said a lengthy investigation had been carried out, including several interviews with Oldfield, “to examine whether there was any reason to suppose that he himself or the interests of the country might have been compromised. The conclusion was that, though his conduct had been a potential risk to security, there was no evidence or reason whatsoever to suggest that security had ever been compromised.”

Oldfield, a bespectacled, round-faced figure in rumpled dark suits and heavy overcoats, is believed to have served as the model for spymaster George Smiley of John Le Carre’s novels.