Skip to main content

Disclosure of Special Branch files

EDM (Early Day Motion) 386: tabled on 11 November 2024

Tabled in the 2024-25 session.

This motion has been signed by 11 Members. It has not yet had any amendments submitted.

Motion text

That this House notes with concern that Special Branch documents show that the undercover police reported on union members speaking at meetings asking for solidarity with striking workers; further notes that in an internal police report known as Operation Reuben, the police admit that intelligence gathered by undercover policing was shared by both Special Branch and the security services, with employers and the notorious blacklisting organisations such as the Economic League and the Consulting Association; also notes that there is now conclusive evidence that Special Branch infiltrated trade union meetings and kept files on every trade union in the UK; and calls for all the spycops files to be disclosed to those who were spied on.