Stonehouse story ‘far more fascinating’ than TV drama suggests, relative says

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.

“If you’d written the Stonehouse story as fiction, it would be completely unbelievable. There’s no way on earth that anybody would swallow it as a plot line. It’s a classic case of truth being stranger than fiction.”

Hayes, a lawyer, saw a preview of the first episode of the three-part drama and read the scripts as part of a consultation. “It says it’s based on a true story, and that’s really as far as it goes. Most of the peripheral characters are made up, and very little is factually correct,” he said.

At a meeting with the producers, he expressed “certain views” about the drama. “I don’t think it’s been changed dramatically,” he said.

The ITV show stars the real-life married couple Matthew Macfadyen as Stonehouse and Keeley Hawes as Barbara, who was married to the disgraced Labour MP and former cabinet minister at the time of his disappearance. The script was written by John Preston, whose credits include A Very English Scandal, about the Jeremy Thorpe affair, which became a TV drama starring Hugh Grant, and The Dig, about the archaeological site Sutton Hoo, which was made into a 2021 film starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan.

Stonehouse was a member of Harold Wilson’s cabinet as aviation minister and postmaster general, but his career crashed when he was named in 1969 as an agent of the Czech secret service. His problems were compounded by worsening financial troubles and an affair with his secretary, Sheila Buckley.

After stealing the identities of two deceased men in his constituency to create fake passports, Stonehouse flew to Miami, checked into the Fontainebleau hotel and went for a swim, leaving a pile of clothes on the beach. After he failed to return, he was presumed drowned, leaving a wife and three children.

Five weeks later, he was arrested in Australia, where he had been joined by his lover. Stonehouse was later sentenced at the Old Bailey to seven years in prison for fraud, theft and deception.

Hayes, whose biography of his great-uncle, Stonehouse: Cabinet Minister, Fraudster, Spy, was published in 2021, said the TV drama misrepresented how the politician became embroiled with the Czech secret services.

“The drama portrays a honeytrap, but in fact they psychologically groomed him over a period of time. There was no sex involved.

“A Czech agent befriended him and worked on him over lunches and dinners. If they’d said, ‘John, we’d like you to spy for us’, he’d have said no. But a slow insidious step-by-step persuasion to cooperate worked.

“He was not a spy in the sense of James Bond or the novels of John Le Carré. But he provided the Czechs with information and got a lot of money from them. He knew what he was doing.”

Hayes said he pored over detailed files in Czech archives while researching his biography. “That’s why I’m quite certain that a honeytrap was never on the agenda,” he said. “They massaged his ego and gained his trust.”

Stonehouse’s daughter, Julia, dismissed the spy claims in her own book, John Stonehouse, My Father, published in 2021. “She puts his behaviour down to depression, breakdown and use of prescription drugs,” said Hayes.

“I fully understand and sympathise with why she’s made that case. But it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny – and it certainly wasn’t believed by the jury in his trial.”

Hayes was nine years old when Stonehouse faked his death. His father, Stonehouse’s nephew and business partner, later gave evidence against him in court.

“Stonehouse’s actions were the result of meticulous planning of the most premeditated nature – fake identities, false bank accounts and credit cards, taking money out of his businesses,” said Hayes. “He knew that his wife and children would believe he was dead. It was utterly callous and heartless.”

ITV said: “Based on years of extensive research, the writer John Preston dramatised the aspects that interested him most and has created a rich, colourful and poignant account of an unforgettable politician.”

Stonehouse is available on ITVX. A documentary, The Real Stonehouse, is on ITV1 at 9pm on 5 January

• Television
• ITV1
• Labour
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