KGB’s Misinformation Campaign Against Margaret Thatcher Exposed

On 31 Decem­ber 2023, the Dai­ly Mail report­ed that the KGB orches­trat­ed a mis­in­for­ma­tion cam­paign against then-UK Prime Min­is­ter Mar­garet Thatch­er, uti­liz­ing Cyn­thia Roberts, a for­mer researcher for Tony Benn. Roberts, also a failed Labour can­di­date, was a KGB recruit. The cam­paign’s cen­ter­piece was a pam­phlet, false­ly attrib­uted to a made-up work­ing-class woman named Gwen­do­lene Stu­art, who was por­trayed as dis­il­lu­sioned by Thatch­er’s poli­cies. This fraud­u­lent doc­u­ment, released ahead of the 1987 gen­er­al elec­tion, depict­ed Thatch­er as a cor­rupt and war­mon­ger­ing fig­ure, betray­ing her gen­der and coun­try. Code­named Agent Ham­mer, Roberts fled to Prague in 1985 but returned to the UK for this pro­pa­gan­da effort. Although the cam­paign did­n’t achieve its intend­ed impact, it marked a sig­nif­i­cant effort by the KGB to influ­ence British pol­i­tics. Roberts, lat­er unmasked as a spy, con­tin­ued liv­ing in Prague post-Com­mu­nism and passed away in 2020.