Tom Driberg, Baron Bradwell

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Edward Neil Driberg, Baron Bradwell (22 May 1905 – 12 August 1976) was a British journalist and politician who was an influential member on the left of the Labour Party from the 1950s to the 1970s. He was revealed as a spy for the Soviet Union by Vasili Mitrokhin.

Tom Driberg was born at Crowborough, Sussex. Having studied Classics at Christ Church, Oxford (1924-1927) without taking a degree, Driberg worked on the Daily Express from 1928 and created the William Hickey diary and gossip column. He was also connected to the intelligence services of both the United Kingdom and Soviet Union, as demonstrated in the Mitrokhin archives.

He was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Maldon in a by-election in June 1942 as an independent candidate, basing his election campaign on the 1941 Committee's Nine-Point Plan. He took the Labour whip in January 1945 and continued to sit for the seat until his retirement at the 1955 general election. He was MP for Barking from 1959 to February 1974. In 1957 he became chairman of the Labour Party.

He was created a Life peer, as Baron Bradwell, of Bradwell-juxta-Mare in the County of Essex, shortly before his death. His autobiography, Ruling Passions, was published posthumously and disclosed the conflict between the three passions that drove his life: his homosexuality (he pursued casual and risky encounters compulsively, going cottaging and using rent boys^[1]), his left-wing political beliefs, and his allegiance to the High Church tendency of the Church of England. His will insisted that at his memorial service, the reader excoriate him for his sins rather than praise him for his virtues.

[edit] See also

Mitrokhin Archive

[edit] Reference

^ Ball, 2004

Ball, Simon "The Guardsmen, Harold Macmillan, Three Friends and the World They Made", (London, Harper Collins), 2004
Francis Wheen (1990) The Soul of Indiscretion: Tom Driberg, Poet, Philanderer, Legislator and Outlaw - His Life and Indiscretions

[edit] External links

Schoolnet: Tom Driberg

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Edward Ruggles-Brise	Member of Parliament for Maldon 1942–1955	Succeeded by Alastair Harrison
Preceded by Somerville Hastings	Member of Parliament for Barking 1959–1974	Succeeded by Jo Richardson
Political offices
Preceded by Margaret Herbison	Chair of the Labour Party 1957–1958	Succeeded by Barbara Castle