British Briefing

British Briefing, originally Background Briefing on Subversion, was a 'counter-subversion' newsletter which smeared trades unionists and left-wing MPs. It has been reported that the Background Briefing on Subversion was produced by the Institute for the Study of Conflict from 1979. However, the most detailed report suggests that the operation was conducted by Brian Crozier who left the Institute for the Study of Conflict that year. The Background Briefing on Subversion was written by Charles Elwell, formerly of MI5’s F branch which targeted ‘subversives’. From 1988 onwards Elwell’s Background Briefing on Subversion was taken over (in terms of sponsorship rather than authorship) by the anti-union activist David Hart and became British Briefing. The Background Briefing on Subversion and British Briefing were based on paranoid and sometimes bizarre exposés. One issue of British Briefing published in 1989 condemned the housing charity Shelter for 'Communist affiliations' and the World Council of Churches, for its support for the Institute of Race Relations.

Whistle blower Colin Wallace has commented that: ‘Many of the smears in British Briefing are exactly the same sort of thing I was being asked by MI5 to spread in the 1970s. Some of the politicians…are the very same people I was being asked to smear.’

See Also

• David Hart | World Briefing | Committee for a Free Britain | New Policy Publishing | International Freedom Research Foundation | IRIS | Common Cause