Marcus Lipton was born on 29th October, 1900. After being educated
at Bede Grammar School and Merton College,
Oxford, Lipton became a barrister.
A
member of the Labour Party he was elected
to Stepney Borough Council (1934-37) and Lambeth Borough Council (1937-56).
During the Second World War Lipton served in
the British Army and reached the rank
of Lieutenant Colonel.
Lipton
was elected to the House of Commons in
the 1945 General Election. He took a keen
interest in international affairs and was a member of parliamentary
delegations to several European countries.
On 23rd October, 1955,
the newspaper, New York Sunday News,
reported that Kim
Philby was a
Soviet spy. Two days later Lipton asked Anthony
Eden in the
House of Commons: "Has the prime minister
made up his mind to cover up at all costs the dubious third-man activities
of Mr. Harold Philby". Eden refused to reply but,
Harold
Macmillan, the
foreign secretary, issued a statement a couple of days later: "While
in government service he (Philby) carried out his duties ably and
conscientiously, and I have no reason to conclude that Mr Philby has
at any time betrayed the interests of his country, or to identify
him with the so-called 'Third Man', if indeed there was one."
Kim
Philby now called
a press conference where he denied he was a spy. He added that "I
have never been a communist and the last time I spoke to a communist
knowing he was one, was in 1934". Philby accused Lipton of lying
and challenged him to repeat his claims outside the protection of
the House of Commons. Lipton was forced
to issue a statement where he withdrew his comments about Philby.
On
23rd January, 1963, Philby fled to the Soviet
Union. In his book, My Silent War
(1968), Philby admitted that he had been a Soviet spy for over thirty
years.
Marcus Lipton remained
in Parliament until his death on 22nd February, 1978.
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