The real Profumo scandal: Book claims Russian spy 'photographed top secret documents'

The Profumo Affair – one of Cold War Britain’s most famous political scandals – was a much greater threat to the UK’s security interests than previously understood, The Independentcan reveal.

A new book by a Cambridge historian claims that the Russian spy at the centre of the scandal was able to photograph top secret documents left out by John Profumo, after being let in to the Minister of War’s study by his wife.

Yevgeny Ivanov, a Soviet Embassy official, apparently succeeded in photographing highly classified US-produced specifications for the X-15 – a top secret experimental high-altitude spy plane.