The Lib Dems checked Stasi files for Agent Cob

An intriguing paragraph from Keven Maguire's Commons Confidential in the New Statesman:

Maybe the Sun, Daily Express,​ Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph weren’t particularly interested in the truth when smearing Comrade Corbyn as a Cold War spy. 

But Mansfield’s expensively humiliated Tory vice chair Ben Bradley could have saved himself a small fortune and a grovel if he’d asked the Lib Dems. 

The sneaky yellow peril checked Stasi files three years ago and discovered that Corbyn wasn’t on the books. Eastern bloc agents were uninterested in the secrets of Jezza’s damson jam recipe.

Once gaining such intelligence would have involved Paddy Ashdown conducting a break in like Peter Guillam in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

These days we probably send a student along to the library with a packet of sandwiches.