When the Queen wasn’t told for years her adviser was a Soviet spy

Fresh revelations from new podcast have reignited questions over why Soviet spy Sir Anthony Blunt was allowed to continue working for the Queen years after admitting his treachery.

In the latest episode of podcast Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things, historians Robert Hardman and Kate Williams revisit the extraordinary life of Blunt. He was the art historian and distant cousin of Queen Elizabeth II who served as Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures for nearly three decades.

Blunt, described by Williams as “Britain’s ultimate traitor,” passed military secrets to Moscow during World War II and was part of the infamous Cambridge spy ring. Yet he was offered immunity and allowed to keep his role as well as his knighthood, without the Queen being told for nearly a decade.

“The view was, if we punish him, if we hang him out to dry, the Soviets will know that we know the information he’s given us,” Hardman said on the podcast. “They just leave him where he was – and this weird deal is done where he is allowed to remain Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures.”

Williams added that officials feared his exposure could “damage Cold War relations” and politically harm the Conservative government.

“They also thought it could damage the current Conservative government and give Labour an in. Therefore, he continued,” she said.

Blunt was finally exposed publicly in 1979, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher named him as a member of a spy ring.