Rupert Allason

Rupert Allason      (historian, politician, spook)
Born	8 November 1951
Nationality	UK
Alma mater	Downside School
Parents	James Allason
Children	Tom Allason
Spouse	Nikki van Moppes\
Member of	Le Cercle
Interests	spooks
Writer of books and articles on the subject of espionage. Attended Le Cercle.  Member of Parliament for Torbay In office 1987 - 1997

Rupert William Simon Allason, under the pen name 'Nigel West', has written books and articles on the subject of espionage. An attendee of Le Cercle, he was an MP for 10 years and distinguished himself as very ready to get involved in legal action. In 2001 Charlie Courtauld headlined a piece in The Independent Rupert Allason: A reputation in tatters.

Background

Rupert Allason was son of the Conservative MP, James Allason.

Career

Nigel West's website reports him as "an author specialising in security, intelligence, secret service and espionage issues".

Writing

He was voted 'The Experts' Expert' by a panel of other spy writers in The Observer in November 1989. In 1984 The Sunday Times commented: "His information is so precise that many people believe he is the unofficial historian of the secret services. West's sources are undoubtedly excellent. His books are peppered with deliberate clues to potential front-page stories."

Allason described Richard Tomlinson's leak of UK spooks as "hugely damaging to us, on a scale of Philip Agee."

Speaking

Allason has been a frequent speaker at intelligence seminars and has lectured at both the KGB headquarters in Dzerzhinsky Square, Moscow and at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

Politics

He became MP for Torbay in 1987, which he held until the 1997 general election, when he lost his seat by just 12 votes to the Liberal Democrat Adrian Sanders.

Deep political connections

Rupert Allason is a member of Le Cercle.

Litigation

Allason has been involved in a lot of legal cases, in which he represented himself without lawyers, though he disputes that he is "litigious". Reporting on his first legal defeat (against Alastair Campbell, later Downing Street Press Secretary under Tony Blair), in 1996, the Independent summarised his 'score' as 21 wins, 1 loss, 1 draw.

In 2001 Allason sued Random House, the publishers of The Enigma Spy, the autobiography of the former Soviet agent John Cairncross. Allason claimed he had ghostwritten The Enigma Spy in return for the copyright and 50 per cent of the proceeds. However, Allason lost the case and was ordered to pay costs of around £200,000. In passing judgment the trial judge said that Allason was "a profoundly dishonest man" and "one of the most dishonest witnesses I have ever seen". In September 2005, Allason was threatened with jail for contempt of court in relation to paying the damages from the 2001 case.

Criticism of John Ainsworth-Davis

John Ainsworth-Davis's close confidante, investigative journalist Laurence de Mello reports receipt of a 2012 email by Allason that: "My connection with 'Creighton' is simply that I was employed by one of his sponsors (Milton Schulman) to investigate his claims (OpJB) and establish his true identity. I did both. He is a charlatan but I suspect he probably believes his own fantasies. Alas, I cannot account for others, such as Lady Mountbatten who, you say, have appeared to give him some credence." This seems difficult to square with the fact that Milton Schulman supported Ainsworth-Davis.

Family life

He married Nikki van Moppes in 1979 and divorced in 1996. His son, Tom Allason, is an entrepreneur.

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