At least 24 undercover police officers infiltrated a small leftwing party as part of a surveillance operation criticised as being “Orwellian” and unjustified in its scale, a public inquiry has heard.
Officers were sent to spy on the Socialist Workers party (SWP) in deployments that usually lasted four years. The party, whose total membership fluctuated around a few thousand, was the leftwing group most infiltrated by undercover police.
