Town council leader Sandy Lovatt has criticised a Channel 4 drama for suggesting that the town’s former MP was killed by the security services.

Utopia, screened last night, suggested that Airey Neave’s murder was carried out by a secret MI5 cell in March, 1979, not by the Irish National Liberation Army.

The Abingdon MP, elected in 1953 and shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, died in the car bomb attack at the House of Commons.

The council leader said: “Mr Neave was a war hero who escaped from Colditz and his death was dramatic enough. There’s no need to fictionalise it.’’

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