Maurice Challe In July 1956, Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of the Suez Canal, in violation of agreements he had signed with the British and French governments. On 14 October 1956, Challe visited British Prime Minister Anthony Eden at Chequers, accompanied by French Minister of Labor Albert Gazier. The two Frenchmen told Eden of the secret negotiations between Israel and France regarding a proposed Israeli attack on Egypt followed with military occupation by European powers, to control the Suez Canal. Eden backed the plan with UK resources including military forces, directly leading to the Suez Crisis. Challe was a French
The Prime Minister Was a Spy officials". "The Prime Minister Was a Spy" made the following claims: Tom Frame, Holt's biographer, describes Titcombe and Grey's account as a "complete fabrication". He notes that there is "no corroborative evidence" for most of their claims, as none of the documents referred to in the book were produced. Furthermore, Holt was stridently anti-Communist, the large sums of money he supposedly received were never reflected in his lifestyle, he was highly unlikely to have deserted his wife and children, and the water off of Cheviot Beach was much too shallow for a submarine to submerge. Zara Holt observed that her