Peter Wright in 1963 following what Wright refers to as a tip-off by "a fifth man, still inside", he became convinced that the KGB had penetrated the higher reaches of MI5. As claimed in "Spycatcher", Wright had come to believe that Roger Hollis was the highest traitor in MI5. Wright went so far as to begin to make, as he himself put it, "his own 'freelance' inquiries into Hollis' background" shortly before the latter's retirement. According to Wright, his initial, unspecified, suspicion was aroused by his analysis of how a Soviet 'illegal' Lonsdale's arrest in January 1961 was handled by the KGB
Iain Wright come from the "usual suspects". One subsequently apologised, and another was expelled. During the campaign, Wright highlighted the Labour government's controversial policies for tackling anti-social behaviour as well as the Liberal Democrats' refusal to support such measures in Parliament and stressed his local origins, in contrast to his main rival's. On polling day (30 September 2004), Wright was elected with a majority of 2,033, reduced from Mandelson's majority of 14,571. The campaign was unusually long for British by elections, effectively having begun on 22 July (the day Peter Mandelson announced his intention to become a European Commissioner), seventy one days