Mick Costello

Michael Costello (born June 1936, London) is a former British communist activist. His parents, Bella Lerner and Paddy Costello, were both members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). Paddy dropped out in 1939, but Bella remained a member her entire life. Late in World War II, Mick's parents relocated to the Soviet Union in order to work with the New Zealand diplomatic mission in Moscow. Mick was educated at a state school in the city, where he became fluent in Russian.

The family returned to Britain when Mick was fourteen, and he studied at the University of Manchester, where he was elected president of the Students' Union. After joining the CPGB in 1956, he was known as an expert on economics. He was also a journalist on the Morning Star, a daily newspaper associated with the party. He wrote two books expounding party ideology:

In 1979, Costello was elected the CPGB's National Industrial Organiser. He built links with trade unions and became what the New Statesman later described as "the best-known communist in Britain, probably the cleverest, and easily the party's best linguist". In this role, it was suggested in several newspapers that he was working as a Soviet spy, possibly even following his father's footsteps; a charge which Costello denied. Francis Beckett noted that Costello's prominent position would not be good cover for a spy, and would be unlikely to enable him to discover important secrets. Later in life, he returned to theoretical work, and in 2008, he joined the Communist Party of Britain.