French spies are immune to honeytrap schemes as their wives already know that they are having affairs, the French counterpart to MI6 has revealed.

Russians realised that generating blackmail by entering into illicit relationships with French spies did not work, according to intelligence agents for the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE).

‘Go ahead, my wife already knows,’ was a standard reply according to an agent in a documentary the Making of Secret Agents which examined the French spy agency.

It aired on French television channel France 2 on Tuesday night.

The agent, ‘Nicolas’, who appeared anonymously on the show said that Soviet Union defectors talked of the ‘French paradox’.

He said the phenomenon was if you tell a Frenchman with a mistress ‘we’ve caught you red-handed with a 22-year-old called Tatyana, work for us or we’ll tell your wife, it didn’t work’, The Telegraph reports.

French spies are immune to honeytrap schemes as their wives already know that they are having affairs, the French counterpart to MI6 has revealed (stock photo)

This is because they would normally say ‘she already knows about it’ or ‘Go ahead, show her, she’ll understand’.

It comes after senior Tory MP William Wragg quit top party and Commons jobs after revealing he gave away colleagues phone numbers after being honeytrapped on a gay dating app.

William Wragg stepped down as vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee, the backbench Conservative organisation, and as chairman of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC).

The MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester admitted last week that he had given his colleagues’ phone numbers away to a Grindr contact for fear of intimate images of himself being leaked.

Scotland Yard has said it is investigating reports of the so-called ‘honeytrap’ scam after it was suggested that at least 12 men in political circles – including journalists – received unsolicited messages, raising security concerns.

It came as Mr Wragg was criticised by more of his Tory colleagues for his actions, amid some calls for him to be suspended by the party.

Bernard Emié, 65,  France’s spy chief until December last year says that the nation’s secret service is staffed by ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things using exceptional means’.

The access into the spy agency was granted after recent negative press.

IMP William Wragg admitted passing on phone numbers of MPs due to fears about blackmail after being honeytrapped

In a section of the documentary, Mr Emié vigorously rebuffs claims that French spies were not aware of the forthcoming Russian invasion of Ukraine when Putin’s troops lined up on the border in February 2022.

Britain and the US had warned that Putin was planning on starting his invasion ‘in the coming days’ – but the French said it was not happenin. And President Emmanuel Macron was criticised for continuing to talk to the Russian president.

The documentary hit out at ‘Anglo-Saxons’ who claimed that they had photos that Iraq dictator had missiles which could carry WMDs, but that confused rolled-up carpets in a factory for petrol pipeline tubes and missiles.

It added that the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ were more likely to ‘throw more money at seeking to make contacts’ but the French spies focus on targets’ ulterior motives.