Category Archives: National Archives

Former PM Harold Wilson sold private papers to help fund his care

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Ex-Labour leader initially planned to sell personal and political documents to Canadian university for £212,500

The former UK prime minister Harold Wilson agreed to sell his archive of private papers to help fund his care, official documents have revealed.

Papers released by the National Archives and identified by the BBC show Lord Wilson initially planned to sell the collection to McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, for £212,500 – the equivalent of about £700,000 in today’s money.

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Blair government accused IDF of acting like Russian army in West Bank

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Tensions over Palestinian death toll have eerie parallels to western concerns about current Israeli operations

Tony Blair’s government accused Israeli forces of acting more like the “Russian army than that of a civilised country” during a major military incursion into the occupied West Bank, newly released official files show.

The tensions, which have eerie parallels to western concerns over current Israeli operations in the Gaza Strip, are laid bare in papers released by the National Archives.

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Thatcher ‘utterly shattered’ by MI5 revelations in Spycatcher, files reveal

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National Archives papers show prime minister tried in vain to avoid inquiry over Peter Wright’s memoirs

Margaret Thatcher was “utterly shattered” by the revelations in Spycatcher, the memoirs of the retired MI5 officer Peter Wright, files released publicly for the first time reveal.

The files also reveal the dilemmas faced by Thatcher’s government in its futile battle to suppress the book, including whether to agree to the Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer mediating an out of court “solution”.

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National archives: Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo

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Former prime minister had concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army

Tony Blair was advised to work with militants in Kosovo, some of whom have subsequently been put on trial for war crimes, despite reportedly believing they were “not much better than the Serbs” whose own crimes against humanity he was seeking to end, it has been revealed.

Blair, then the UK prime minister, had grave concerns about being seen to be too close to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which was fighting against the Serbian nationalist forces led by Slobodan Milošević.

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Businessman in passports scandal asked if he should avoid UK until after 2001 election

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Srichand P Hinduja spoke to diplomat over fears of embroiling Labour party in row, National Archives files show

The man at the centre of the “cash-for-passports” scandal two decades ago asked the government if he should delay returning to the UK until after the 2001 general election, newly released official files show.

Srichand P Hinduja was embroiled in a row that ultimately led to the second resignation of Peter Mandelson from the cabinet over his actions when the businessman, who made a £1m donation to the Millennium Dome, was applying for a British passport.

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Unopened 18th-century love letters to French sailors read for first time

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Letters from loved ones of captured ship’s crew during seven years’ war lay forgotten for centuries

A forgotten bundle of love letters sent to French sailors more than 260 years ago – but never before opened or read – has been discovered among British naval archives, revealing intimate details of 18th-century marital and family life.

The remarkable stash of more than 100 letters was discovered by chance at the National Archives in Kew by Renaud Morieux, professor of European history at the University of Cambridge, who asked archivists if they could be opened so he could read them for the first time.

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Tony Blair sought to avoid reports of ‘snuggling up’ to Berlusconi, files show

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Envoy urged No 10 to exploit opportunities presented by tycoon’s premiership while ‘holding our noses’, archives reveal

Tony Blair sought to avoid unwelcome headlines suggesting he was “snuggling up” to Silvio Berlusconi by not inviting media lobby correspondents to a UK-Italy summit in Rome, newly released documents reveal.

Before the February 2002 bilateral, Britain’s ambassador to Rome, John Shepherd, told the government it had a “real opportunity” to exploit the Italian prime minister’s “orientations in Europe in support of UK interests, holding our noses and staying alert to the risks as we do”.

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Newly released files reveal plan to move Millennium Dome to Swindon

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Labour government received bid to relocate controversial London building before it was rebranded as the O2

The “Swindon Dome” does have a ring to it.

It has emerged Tony Blair’s government received a proposition to move the Millennium Dome – later redeveloped and rebranded as the O2 – to Swindon.

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Blair aide feared 1997 cabinet portrait would look ‘triumphalist’

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National Archives documents show concerns raised over Scottish National Portrait Gallery’s proposal

Downing Street feared that a group portrait of Tony Blair’s cabinet that the Scottish National Portrait Gallery wanted to commission to mark New Labour’s 1997 election victory would look “triumphalist” and be unlikely to win votes in Scotland, newly released documents reveal.

The gallery proposed a portrait by Peter Howson, a distinguished member of the new wave of expressionist artists who emerged from the Glasgow School of Art in the 80s, and was willing to pay. With the fee likely to be “substantial”, Downing Street aides were also concerned about negative coverage if any public funds were used, the documents released by the National Archives show.

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Blair government had misgivings about Mandela mediation role over Lockerbie

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Files show Downing Street felt former South African leader’s attempt to mediate was ‘unlikely to be helpful’

Downing Street believed Nelson Mandela’s attempt to play mediator between it and the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi over the question of compensation after the Lockerbie bombing was “unlikely to be helpful”, documents reveal.

But despite misgivings, No 10 aides did not rule out using Mandela “back against [Gaddafi] if Libya rejected a reasonable offer”, the documents released by the National Archives in the UK show.

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Blair asked Bush during first phone call if he could call him by first name

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Archives reveal PM’s early attempts to establish personal relationship with president after 2000 US election

Tony Blair moved swiftly to place his relationship with George W Bush on a personal footing after the Republican won the 2000 US presidential election, asking him “early on” in their first telephone call if he could call him by his first name.

“Bush warmly assented (but stuck himself with addressing the prime minister as ‘Sir’),” according to a note of their call, which is among government files released to the National Archives. Blair was the first foreign leader to call to congratulate the president-elect. Michael Tatham, a British diplomat, noted that the eight-minute conversation had established “as good a rapport as one could hope for” from such a short call.

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Profumo spy had weakness for women and drink, archives reveal

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Files on Russian intelligence officer and ‘lady-killer’ Eugene Ivanov littered with reports of drunkenness

Eugene Ivanov, the Russian spy at the centre of the 1963 Profumo scandal, was a philandering alcoholic whose weakness for women and drink M15 hoped to exploit to get him to defect, but who ended up toppling the Macmillan government by chance, according to newly released intelligence files.

He arrived at the Russian embassy in London as assistant naval attache in 1960 but M15 suspected he was an intelligence officer, partly because he didn’t seem to know much about ships and also he carried an umbrella.

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Blair urged Kuwait to buy UK artillery as Gulf war payback, papers show

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Notes from late 1990s show UK government believed it was due contract in recognition of defence of Kuwait

Tony Blair urged Kuwait to buy the UK’s latest artillery as payback for supporting the country during the Gulf war, newly released papers reveal.

Blair lobbied Crown Prince Sheikh Sa’ad between 1998 and 1999, including calling in on him during a brief stopover on a flight home from South Africa.

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Tony Blair was warned repeal of anti-gay section 28 might harm election chances

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Archives reveal David Blunkett voiced concerns about overturning ban on ‘promotion’ of homosexuality

Tony Blair was warned about his government’s commitment to overturning a ban on the “promotion” of homosexuality in schools in the run-up to the 2001 general election, previously classified records show.

David Blunkett, then the education secretary, twice wrote to the prime minister to voice his concerns regarding the furore over section 28. It followed months of debate over potential changes to same-sex education in schools.

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UK knew of former French president’s ill health for 10 years, papers reveal

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Suspicions over François Mitterrand’s health were raised a decade before his cancer prognosis was made public

A British diplomat raised concerns about the secret extent of French president François Mitterrand’s ill health a decade before the statesman’s terminal prognosis was made public, newly released official papers reveal.

Sir Reginald Hibbert, the UK government’s ambassador in Paris, appraised Whitehall colleagues in December 1981 with “talk about the president’s health which seemed to me to carry a certain amount of conviction”.

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Eighteenth-century cockroach found in slave-trading ship ledger

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Insect’s journey probably began in west Africa on vessel that sailed from La Rochelle in 1743 to Guinea

An 18th-century cockroach named Peri, discovered in the ledger of a French slave-trading vessel, has become a surprise addition to the National Archives after the book was opened for the first time in more than two centuries.

The insect’s journey began onboard the slave-trading vessel that sailed from La Rochelle in 1743 for the Guinea coast. The crew later boarded a different vessel in modern-day Haiti bound for France, taking the ledger with them. But that ship was seized by British privateers during the war of the Austrian succession and sent into Plymouth.

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Elton John’s Your Song originally slated for Diana funeral

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Goodbye England’s Rose was included in 1997 service after dean of Westminster urged ‘boldness’

Westminster Abbey originally anticipated that Elton John would sing Your Song at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, rather than Goodbye England’s Rose, his reworking of Candle in the Wind, newly released records show.

An early order-of-service draft included the lyrics of Your Song, although it was mistitled Our Song. A second draft, sent for approval to Buckingham Palace by the dean of Westminster Abbey, Dr Wesley Carr, substituted Candle in the Wind.

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UK officials still blocking Peter Wright’s ‘embarrassing’ Spycatcher files

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A documentary-maker has accused the Cabinet Office of defying the 30-year rule in withholding details of the MI5 exposé

The Cabinet Office has been accused of “delay and deception” over its blocking of the release of files dating back more than three decades that reveal the inside story of the intelligence agent Peter Wright and the Spycatcher affair.

Wright revealed an inside account of how MI5 “bugged and burgled” its way across London in his 1987 autobiography Spycatcher. He died aged 78 in 1995.

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Tony Blair urged Nelson Mandela not to discuss Lockerbie trial, papers show

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Blair wrote to then South African leader in 1997 after aides said raising issue at summit in Scotland would be ‘pretty disastrous’

Tony Blair failed in urgent attempts to prevent Nelson Mandela raising the issue of the Lockerbie trial at a Commonwealth summit in Edinburgh, which aides warned would be “pretty disastrous”, previously classified documents reveal.

The Foreign Office, on discovering Mandela was visiting Libya en-route to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) in Edinburgh in October 1997, warned of a “sensitive situation” if the South African leader spoke out against UK government’s plans to hold the trial of two suspects in Scotland.

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Bill Clinton fancied an Indian rather than tea with the Queen

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Then US leader also turned down Chequers dinner because he wanted to ‘be a tourist’, archives show

Bill Clinton turned down tea with the Queen and dinner at Chequers because he wanted to “be a tourist” and try out an Indian restaurant during his first official visit to the UK with Tony Blair as prime minister, formerly classified documents reveal.

Downing Street wanted to pull out all the stops for a visit seen as crucial to “establishing a good working relationship” between the new prime minister and the then US president. Buckingham Palace contacted No 10 to say “HM the Queen would be very pleased” to invite the Clintons to tea at 5pm on their brief one-day detour from summits in Paris and The Hague.

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