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

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Admin

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.

Harold Wilson confessed to secret ‘love match’ while PM, former aide reveals

Posted on April 11, 2024 by Admin

Joe Haines tells the Times of relationship with Janet Hewlett-Davies before Labour leader resigned from No 10

Harold Wilson confessed to an affair during his final year in Downing Street, one of his closest surviving aides has revealed for the first time.

The former Labour prime minister had a secret affair with Janet Hewlett-Davies, his former deputy press secretary who was 22 years his junior, towards the end of his time in No 10.

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

Posted on November 27, 2021 by Admin

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.

Jeremy Corbyn is wise to emulate Harold Wilson’s pragmatism on Europe | Steve Howell

Posted on September 11, 2019 by Admin

Wilson left it late before backing his own deal in the 1975 referendum. Corbyn should keep Labour’s options open too

It is said of Harold Wilson that he epitomised the quip: “If you can’t ride two horses at the same time, you shouldn’t be in the circus.” He was often criticised for putting pragmatism before principle in his 13 years as Labour leader, but it was an attribute that served him well in preventing the party from tearing itself apart on Europe in the 1970s.

When Wilson won a fourth general election on 10 October 1974, he faced the challenge of navigating Labour’s deep divisions on whether or not to reverse the 1972 decision to join the common market. The party’s election manifesto had promised the British people a “final say” on Britain’s membership without committing itself one way or another to a recommendation. “It is as yet too early to judge the likely results of the tough negotiations which are taking place,” it said.