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Harold Wilson plot allegations
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Harold Wilson plot allegations
Since the mid-1970s, a variety of allegations have emerged regarding British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. These range from Wilson having been a Soviet agent (a claim which MI5 investigated and found to be false[citation needed]), to Wilson being the victim of treasonous plots by conservative-leaning elements in MI5 and the British military (e.g., the Clockwork Orange plot), claims which Wilson himself made.
Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn is said to have told a British intelligence officer that Wilson was a KGB operative and that former Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell had been assassinated by the KGB to have the pro-US Gaitskell replaced as party leader by Wilson. However, Christopher Andrew, the official historian for Britain's MI5, has described Golitsyn as an "unreliable conspiracy theorist".
In his memoir Spycatcher (1987), former MI5 officer Peter Wright stated that the head of the CIA's Counterintelligence Division, James Angleton, told him that Wilson was a Soviet agent when Wilson became Prime Minister after the 1964 general election. Wright said that Angleton referred to this assertion coming from a source (whom he did not name but who was probably Golitsyn). Golitsyn's words had been frequently taken heed of by Angleton, who had grown suspicious of the loyalty of many political figures, such as Henry Kissinger. According to Wright, Angleton offered to provide further information on the condition that MI5 guarantee to keep the allegations from "political circles", but the management of MI5 declined to accept restrictions on the use of the information and Angleton told them nothing more.[citation needed]
According to Wright, at the end of the 1960s MI5 received information from two Czechoslovak defectors, Josef Frolík and František August, who had fled to the West, alleging the Labour Party had "almost certainly" been penetrated by the Soviets. The two gave a list of Labour MPs and trade unionists as Soviet agents.
MI5 maintained a file on Wilson under the name of Henry Worthington. It repeatedly investigated him over the course of several decades, before officially concluding that Wilson had had no relationship with the KGB. Nor did it ever find evidence of Soviet penetration of the Labour Party.
In his 1976 memoir Walking on Water, Hugh Cudlipp recounts a meeting he arranged at the request of Cecil King, the head of the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), between King and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, then-Prince Charles' great uncle and mentor. The meeting took place on 8 May 1968. Attending were Mountbatten, King, Cudlipp, and Sir Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government.
According to Cudlipp:
[Cecil] awaited the arrival of Sir Solly and then at once expounded his views on the gravity of the national situation, the urgency for action, and then embarked upon a shopping list of the Prime Minister's shortcomings. He explained that in the crisis he foresaw as being just around the corner, the Government would disintegrate, there would be bloodshed in the streets and the armed forces would be involved. The people would be looking to somebody like Lord Mountbatten as the titular head of a new administration, somebody renowned as a leader of men, who would be capable, backed by the best brains and administrators in the land, to restore public confidence. He ended with a question to Mountbatten—would he agree to be the titular head of a new administration in such circumstances?
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Harold Wilson plot allegations
Since the mid-1970s, a variety of allegations have emerged regarding British Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. These range from Wilson having been a Soviet agent (a claim which MI5 investigated and found to be false[citation needed]), to Wilson being the victim of treasonous plots by conservative-leaning elements in MI5 and the British military (e.g., the Clockwork Orange plot), claims which Wilson himself made.
Soviet defector Anatoliy Golitsyn is said to have told a British intelligence officer that Wilson was a KGB operative and that former Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell had been assassinated by the KGB to have the pro-US Gaitskell replaced as party leader by Wilson. However, Christopher Andrew, the official historian for Britain's MI5, has described Golitsyn as an "unreliable conspiracy theorist".
In his memoir Spycatcher (1987), former MI5 officer Peter Wright stated that the head of the CIA's Counterintelligence Division, James Angleton, told him that Wilson was a Soviet agent when Wilson became Prime Minister after the 1964 general election. Wright said that Angleton referred to this assertion coming from a source (whom he did not name but who was probably Golitsyn). Golitsyn's words had been frequently taken heed of by Angleton, who had grown suspicious of the loyalty of many political figures, such as Henry Kissinger. According to Wright, Angleton offered to provide further information on the condition that MI5 guarantee to keep the allegations from "political circles", but the management of MI5 declined to accept restrictions on the use of the information and Angleton told them nothing more.[citation needed]
According to Wright, at the end of the 1960s MI5 received information from two Czechoslovak defectors, Josef Frolík and František August, who had fled to the West, alleging the Labour Party had "almost certainly" been penetrated by the Soviets. The two gave a list of Labour MPs and trade unionists as Soviet agents.
MI5 maintained a file on Wilson under the name of Henry Worthington. It repeatedly investigated him over the course of several decades, before officially concluding that Wilson had had no relationship with the KGB. Nor did it ever find evidence of Soviet penetration of the Labour Party.
In his 1976 memoir Walking on Water, Hugh Cudlipp recounts a meeting he arranged at the request of Cecil King, the head of the International Publishing Corporation (IPC), between King and Lord Mountbatten of Burma, then-Prince Charles' great uncle and mentor. The meeting took place on 8 May 1968. Attending were Mountbatten, King, Cudlipp, and Sir Solly Zuckerman, the Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government.
According to Cudlipp:
[Cecil] awaited the arrival of Sir Solly and then at once expounded his views on the gravity of the national situation, the urgency for action, and then embarked upon a shopping list of the Prime Minister's shortcomings. He explained that in the crisis he foresaw as being just around the corner, the Government would disintegrate, there would be bloodshed in the streets and the armed forces would be involved. The people would be looking to somebody like Lord Mountbatten as the titular head of a new administration, somebody renowned as a leader of men, who would be capable, backed by the best brains and administrators in the land, to restore public confidence. He ended with a question to Mountbatten—would he agree to be the titular head of a new administration in such circumstances?
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