PRIME Minister Harold Wilson is widely known to be one of the late Queen’s “favourite PMs”.
However, during his career he was plagued by rumours he was a Russian spy and that he was also having an affair.
Harold Wilson was a British Prime MinisterHulton Archive – Getty
Who was Harold Wilson?
Born James Harold Wilson on March 11, 1916 in Yorkshire and died on May 24, 1995.
The son of an industrial chemist and a teacher, he attended Oxford, studying history, philosophy, politics, and economics, and at 24 married his sweetheart, Mary Baldwin, with whom he would have two sons.
During World War II Wilson was drafted into civil service in the war cabinet, then as head of statistics and economics at the Ministry of Fuel and Power.
In 1945, he was elected to the House of Commons for the Labour party.
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Two years later, at the age of 31, he was appointed as President of the Board of Trade, making him the youngest cabinet member in Britain since 1792.
From 1955 to 1961 he served as chancellor in the Shadow Cabinet, then as Shadow Foreign Secretary from 1961 to 1963.
When was Harold Wilson Prime Minster?
In 1964, he was elected Prime Minister for the first time.
Wilson had two stints as PM from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1976.
His government worked with MPs to ease laws around censorship as well as abolishing capital punishment, and pushing back against the discrimination of women and minorities with legislation like the Equal Pay Act.
Was Harold Wilson a Russian spy?
No he wasn’t, however Wilson seemed very friendly towards the Soviet Union early on in his political career, and it is true that the KGB did consider him as a potential target for recruitment.
MI5 also kept a close eye on him in the years before he became Prime Minister – and a Soviet defector did come up with a story about Wilson assassinating Hugh Gaitskell – something which the Queen heard about.
However, there is no credible evidence that Wilson was ever a Soviet agent, and these claims were rubbished by MI5.
Harold had a good relationship with the QueenGetty – Contributor
Was Harold Wilson one of the Queen’s favourite Prime Ministers?
In The Crown season 3 – where he is played by actor Jason Watkins – their relationship is portrayed as having a rocky start before they have a great friendship.
Being just 10 years older than the Queen, Wilson was a much closer in age to Her Majesty than her previous PMs.
In the years since his turn in office, Wilson has long been presumed to have been one of the Queen’s favourites.
Wilson was Prime Minster twiceHulton Archive – Getty
Though the Queen’s meetings with her Prime Ministers have always been, by their nature, business associations, Wilson enjoyed what he referred to as a “relaxed intimacy” with Elizabeth II.
Following their first meeting, she took the rare step of inviting him to stay for drinks, and he was reportedly allowed to smoke his pipe during their audiences.
The month after he resigned in 1976, the Queen appointed Wilson to the Order of the Garter, and in 1983 he was created a life peer as Baron Wilson of Rievaulx.
Harold and his wife Mary in 1985Getty – Contributor
Who was Harold Wilson’s aide Janet Hewlett-Davies?
Janet Hewlett-Davies worked as Wilson’s press secretary during his second-term at No. 10.
In April 2024, it was claimed that during the time they worked together they were “having an affair”.
The claims come from another one of Wilson’s press secretaries at the time, Joe Haines.
He told The Times that Janet — who was in her 30s and 22 years younger than the PM — was the PM’s “love match”.
It was a secret that both she and Wilson took to the grave.
According to Haines, the PM told him that the affair – which took place during his second term in No. 10 from 1974 to 1976 – gave him a “new lease of life”.
Janet died in October 2023, aged 85.