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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Letters

The truth of the ‘nonsense’ plot to dethrone Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson waves to the crowd as he arrives at No 10 Downing Street with his wife Mary.
Harold Wilson waves to the crowd as he arrives at No 10 Downing Street with his wife Mary. Photograph: PA

Your report on the latest release of classified files from the National Archives refers to a letter from Cecil Harmsworth King dismissing reports that he, Lord Mountbatten and Hugh Cudlipp had planned to overthrow Harold Wilson’s government (Alleged plotter wrote talk of Wilson ‘coup’ was nonsense, UK archives show, 19 July).

I suggest that a more reliable source for evidence of King’s perfidy is Cudlipp’s gripping autobiography Walking on the Water. In it, Cudlipp, a talented journalist who succeeded King as chairman of the Daily Mirror Group, relates that King plotted an “emergency government” to overthrow Harold Wilson.

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