Harold Wilson’s ex-aide Marcia Falkender dies
HAROLD Wilson’s former private and political secretary Baroness Falkender has died, her family said last night.
Lady Falkender came to prominence after Mr Wilson’s abrupt resignation as prime minister in 1976, amid claims she wrote the first draft of his resignation honours list.
The document, known as the ‘lavender list’ because it was written on lavender-coloured paper, named actors and several businessmen.
Lady Falkender – known as Marcia Williams before being given her peerage in 197 – died on February 6, aged 86, according to the Daily Telegraph. She worked for Mr Wilson from 1956 to 1983, and handled his private business until his death in 1995.
As his private and political secretary during his tenures as prime minister in the Sixties and Seventies, she was reputed to be the ‘most powerful woman in British politics’.
The ‘lavender list’ did lasting damage to Mr Wilson’s reputation. The claim Lady Falkender wrote it was made by Joe Haines, his press secretary.
There were also rumours she and Mr Wilson had an affair – a suggestion she described last year as ‘ludicrous’.
Of the list, she said: ‘The names were not my idea.’
The Daily Mail reported in 201 that Lady Falkender, who suffered a stroke 20 years ago, had not spoken in her entire 0 years in the House of Lords.