Fears for Wilson’s memory on trip to Moscow

BELEAGUERED former prime minister Harold Wilson was urged by Whitehall officials to pare down a visit to the Soviet Union because of his failing memory, newly released Government files show.

Mr Wilson – by that time known as Lord Wilson – wrote to then-prime minister Margaret Thatcher for guidance having accepted an invitation to visit Moscow in 1986. But advisers close to the Tory leader warned of the political implications of the visit. Documents released by the National Archives in Kew include correspondence between Whitehall mandarins voicing concerns about Mr Wilson’s “failing memory”.

Mr Wilson, who resigned as Labour prime minister in 1976, was known to have suffered with mental-health problems in the final years of his premiership and died in 1995.

One letter, from Colin Budd, the assistant private secretary to foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe, to his Downing Street counterpart Charles Powell, in November 1986 warned of potential problems with the trip, including “Lord Wilson’s own failing memory and increasing tendency [demonstrated during his last visit in 1983] to indulge in irrelevant and repetitive reminiscence at meetings with Soviet hosts”.

Previously, there had been private concerns about Mr Wilson’s close ties to the Soviet Union, to the point where MI5 kept a secret file on him throughout his time in office because of his friendships with eastern European businessmen and contacts with the KGB.

The letter added: “We believe that the Embassy should not be too closely associated with Mr WIlson’s visit, and that their involvement should be limited.”

Experts believe Mr Wilson may have been showing the first signs of Alzheimer’s.