Sons of the Hebrides – lives of danger and intrigue
A documentary about a Soviet spy and a respectable Conservative cabinet minister who might have been Prime Minister instead of Mrs Thatcher will reveal that it was the Tory who led the more dangerous life.
Macleod MP / Maclean KGB reveals the parallel early lives of MP Iain Macleod and the Soviet spy. Both men were born in 1913 of Hebridean stock, both went to Cambridge University, and both had strong views about how the world should be. But they took very different paths.
While Maclean was part of the notorious Philby, Burgess and Maclean spy-ring, his ‘cover’ was that of a high-flying diplomat and he fought his secret war as a Soviet mole in the corridors of the Foreign Office in Whitehall and embassies in Paris, Cairo and Washington. But Conservative politician Iain Macleod had a much more chaotic and colourful life.
Leaving Cambridge, he joined the set of ‘the bright young things’, becoming a playboy and professional gambler who earned more than 10 times the average national wage of the time. But Macleod joined the army as soon as the Second World War broke out. Wounded during an action against an enemy armoured car, he was evacuated to England just before the fall of France.
Back in Britain, Macleod was selected for an exclusive army ‘battle school’. Macleod surprised himself. He recalled: 'I’d never been pushed into competition with people of first-class abilities before and it was there that I found – genuinely to my very great surprise – not only could I keep up but that I could beat them.'
The experience changed the course of Macleod’s life. He took part in D-Day, expecting to be killed.
He later said: 'Having being convinced that I would be killed on D-Day, now with a complete absence of reason I was convinced I’d live through the war and that I wanted to take some part in the shaping of my country after it.'
In the 1945, General Election he contested the Western Isles constituency for the Tories – and lost. Winning a London seat in 1950, he rose rapidly through the Conservative ranks and became Colonial Secretary, responsible for granting independence to Britain’s African colonies.
The pro-empire right-wingers in the party detested him.
Ken Clarke, the recently retired Tory MP and Father of the House, tells the programme: 'They hated him. He was giving away the empire. Iain went through all this process of these great constitutional conferences giving independence to Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya and "letting down our kith and kin in Southern Rhodesia" and not letting the white farmers keep their minority rule indefinitely.'
Macleod – the former professional gambler – eventually became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1970, but after only a month had a major heart attack and died.
Expert interviewees believed that Macleod may be Britain’s ‘lost Prime Minister’.
Donald Maclean spied for the Soviets for 16 years before defecting to Moscow in 1951.
Macleod MP / Maclean KGB screens on BBC ALBA from 9pm-10pm on Monday December 23 and it will be repeated on Sunday December 29, 9pm-10pm.