Wilson ‘cooked up’ coup claims

HAROLD Wilson cooked up claims that a coup was planned to replace him as Prime Minister with the Queen’s cousin Lord Mountbatten, newly revealed documents allege.

Lord Mountbatten met top journalists in 1968 in an alleged bid to depose the Labour leader – a storyline which was featured in Netflix hit The Crown. Documents show that newspaper boss Cecil King claimed Mr Wilson got him sacked after one of his papers turned against him.

A 1981 letter from Mr King, former chairman of IPC which owned the Daily Mirror, said: ‘I have recently been accused in some newspapers of planning a coup – perhaps military, perhaps not – to overthrow this Government in 1968…’ He wrote: ‘It now occurs to me that Wilson, disturbed that the Mirror had cooled towards him, decided to remove me. So perhaps he told my colleagues in the strictest secrecy that he had evidence that I was planning a coup.’