MI5

The Wilson Plots

There have been a number of allegations that MI5 officers plotted against Prime Minister Harold Wilson during his second term of office in the mid-1970s.^[4]

Monitoring Prime Ministers

The Mail on Sunday reported in April 2010 that MI5 bugged Downing Street under five Prime Ministers between 1963 and 1977. The bugs were initally ordered by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. After a brief gap they were reinstated by his successor, Alec Douglas-Home. It is not clear whether Edward Heath and Harold Wilson were told of the surveillance. Historian Stephen Dorril suggests this revelation appears to justify Wilson's belief that he was being spied on.^[5]

The surveillance was ended on the orders of Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1977. Callaghan nevertheless denied in the Commons that No. 10 had ever been bugged.^[6]

Details of the bugging were due to appear in Professor Christopher Andrew's 2009 official history of MI5, The Defence Of The Realm, but were removed at the insistence of the Cabinet Office.^[7]

Vetting Ministers of State

Once a new Government has been formed MI5 briefs the incoming Prime Minister on any Ministerial appointments it thinks may be of concern to 'national security'. MI5's director general, Sir Stephen Lander told Radio 4: "In 1997 therefore the way the then cabinet secretary and I agreed we would deal with it... was that I would produce the summaries, one sheet for each of the individuals that we thought we should make a comment on... and if the prime minister said I'm thinking of making X secretary of state for defence, they [the cabinet secretary and the prime minister's principal private secretary] would say 'well prime minister, you might like to read this from the security service'." ^[8]