Sir Harold bugged in Commons — ‘Express’

Press, 1 August 1977, Page 8

Sir Harold bugged in Commons — ‘Express’

KZPA-Reuter London I The newspaper that started a row with allegations that Sir Harold Wilson was under electronic surveillance at his London residence when in office as u-day that he had also been bugged at th. House of Commons Cnapman Pincher, said Sir Harold had been bugged in Commons, and that he had lance extended to his private homes and his official country residence. Chequers. Pincher said that the bugg'ng had taken place on several occasion - at |*» Downing Street, the Prime Minister’s London home, while Sir Harold wa« in office from 1964 to 1970. and from 1974 to 1976 James Callaghan) under f ,rs Margaret Thatcher, told very little hard fact in the satisfied "with security arrane etnan ts- a' Downing But’ Mr Callaghan, who • i< < eeded Sir Harold as leader of the Labour Gov-1

ilernment did not deny . the "Daily Express” report. U The newspaper said that ■ some of Sir Harold’s closest , friends now felt that they ’too, may have been undei the eye of security men. Pincher wrote: ’’The > extent of the bugging can only mean that — rightly or i wrongly — the security men I believed they had the strongest possible motive for . their action. “Sir Harold believes they i wrongly suspected him of being involved in a communist cell. But it may have been officials, triends, or ■ even friends of friends, who w'ere the main targets.’’ The row comes after a report in the “Observer" newspaper that Sir Harold had lost faith in M. 1.5, the Government’s counter-intelli-gence service, because of two blunders it had made. Pincher said that the surveillance of Si* Harold was carried out by the Government Communications Headquarters. but said that results on tap* would have been passed tc M. 1.5. Mr Joe Haines, Sir Harold’s pres* secretary, when he war Prime Minister. has joined in the controversy with a description of the discovery, behind a picture at 10 Downing Street, of a hole containing (a flat, metallic object.

The object had been “brass-coloured as 1 remem-i ber it, but unlike any listen ] ing device I had ever seen,"! Mr Haines said at the week-1 ■ end. The portrait cf the former] Liberal Prime Minister Wil-f liam Glads’one, hung in Sir Harold’s study at No. 10. As] ■ soon as Sir Hart d unco-' vered its secret in 1975, a; civil servant had been told Ito investigate but Sir Harold! had not revea'ed the fin-; dings. Mr Haines would not], sav more. The discovery had con-; vinced Sir Harold that he was being “bugged.” however. Sir Harold is reported toj I have told aides that he; thought either the United I States Central Intelligence' ■ Agency or the South African Bureau of State Security I was behind the surveillance, i