Cabinet row broke Wilson — diaries

Press, 1 November 1977, Page 8

Cabinet row broke Wilson — diaries

NZPA London The former British Prime Minister, Sir Harold Wilson, suffered almost total disintegration in 1969, according to a London “Sunday Times” serialisation of the diaries of the late Richard Crossman, then a Cabinet Minister in the Wilson Government.

He wrote that the Prime Minister’s low point came after he and Mrs Barbara Castle, then his Employment Secretary, resolved to reform union affairs by law. Most of the Labour Government’s Ministers and backbenchers were opposed. Some months after that, Crossman wrote: “There is nothing left of him (Wilson) as a leader and a Leftist. He is just a figure posturing there in the middle without any drive except to stay Prime Minister as long as he can.” The Prime Minister came very close to losing his job, he was obliged to back down by his Cabinet colleagues, and roundly abused them as a result. Crossman reported a conversation between the Prime Minister and Mrs Castle, in which Mrs Castle said: “My

God, we want to help you Harold. Why do you sit alone in No. 16 with Marcia and Gerald Kaufman and these minions? Why not be intimate and have things out with your friends.” (Marcia was Marcia Williams, now Lady Falkender, the Prime Minister’s personal secretary and Gerald is Gerald Kaufman, his press secretary).

The conversation is included in the third volume of the Crossman diaries, due to be published this week.

Last week it was revealed that the Government’s unsuccessful attempt in 1975 to stop publication of Crossman’s diaries in both book and serialisation form, cost the British taxpayers more than £43,000 (about $77,400). This fact is contained in a letter from the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Sam Silkin) to Mr Neville Trotter. Conservative M.P. for Tynemouth. A large proportion of that sum was paid to meet the legal costs of the publishers.

Other insights into the workings of the Government in the diaries include a prophetic summary of the character of John Stonehouse, then Post-

master-General, now serving a seven-year jail sentence for fraud. Crossman wrote: “He is a strange fellow, Stonehouse, a tall, dark rather sleek young man with a great long bacli . . . I have watched Him in every job — for some reason he always gets advancement — and I think he is 1 kind of dangerous crook, overwhelmingly ambitious, but above al) un< trustworthy.”