Paul Rigby Wrote:When Harold Macmillan called in MI5 in 1963 and asked it to bug his office, he thought the whole world was coming apart, writes Stephen Dorrill...

Macmillan felt he could not trust anybody – but turned for counsel to Dick White, director-general of foreign intelligence service MI6.

It is possible that White suggested installing the listening devices in No10 as some kind of insurance policy.

By bugging the Cabinet rooms, Macmillan would also have been able to eavesdrop on his Ministers, the Cabinet Secretary and his senior officials.

Stephen Dorril is author of MI6 – Fifty Years of Special Operations; Smear: Wilson And The Secret State; and Honeytrap, on the Profumo Affair.

Quote:Your article on the censorship of Professor Christopher Andrew's authorised history of MI5 (MI5 bugged cabinet room at No 10, says historian, 19 April) raises a number of interesting questions. There is, however, an anomaly. The article suggests Harold Macmillan requested bugs to be installed in Downing Street in July 1963. In fact, at that point, No 10 was still undergoing restoration and Macmillan was living in Admiralty House, where the cabinet also met. Macmillan only moved back in October 1963. Until that point, a bug in No 10 is unlikely to have produced very much valuable intelligence.

Professor Philip Murphy

Institute of Commonwealth Studies