Editing Lord Mountbatten (section)

== Alleged plots against Harold Wilson ==
{{Main|Harold Wilson conspiracy theories#The 1968 plot}}
[[Peter Wright (MI5 officer)|Peter Wright]], in his 1987 book ''[[Spycatcher]]'', claimed that in May 1968 Mountbatten attended a private meeting with press baron [[Cecil Harmsworth King|Cecil King]] and the government's Chief Scientific Adviser, [[Solly Zuckerman]]. Wright alleged that "up to thirty" [[MI5]] officers had joined a secret campaign to undermine the crisis-stricken Labour government of [[Harold Wilson]] and that King was an MI5 agent. In the meeting, King allegedly urged Mountbatten to become the leader of a government of national salvation. Solly Zuckerman pointed out that it was "rank treachery" and the idea came to nothing because of Mountbatten's reluctance to act.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo950110/debtext/60110-43.htm |title=House of Commons Proceedings |at=Column 287 |website=Hansard |date=10 January 1996 |access-date=20 September 2012 |archive-date=4 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004140120/http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199596/cmhansrd/vo950110/debtext/60110-43.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> In contrast, [[Andrew Lownie]] has suggested that it took the intervention of the Queen to dissuade Mountbatten from plotting against Wilson.<ref name="Sawer">{{cite news |last1=Sawer |first1=Patrick |title=Revealed: Full extent of Lord Mountbatten's role in '68 plot against Harold Wilson |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/17/revealed-full-extent-lord-mountbattens-role-68-plot-against/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220110/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/17/revealed-full-extent-lord-mountbattens-role-68-plot-against/ |archive-date=10 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=The Telegraph |date=17 August 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

In 2006, the BBC documentary ''The Plot Against Harold Wilson'' alleged that there had been another plot involving Mountbatten to oust Wilson during his second term in office (1974–1976). The period was characterised by high inflation, increasing unemployment, and widespread industrial unrest. The alleged plot revolved around right-wing former military figures who were supposedly building private armies to counter the perceived threat from trade unions and the Soviet Union. They believed that the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] was unable and unwilling to counter these developments and that Wilson was either a Soviet agent or at the very least a [[Communist]] sympathiser&nbsp;– claims Wilson strongly denied. The documentary makers alleged that a coup was planned to overthrow Wilson and replace him with Mountbatten using the private armies and sympathisers in the military and MI5.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4789060.stm |work=BBC News |title=Wilson 'Plot': The Secret Tapes |date=9 March 2006 |access-date=20 September 2012 |first=Brian |last=Wheeler |archive-date=15 February 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090215151907/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4789060.stm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first official history of MI5, ''[[The Defence of the Realm]]'' (2009), implied that there was a plot against Wilson and that MI5 did have a file on him. Yet it also made clear that the plot was in no way official and that any activity centred on a small group of discontented officers. This much had already been confirmed by former [[cabinet secretary]] [[John Hunt, Baron Hunt of Tanworth|Lord Hunt]], who concluded in a secret inquiry conducted in 1996 that "there is absolutely no doubt at all that a few, a very few, malcontents in MI5&nbsp;... a lot of them like Peter Wright who were right-wing, malicious and had serious personal grudges – gave vent to these and spread damaging malicious stories about that Labour government."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/10/defence-of-the-realm-mi5 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |title=The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 by Christopher Andrew |first=David |last=Leigh |date=10 October 2009 |access-date=20 September 2012 |archive-date=17 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140517171811/http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/oct/10/defence-of-the-realm-mi5 |url-status=live }}</ref>