The real surprise about Harold Wilson’s ‘new’ affair: How did it stay secret for 50 years?

As the late prime minister is revealed to have had a second affair – ‘a little sunshine in the sunset’ during his final, unhappy term in office in the mid-1970s – Sean O’Grady asks why it has only now come to light, and what other leaders might learn about managing their extra-marital activities

Prime minister Harold Wilson with his wife Mary and secretary Marcia Williams, later Baroness Falkender, with whom he had an affair in the Fifties. A second affair during his time in Downing Street has now come to light (Getty Images)

Harold Wilson’s most famous quote was that “a week is a long time in politics”. As with a lot of what Wilson said, you soon realise that it didn’t actually mean anything and that it was an, admittedly, typically brilliant piece of deflection to excuse some or other U-turn. But you only realise that Wilson didn’t answer the question long after the interview is over.

Now, the quip is still endlessly recycled by politicians and headline writers alike who find themselves in a tight corner, a living tribute to Wilson’s versatile and mischievous wit – “purposeful” wit, as he might have put it.

So I don’t feel much shame in remarking that 50 years is an awfully long time to keep a political secret, which the few surviving members of his entourage (the original No 10 “kitchen cabinet”) have done regarding Wilson’s fling with his then-deputy press officer, Janet Hewlett-Davies.