Over a decade before Margaret Thatcher swept to power, another woman was running Britain from 10 Downing Street: Marcia Williams was the first female political adviser to a Prime Minister and the mastermind behind Harold Wilson’s multiple election victories. Linda McDougall, author of the first ever biography of Marcia, tells us more about this trailblazing pioneer in this Q&A.
How has Marcia Williams’s legacy been remembered up until now?
Very few people have heard of Marcia today, and those who do remember her think of her only as a beastly wicked woman who latched on to a British Prime Minister and forced him to do her bidding.
How do you remember Marcia being portrayed in the press at the time?
Marcia’s press clippings are appalling. There’s not one which praises her or points out her remarkable talents as a politician or an organiser. Marcia arrived at 10 Downing Street in 1964, which was when the world was beginning to change for women, but on arrival she immediately faced many world-class enemies:
- Firstly, civil servants who were all men and all devoted to preserving the status quo and stopping women from taking any part in running the government.
- Secondly, the male politicians and press officers who worked with Harold Wilson. They all believed that Marcia was out to build a cage around the Prime Minister and prevent them having any access to him. It just wasn’t true – Harold and Marcia had a very close relationship, and they wanted to work together to change Britain for the better.
What is your connection to Marcia?
I have always been a feminist and a passionate supporter of equality for women. It was only when my late husband Austin Mitchell – who had been the Labour MP for Grimsby – retired that we started talking together about our past lives. Austin was a friend of Marcia and a passionate admirer of his fellow Yorkshireman Harold Wilson, and we talked about them a lot. I began to think it was time someone went to bat for Marcia and tried to uncover her brilliant beginnings in No. 10 and her gradual decline in politics after things like love, sex, money and, in a funny way, social advancement began to take over Marcia’s life.
Why was Marcia such a remarkable force in 10 Downing Street?
Marcia was a natural politician at a time when few women were involved in frontline politics and certainly none were running, guiding and advising a possible Prime Minister.
Marcia had been a pupil at Northampton High School and was smart, clever and hard-working. She read modern history at Queen Mary College in London, joined the student Labour Society and never looked back. She had a natural talent for politics and felt she could see clearly how Britain needed to change after thirteen years of Conservative rule. We can give her a large share of the credit, along with her partner Harold Wilson, in getting Labour elected in 1964.
It’s important to say that Marcia picked out Harold – who was a brilliantly clever left-wing academic as well as a politician – and set out to turn him into a Labour leader, all while she was a young woman straight out of university. Working with Harold was her first job, and it lasted till the day she died.
What relevance does Westminster’s treatment of Marcia have in today’s politics?
Marcia suffered from the way all women were treated in the 1960s and ’70s. It has been more than sixty years since Marcia went to work at Westminster and began her lifelong partnership with Harold. The role of women in politics has changed and improved enormously over that time, but there is still a long way to go until men can manage a top job and take an equal part in family life with their partners. Harold thought he’d solved the problem by having Mary at home and Marcia in the office, both giving him the support he needed. But that wasn’t the correct answer – particularly for Marcia, who sacrificed just about everything for Harold and died a lonely, hated and unhappy woman.
Which current politician, if any, reminds you of Marcia?
There is a possible new Marcia in the making. Sue Gray, the civil servant who has just joined Keir Starmer’s office as chief of staff, has taken on the role Marcia had in the ’50s when she joined Harold as his assistant and set out surefootedly to turn him into first the Labour leader and then the Prime Minister. I would love to hear what Gray thinks of Marcia’s legacy.
I am also eager to observe whether Gray can manage to give Starmer the support, polish and confidence that Marcia dealt out for Harold. And if Gray can, will she get the credit for the part she is about to play?
If you could be a fly on the wall in any of the moments mentioned in the book, which would it be and why?
Easy. In the ’60s, there were no gates at the end of Downing Street, and a journalist who had been invited to No. 10 for a chat with Harold noticed a car with steamed-up windows parked outside.
He peered through the fog and was amazed to see Marcia wrapped in the arms of a leading political journalist. Embarrassed, he hurried on inside to see the Prime Minister. Minutes later the couple arrived, and Marcia’s boyfriend poured out the drinks.
Marcia Williams: The Life and Times of Baroness Falkender by Linda McDougall is out now.
Want to hear more? Listen to the Biteback Chats Books podcast with Linda here.
For more books on women in politics click here, or if you’re interested in Labour leaders, click here.