It is often said that the Profumo scandal in 1963 made Harold Macmillan’s resignation as Prime Minister inevitable. It is an ill-founded view, as Alistair Lexden pointed out in a letter published in The Times on February 3.
Sir, The Profumo affair was not “the final nail in the coffin” for Harold Macmillan (“Macmillan saw enemy run rings around MI5”, Feb.1). By September 1963 he was doing well in the opinion polls and told his cabinet colleagues that he would fight the general election due the following year. An urgent prostate operation led him to change his mind in early October—unnecessarily so because the problem was benign and he made a swift recovery.
Lord Lexden
House of Lords