It is fifty years since the aborted plot of 1968. Could the same thing happen today?

Only one week after Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, a serving general of the Army warned of a direct and public challenge if a future Prime Minister Corbyn jeopardised the country’s security: "The army wouldn’t stand for it... people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that."

The idea of a military coup against an elected Prime Minister Corbyn may seem fanciful. Yet, fifty years ago this week, this almost happened to Harold Wilson, a prime minister regarded by many as Left-wing and anti-establishment, who had also been accused of consorting with communist spies.

On May 8, 1968, Earl Mountbatten of Burma hosted an extraordinary meeting at his London home in Kinnerton Street, Belgravia. The attendees were Cecil King, Chairman of the International Publishing Corporation, which owned the Daily Mirror; its editor, Hugh Cudlipp; and at Mountbatten’s invitation, his long standing friend, Sir Solly Zuckerman, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser.

Astonishingly, the-68-year-old Mountbatten was invited by King to head up a government of national emergency, whereby certain members of the armed forces, businessmen and other City figures would take over and replace the unpopular and mistrusted Wilson and his cabinet. So could history repeat itself under a Jeremy Corbyn premiership?