MI5 tapped phones of King Edward VIII and his brother amid abdication crisis, a new book claims



Tapped: King Edward VIII (left) with his brother the Duke of York. MI5 tapped their phones during the abdication crisis

MI5 agents tapped the phones of King Edward VIII and his brother the Duke of York at the height of the abdication crisis that changed the course of British history, according to a newly published book.



The claim appears in a biography of Tommy Robertson, who pioneered Britain's wartime counter-intelligence operations.



Edward VIII's infatuation with American divorcee and socialite Wallis Simpson sparked a constitutional crisis.



She had divorced her first husband and was seeking a divorce from her second. In addition she was suspected by many in the Government of having Nazi sympathies. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin said the Government would resign en masse if the marriage went ahead.



After 11 turbulent months, o n 11 December 1936, Edward said in a broadcast to the nation and the Empire: "I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love." The pair were married in a chateau in France.



Instead the crown passed to his shy, stammering brother Albert, known as "Bertie", who became King George VI and the father of the Queen. He forbade royal family members to attend his brother's wedding.



During the months of turbulence leading up to the abdication, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin called in Sir Vernon Kell, the head of MI5.



According to author Geoffrey Elliott, Robertson tapped into the royal brothers' conversation from a telephone junction box at the edge of Green Park near 145 Piccadilly, the Duke of York's home.

Robertson's brother, Major General Ian Robertson, sent Elliott a four-page note in which he said his brother had told him that under cover of darkness he had slipped into Green Park and listened into the brothers' conversation via a GPO telephone junction box in the bushes.



Tommy Robertson's daughter, Mrs Belinda McEvoy, told the Daily Express yesterday: "I didn't know the business about him being in the bushes in Green Park but I remember him telling me: 'I was the only person to know he [the king] was going to abdicate."

Historic: How the Daily Mail reported news of Edward VIII's abdication on 11 December 1936

However Philip Ziegler, author of a major biography of Edward VIII, disputed the claim. "From what I know it seems unlikely," he told the Express.



But he added: "Of course, if they [MI5] had information I imagine in would have been filtered back to the Prime Minister, who would know better than to inquire how they got it."