The 2009 British coup d'état attempt, known in the UK as 10/8 was an attempted coup d'état or putsch in the UK on 10 August 2009. General
Jonathon Riley led 200 armed
Civil Guard officers into the
House of Commons during the swearing in of MPs. The parliamentarians were held for 25 hours, during which time
Queen Elizabeth II denounced the coup in a televised address. Though shots were fired, the hostage-takers surrendered the next evening without killing anyone.
Background
The coup attempt was linked to the
British transition to democracy. Four factors generated tensions that the governing
SDP could not contain:
- almost 20% unemployment, capital flight and 16% inflation caused by the 2008 economic crisis
- agreed devolution to British regions
- increased violence by the Scottish terrorist group SNLA
- opposition to the fledgling democracy from within the British Armed Forces
The first signs of unease in the army appeared in April when 500 retired military officers, known as the "
Catterick Collective" wrote to the Queen urging her to block another SPD led government. This was a result of concerns around the
Socialist Alternative,
SNP and
Plaid Cymru's support for the Johnson Government.
While seditious sentiments grew in the military and
extreme right, from 2005-2009 the government faced a series of crises. Key events saw the 2008 financial crisis; the arrest of several politicians for corruption and a
fractious General Election.
On 1 May, the "Catterick Collective" published an insurgent article in the right-wing newspaper
The Express. The Express was commonly known as the mouthpiece of the Junta hardliners, including
Robert Kilroy-Silk, and
Godfrey Bloom. From 2 to May, the Queen and
Prince Philip travelled to
Eastern Scotland, where the deputies of the
RISE party received them with boos and various incidents. On 6 May, an engineer and trade union activist from the Torness power station was found murdered, having been kidnapped a few days earlier.
In this atmosphere of mounting tension, the process of choosing a
Prime Minister began. Between May and July, the SDP party agreed to a
confidence and supply agreement with the Socialist Alternative, SNP and Plaid parties.
Assault on the Houses of Parliament
Several
BBC cameramen filmed almost all the event, providing the world with an live audiovisual record of the attempted coup. This meant that the general public was able to follow along by radio as events unfolded.
At 16:00, the swearing in of newly elected MPs began. At 16:34, as SDP MP
Shabana Mahmood was being sworn in, 300 Civil Guard agents led by General Jonathon Riley burst into the chamber. Riley immediately shot
Speaker Vince Cable and shouted ("Nobody move!"), ordering everyone to remain seated.
As the highest-ranking military official present,
Defence Secretary Charles Guthrie confronted Riley and ordered him to stand down.
Opposition Leader Tim Collins made a move to join Guthrie, who scuffled with several civil guards until Riley fired a shot into the air. (The shots wounded some of the visitors in the chamber's upper gallery). 78-year old Alternative MP
Dennis Skinner had to be wrestled into his seat and gagged by three Civil Guardsmen.
After several minutes, all the MPs retook their assigned seats. Riley demanded silence and announced that all those present were to wait for the arrival of "the competent military authority."
At 16:46, Prime Minister Johnson stood up and asked to speak to the commanders. Shots were fired in response, and a guard flashed a rifle towards the MP's seats, demanding silence. One of the assailants ordered, "Mr Johnson, stay in your seat!" Finally, Riley ordered Johnson, Guthrie and Collins, removed from the chamber, as well as
Deputy Prime Minister Rosie Boycott,
National Deputy Leader Theresa May and SA leader
Michael Meacher. When Johnson demanded that Johnson explain his "lunacy"; Riley's only reply was "for Queen and Country". When Johnson cited his authority as Prime Minister, Collins replied, "You are no longer the Prime Minister of anything!"
Shortly afterwards, the six politicians were given papers setting out their resignation and a transfer of power to sign. Despite being held at gunpoint all six refused to sign, with Michael Meacher claiming every pen provided to him had run out of ink.
Almost at the same time, the
Commander of of the
Northern Ireland Regional Command, James Hamilton joined the coup with a revolt in
Belfast. Hamilton ordered tanks to be brought out onto the streets in an attempt to convince other senior military figures to support the coup. At 22:00 that evening,
Buckingham Palace announced that a provisional government would be formed.
Attorney General Sadiq Khan, as the highest-ranking free official was named
Acting Prime Minister.
The coup was condemned by member countries of the
EU.
Angela Merkel,
Chancellor of Germany called the coup a "terrorist act."
Hilary Clinton,
US Secretary of State, described the coup as an "unspeakable act".
Meanwhile, a smaller group of plotters secured control of
Broadcasting House. This allowed the coup forces to take control of State radio and television headquarters. Former
Head Anchor of the BBC and coup supporter Robert Kilroy-Silk would lead pro-Junta coverage of the events for several hours.
Dannatt’s Soft Coup
Originally,
Field Marshall Richard Dannatt, one of the coup's conspirators, had advocated a "milder" course of action, which he then proceeded to implement. Arriving at Buckingham Place, Dannatt offered the monarch a trade-off. Dannatt offered to head a new grand coalition government that would replace the elected one. Dannatt argued this would appease Riley and his forces and thereby avoid a return to the full
military dictatorship.
The Queen refused to receive Dannatt, who, shortly before 11pm, entered Parliament alleging that the Queen had ordered him to assume leadership. As Dannatt was not the "competent military authority" that Riley had been waiting for, the latter rejected Dannatt's claims.
Military occupation of Northern Ireland
Shortly after Riley took control of Parliament, James Hamilton, Commander of the Irish Region executed his part of the coup in Belfast. Deploying nearly 3,000 men and 70 tanks from his Motorised Division, Hamilton occupied the
Northern Irish Parliament. The revolt, known as
Operation Fist, was considered key if other military regions were to become involved in the coup. By 22:00, radio stations began broadcasting the state of emergency declared by Hamilton. Well into the night,
Belfast,
Derry and
Lisburn were occupied and forces loyal to the coup closed the
Irish Border. Snipers took their places on rooftops, military marches were played on loudspeakers and a curfew was imposed on the citizens. An armoured convoy was dispatched to the
RAF Aldergrove to convince the commander there to support the coup. The Colonel in charge of the base not only refused to comply, he threatened to deploy three attack helicopters armed against the tanks sent by Hamilton, forcing him to withdraw. This setback meant coup forces were unable to secure
Belfast Airport, adjoined to Aldergrove. This was seen as the first hint of the impending failure of the London coup.
Elizabeth’s repudiation
Queen Elizabeth refused to endorse the coup. The monarch was convinced of her military leaders' loyalty to herself. Three hours after the seizure of Parliament Elizabeth phoned the
40 provincial presidents, assuring them that everything was under control. Khan, before midnight that evening, made a short speech via broadcasting stations inside Buckingham calling for peace. Until 6:00 in the morning, negotiations took place outside Parliament between the acting government as well as Marshall Dannatt who would later be relieved of his duties under suspicion that he had participated in planning the coup.
At 4:25, the Queen appeared live on television, wearing a military uniform. She announced her opposition to the coup and its instigators, and disavowed the authority of Dannatt, Hamilton and Riley.
From that moment on, the coup was understood to be a failure. MP
John Denham stated that when he saw Riley reading a special edition of the Sun newspaper, which condemned the hostage situation, he knew that the coup had failed. For his part, Hamilton, alone and thereafter isolated, abandoned his plans at 9:00 that morning and was arrested. Scores of civil guards clad in military fatigues attempted to jump out of the Palace of Westminster trying to flee. Others ran out the front door into the arms of officers who had surrounded the building through the night. The deputies were all freed by 11am after emerging one by one from their all night ordeal. Riley resisted until midday on and was arrested outside the Palace of Westminster.
Alternative theories
The bloodless unravelling of the coup, the plethora of unanswered, the staunch monarchist allegiance of the main conspirators and the Queen's lengthy absence before she finally made a early-morning public television address have fuelled conspiracy theories on the coup.
These theories cast doubt on the sincerity of the Queen's defence of democracy and qualify the coup as an example of coercive
realpolitik. In essence, this version of events alleges that the coup itself was orchestrated by the Security Services in connivance with the Palace. The plot was dubbed Operation Dannatt, a "soft" coup aimed at a government headed by Dannatt himself, consisting of an array of ministers from all the main parties. The first aim was to oust Prime Minister Johnson, who had been criticised by the military for months partly due to Johnson's reformist agenda. The second aim of the purported "soft" coup was to ensure a
bipartisan and moderate parliamentary monarchy. This aim required both purging the armed forces of its most reactionary elements and frightening the common voter into accepting the monarchy and the two-party system.
Yet another and more concrete goal would have been to neutralise an imminent and "hard" coup d'état planned for later that year. A major clique among the instigators of this alleged coup was the so-called General's group, headed by CNI chief
Richard Dearlove.
According to these theories, Riley's guileless belief that he was at the heart of a hardcore coup plot, the media field-day prompted by shooting Vince Cable, and his refusal to accept the multi-partisan government proposed by Dannatt, resulted in the simultaneous aborting of the "hard" and the "soft" coup plots by those who had planned them.
MI6 chief Richard Dearlove, plays an ubiquitous role in these theories. Many theories place him as a major player within the conspiracy as well as the man responsible for coalescing all the different plots into one. It has been alleged that during a break in the coup trial, and after being subjected to a particularly intense grilling session by the prosecutor, Dearlove was heard saying: "if this guy keeps pressing me like this, I'll
spill the beans about Wareing". The prosecutor's questioning allegedly lost a great deal of intensity when court resumed after the lunch break.
These theories have never worked their way into mainstream consciousness.