The 1968 presidential election of the newly-formed
United Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland was held on 19 December, 1968. It was the first presidential election in the United Republic following the abolition of the monarchy and the exile of the
House of Windsor. Incumbent
President Harold Wilson defeated former
Admiral of the Fleet Louis Mountbatten, formerly the
Earl Mountbatten of Burma, the uncle-in-law of the exiled
Queen Elizabeth II.
The United Republic was declared following the revelation in August 1968 of the
Royal Family's involvement in the
coup plots against Wilson planned for October of that year. The plot, led by Mountbatten and publishing magnate
Cecil King, arose out of dissatisfaction among the right-wing elite with the left-wing Wilson government, and sought to install a military-backed government with Mountbatten, a former
Chief of the Defence Staff, at the helm. Conspirators included multiple wealthy businessmen, MI5 agents, and ex-military officials, threatened by the growth of trade unionism and the influence unions had on the
Labour Party. They orchestrated a media campaign, spreading false allegations that Wilson and his private secretary and political confidante,
Marcia Williams, were Communist agents. Upon the exposition of the plots, the conspirators were detained and interrogated. One of them,
Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Solly Zuckerman, revealed that the Queen and her husband
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh were closely involved in the planning and financing of the coup plans. Upon the revelation that the Queen actively sought to overthrow a democratically elected government, public support for the monarchy crashed. Wilson declared a republic with himself as interim
President, and most of the Royal Family fled to
Ottawa.
The 1968 election saw President Wilson, with public sympathy heavily on his side, win a full term of ten years (as prescribed in the recently-ratified
British Republican Constitution), defeating Louis Mountbatten by a landslide. Wilson subsequently named
Barbara Castle to the post of
Prime Minister,
Frederick Lee as
Vice President, and Marcia Williams as
Chief of Staff. Mountbatten, who campaigned via television and radio from a ship he had commandeered and staffed with
Royal Navy officers loyal to him, never set foot in Great Britain again.
The 1968 election was seen as the death knell for the British monarchy, with the crushing defeat of the
Loyalist movement signaling the sheer unpopularity of the
House of Windsor after the exposure of their involvement in the coup plots.
Pierre Trudeau's government in
Canada initiated and campaigned for the ultimately successful
republic referendum of 1969, ousting the Windsors from Ottawa, while the revelations led
Australia's
Labor Party, led by
Gough Whitlam, to a landslide majority and another successful
republic referendum in
1972. Several other members of the
Commonwealth soon held referenda or declared independence as well.
The election was dramatized in numerous films, such as
The Mountbatten Affair,
The Election of 1968, and
One Week In September. It was also parodied in the comedic musical play
Goodbye Mrs. Windsor.