Sad last days of Harold Wilson revealed by Cabinet Office archives

Former politicians pay tribute after files show ‘Labour’s most successful leader’ was forced to consider selling legacy to pay for his dementia care

Margaret Thatcher described him as “the most skilful of politicians” and Tony Blair thought him “Labour’s most successful leader ever”.

Such elegies on the death in 1995 of Harold Wilson, 79, the twice Labour prime minister who had Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, betray nothing of the reality of his later years – spent in the unforgiving grip of dementia and, it has emerged, forced to consider selling his personal and political papers to meet the heavy and increasing costs of care.