MI5 used hidden electronic surveillance equipment to secretly monitor 10 Downing Street, the Cabinet and at least five Prime Ministers, The Mail on Sunday can reveal。

  The extraordinary disclosure comes despite a succession of parliamentary statements that no such bugging ever took place. And it follows a behind-the-scenes row in which senior Whitehall civil servants – backed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown – attempted to suppress the revelation。

  The Mail on Sunday has learned that top-secret files held by the Security Service show it installed electronic listening devices in three highly sensitive areas of No10 – the Cabinet Room, the Waiting Room and the Prime Minister's study from 1963 to 1977. It means that for nearly 15 years, all Cabinet meetings, the offices of senior officials and all visitors to the Prime Minister – including foreign leaders – were being bugged. The disclosure is highly shocking in its own right but it will also bring genuine concerns as to why the Cabinet Office still wants to suppress it。

  Comments from MI5 chief Jonathan Evans suggest that the attempted block was not done on grounds of national security but for wider public interest reasons. This must raise the possibility that the bugging was carried out for political purposes and officials do not want to admit it went on in the past because similar operations are continuing today。

  Now this newspaper can reveal the deletions relate to the eavesdropping devices that were first installed in Downing Street in July 1963 at the request of the then Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. It is unclear why Macmillan made the extraordinary request, although it came a month after his War Minister John Profumo had resigned after admitting a relationship with prostitute。

  Following Harold Macmillan's departure, the bugs were briefly removed. But according to the secret files they were reinstated months later on the orders of new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home. The bugs remained in Downing Street throughout Douglas-Home's term and also the premierships of his successors Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. It was finally removed on the orders of James Callaghan in about 1977, the year after he took office。

  英国《星期日邮报》报道，军情五处曾经利用电子窃听装置对唐宁街10号、内阁和至少5位首相进行过秘密监控。

  尽管议会发布一系列声明表示从未发生过此类窃听事件，但这个不同寻常的情况还是得以曝光。在此前爆发的一场幕后争吵中，首相戈登·布朗支持的一些政府高级官员试图阻止此事的曝光。

  《星期日邮报》获悉，军情五处的机密文件显示，军情五处在1963年到1977年曾在唐宁街10号3个高度敏感的地方--内阁会议室、接待室和首相书房--安装过窃听装置。这意味着，在近15年的时间中，所有内阁会议、高级官员的办公室以及所有拜访过首相的人(其中包括外国领导人)都被窃听。这个情况本身令人震惊，但让人疑惑的是，内阁办公厅为什么还想阻止其曝光。

  军情五处负责人乔纳森·埃文斯的说法暗示，阻止情况曝光的原因不是基于国家安全的考虑，而是同公众利益有关。这必将让人意识到这样一种可能性，即窃听是因为政治目的才进行的，而且官员们不愿意承认过去曾有过窃听首相与内阁的情况是因为类似行动今天还在继续。

  据《星期日邮报》了解到，这些窃听装置时应时任首相的哈罗德·麦克米伦的要求而在1963年7月首次安装的。现在尚不清楚麦克米伦为什么提出这个要求，但在他提出这番要求之前的1各月，陆军大臣约翰·普罗富莫在承认与一名妓女克里斯汀·基勒有染后辞职。克里斯汀·基勒还同苏联驻英国使馆的一名官员有关系。

  麦克米伦离职后，窃听装置曾被拆除。但秘密文件显示，数月后新任首相亚历克·道格拉斯-霍姆又下令重新安装了它们。在道格拉斯以及之后两位首相哈罗德·威尔逊和爱德华·希思的任期内，这些窃听装置一直在运作。知道大概1977年在詹姆斯·卡拉汉首相的命令下才在最终拆除。