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BBC News
By James Landale
image captionThen-prime minister, Labour s Harold Wilson, knew of the conspiracy with the Sunday Times
The British government conspired with a newspaper in the late 1960s to suggest a Soviet spy had penetrated the highest echelons of the French state.
Newly-released memos show the Foreign Office urged the Sunday Times to suggest France had its own Kim Philby - the notorious British double agent.
The plot is revealed in documents from the National Archives.
It was known about at the top of the UK government, including then-prime minister, Labour s Harold Wilson.
The apparent aim was to convince the French to stop the magazine, Paris Match, from publishing Philby s memoirs - and deflect some of the criticism levelled against British intelligence at the time.
When is it too early to start? This, if you face the thing squarely, is the burning question. Consider the opening to the obituary of Lord Chalfont, who died this year aged 100. “At 11 o’clock on a