Act sees Kew archive reveal secret files

More than 50,000 secret Government papers were unveiled to the public today as the new Freedom of Information Act took effect. The national archive at Kew opened files which previously would have stayed closed for 30 years.

Documents revealed new details of Harold Wilson's resignation as prime minister in 1976, the miners' strike in 1984-5 and the response to Aids in the Eighties.

Whitehall was braced for a major assault from journalists and campaigners demanding information under the new law.

The public now has a right to obtain information from 100,000 public bodies including government departments, councils, police, schools and hospitals.

In Mr Wilson's statement to the Cabinet in March 1976, disclosed today, he set out four reasons for quitting.

He said he had been Labour leader for 13 years already, he wanted to give others the chance to succeed him, he thought his counter-inflation policy was safe, and he was seeing decisions come around for a second time.