With a general election on the horizon, the Leader of the Opposition, Harold Wilson, moved decisively to prevent the Conservatives making the Beatles their “secret weapon”, as he put it. When he learned that the group had been named Showbusiness Personalities of 1963 by the Variety Club of Great Britain, he approached the chairman of EMI, the Beatles’ record company, to propose himself as the ideal person to make the award at the prize-giving luncheon in March, 1964.

It was probably of no concern to Wilson that the Beatles displayed all their trademark irreverence by jostling and baiting him, for the episode allowed him to position himself literally and symbolically as the politician most in touch with youth culture. The Tory Prime Minister he was trying to oust was Douglas-Home, Old Etonian Scottish laird and, until he renounced his peerage, 14th Earl of Home, so this was hardly a difficult task. After informing the Variety Club audience that this was not an occasion to make a party-political speech, Wilson, of course, did just that, trading on the happy coincidence that he was MP for a Liverpool constituency.

It is impossible to assess how much Wilson’s seizure of this photo opportunity helped him to win the October 1964 general election, although John Lennon reputedly claimed credit for the Labour victory. In any event, Wilson showed his gratitude the following year by making the Beatles MBEs. He continued the association throughout his term in office, for example, by officiating at the re-opening of the Cavern Club in Liverpool, a Beatles shrine, in July, 1966.