Until 1966, the award of peerages was the prerogative of the chief whip, and not the prime minister. Wilson took that power to award peerages for himself, and later told his policy adviser Bernard Donoughue that he did it because "that gal Marcia insisted on it". Donoughue's diary recorded Wilson telling one of his staff that he had just quarrelled with Falkender, who was demanding "peerages for friends". Donoughue's diary actually credits the "that gal Marcia insisted on it" comment to Freddie Warren who ran the Chief Whip's office in No. 12 Downing Street from the mid-fifties and was still in situ when Wilson resigned as prime minister in March 1976.