Edward Heath

The Right Honourable Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE (born July 9, 1916) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. His spell in office represented a transition between the traditional, squirearchical leadership of the party rotating among senior figures such as Harold Macmillan and that of later, self consciously meritocratic figures starting with Margaret Thatcher.

Youth and Parliament

Heath was the son of a carpenter from Broadstairs in Kent. He went to a state grammar school, and succeeded in the exam to get to Balliol College, Oxford. A talented musician, he had won an Organ Scholarship to support himself there. While at university he got involved in Conservative politics but unlike many Conservatives, was an active opponent of appeasement. He was elected as President of the Oxford Union Society in 1939 as an anti-appeasement candidate sponsored by Balliol.

He served in the Royal Artillery during World War II, and after demobilization in 1946 joined the Territorial Army. He became a civil servant in the Ministry of Civil Aviation until he was elected as MP for Bexley in 1950 (defeating an old colleague from the Oxford Union, Ashley Bramall).

He was swiftly appointed as a Government Whip when the Conservatives won the 1951 election. In December 1955 he became Government Chief Whip. Because of the convention that Whips do not speak in Parliament, he managed to keep out of the controversy over the Suez Crisis. On the announcement of Anthony Eden's resignation, Heath submitted a report on the attitude of Conservative MPs to those choosing Eden's successor which was extremely favourable to Harold Macmillan and was instrumental in securing Macmillan the job. Macmillan made him Minister of Labour after the 1959 election.

Heath was a fervent pro-European, believing in political as well as economic union. He was made Lord Privy Seal in 1960 with responsibility for the (ultimately unsuccessful) first round of negotiations to secure the UK's accession to the Common Market (as the European Community was then called). Under Sir Alec Douglas-Home he was President of the Board of Trade and oversaw the abolition of retail price maintenance.

After the Conservative Party lost the 1964 general election, Douglas-Home changed the rules to allow a ballot for party leader, and then resigned. Heath won the election in 1965, and became the youngest leader in the party's history. He retained the office despite defeat in the 1966 general election. The success of his party in the general election of 1970 surprised almost all contemporary commentators and was seen as a personal triumph.

Government

The nature of the mandate that Heath had received was disputed, even at the time. Shortly before the election was called, his shadow cabinet had issued a policy document from a conference at the Selsdon Park Hotel which appeared surprisingly rightwing. Harold Wilson had regarded it as a vote loser and had dubbed it Selsdon Man in the attempt to portray it as paleolithically reactionary. Heath's government suffered an early blow with the death of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod on July 20 1970. The economic policy changes on which Heath was resolved (including a significant shift from direct to indirect taxation) were not fully implemented until 1972, by which time he was engaged in the attempt to strengthen legal constraints on trade unions still more tightly than had been proposed under the abortive reforms of Wilson's government. The resulting polarised climate of industrial relations led to the downfall of his government.

Heath's government made only modest efforts to curtail welfare spending, though the squeeze in the education budget resulted in Margaret Thatcher's choosing to complete the process of phasing out free school milk rather than cutting back spending on the Open University. The contrast with the later actions of Thatcher's own government resulted in Heath acquiring a strongly humanitarian image.

In Northern Ireland the Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement with the democratic political parties. The Sunningdale Agreement was produced but fiercely repudiated by many Unionists and the Ulster Unionist Party ceased to support the Conservatives at Westminster. This was to contribute to Heath's eventual fall from power.

Heath's major achievement as prime minister was to take Britain into the European Community in 1973. Meanwhile, on the domestic front, galloping inflation led him into confrontation with some of the most powerful trade unions, and energy shortages resulted in much of the country's industry working a three-day week to conserve power. In an attempt to bolster his government, Heath called an election for February 28 1974. The result was inconclusive: the Conservative Party received a plurality of votes cast, but the Labour Party gained a plurality of seats due to the Ulster Unionist MPs refusing to support the Conservatives. Heath began negotiations with leaders of the Liberal Party to form a coalition, but, when these failed, resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Harold Wilson who formed a minority government. Wilson was confirmed in office, with a wafer thin majority, in a second election in October of the same year.

Between the two general elections a Conservative Party discussion group, the Centre for Policy Studies, began to formulate a right wing diagnosis of the failures of Heath's government. Initially this trend was spearheaded by Sir Keith Joseph and, although Margaret Thatcher was associated with the CPS she was seen as a potential go between by Heath's lieutenant James Prior.

The End

Having lost (at least in terms of parliamentary seats) three out of four general elections into which he had led his party, Heath came to be seen as a liability by many conservative MPs, party activists and by editors of newspapers sympathetic to the party. Among the wider electorate he attracted more sympathy, partly because of public statements he had made hinting at his willingness to consider the idea of serving in a government of national unity.

Heath resolved to remain as Conservative leader and, initially, it appeared that, by calling on the loyalty of his front bench colleagues, he might prevail. At this point the Conservative leadership rules merely allowed for an election to fill a vacancy but contained no provision for a sitting leader to either seek a fresh mandate or be challenged. In late 1974 Heath came under massive pressure to concede a review of the rules. It was agreed to establish a commission to propose necessary changes and that Heath would put himself up for election under the new rules. Initially Heath expected to be comfortably re-elected as there was no clear challenger to him after Enoch Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had ruled himself out following controversial statements on birth control. However, the determination of Airey Neave acting on behalf of disgruntled back bench MPs to seek any potential serious challenger to Heath, combined with the resolution of Margaret Thatcher that someone adhering to the CPS line should put their case to the parliamentary party led to her declaring herself a candidate in a leadership challenge.

As the rules of the leadership contest permitted new candidates to enter the fray in a second round of voting should the leader not be confirmed by a large enough majority, Thatcher's challenge was considered that of a stalking horse. Airey Neave as Thatcher's campaign manager was later accused of having deliberately understated her support in order to attract waverers away from Heath who lost the first ballot by 119 votes to 130 on February 4, 1975. Although Heath then withdrew from the contest, it turned out to be too late for any of his allies from his own wing of the party to overhaul Thatcher's lead. His favoured candidate, William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher by 79 votes to 146 a week later.

Retirement

Heath, a lifelong bachelor, remained bitter over his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of the party's new ideological direction for many years. After the 1979 general election he was offered, and declined, the job of Ambassador to the United States of America. He continued to be seen as a figure head by some on the left of the party up to the time of the 1981 Conservative Party conference.

In the second 1974 general election Heath had called for an all party "National Government". Some commentators believe that after losing the leadership Heath's aim was to await a major crisis in British politics and be available as a potential "elder statesmen" who could head such a government. However no such crisis came that led to a breaking down of the conventional political processes that would have called for such a government.

Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup until retiring from Parliament at the 2001 general election, by which time he had been created a Knight of the Garter and was the longest-serving MP and "Father of the House". In August 2003 Heath suffered a pulmonary embolism and now lives in Salisbury.

Titles from birth

• Edward Heath, Esq (9 July 1916-?)
• Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath (?-?)
• Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath, MBE (?-?)
• Edward Heath, Esq, MBE (?-23 February 1950)
• Edward Heath, Esq, MBE, MP (23 February 1950-1955)
• The Right Honourable Edward Heath, MBE, MP (1955-24 April 1992)
• The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE, MP (24 April 1992-7 June 2001)
• The Right Honourable Sir Edward Heath, KG, MBE (7 June 2001-)

Edward Heath's Government June 1970 - March 1974

• Edward Heath - Prime Minister
• Lord Hailsham - Lord Chancellor
• William Whitelaw - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Jellicoe - Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords
• Iain Macleod - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Alec Douglas-Home - Foreign Secretary
• Reginald Maudling - Home Secretary
• James Prior - Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
• Lord Carrington - Secretary of State for Defence
• Margaret Thatcher - Secretary of State for Education and Science
• Robert Carr - Secretary of State for Employment
• Peter Walker - Minister of Housing and Local Government
• Keith Joseph - Secretary of State for Health and Social Security
• Anthony Barber - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Gordon Campbell - Secretary of State for Scotland
• Geoffrey Rippon - Secretary of State for Technology
• Michael Noble - President of the Board of Trade
• Peter Thomas - Secretary of State for Wales

Changes

• July 1970 - Iain Macleod dies, and is succeeded as Chancellor by Anthony Barber. Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Barber as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. John Davies succeeds Rippon as Secretary for Technology.
• October 1970 - The Ministry of Technology and the Board of Trade are merged to become the Department of Trade and Industry. John Davies becomes Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Michael Noble leaves the cabinet. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is succeeded by the new department of the Environment which was headed by Peter Walker.
• March 1972 - Robert Carr succeeds William Whitelaw as Lord President and Leader of the House of Commons. Maurice Macmillan succeeds Carr as Secretary for Employment. Whitelaw becomes Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
• July 1972 - Robert Carr succeeds Reginald Maudling as Home Secretary. James Prior succeeds Robert Carr as Lord President and Leader of the House of Commons. Joseph Godber succeeds Prior as Secretary for Agriculture.
• November 1972 - Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Peter Walker as Secretary for the Environment. John Davies succeeds Rippon as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Peter Walker succeeds Davies as Secretary for Trade and Industry. Geoffrey Howe becomes Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs with a seat in the cabinet.
• June 1973 - Lord Windlesham succeeds Lord Jellicoe as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
• December 1973 - William Whitelaw succeeds Maurice Macmillan as Secretary for Employment. Francis Pym succeeds Whitelaw as Secretary for Northern Ireland. Macmillan becomes Paymaster-General.
• January 1974 - Ian Gilmour succeeds Lord Carrington as Secretary for Defence; Lord Carrington becomes Secretary of State for Energy.