Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George 'Ted' Heath,
KG,
MBE (
9 July 1916 –
17 July 2005), soldier and politician, was
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from
1970 to
1974 and leader of the
Conservative Party from
1965 to
1975. Heath represented a transition between the traditional 'squirearchical' leadership of the party (by senior figures such as
Harold Macmillan) and that of later self-consciously meritocratic figures, starting with
Margaret Thatcher.
Ted Heath was the son of a carpenter and a maid from
Broadstairs in
Kent. He was educated at
Chatham House Grammar School in
Ramsgate, and in 1935 he went on to study at
Balliol College,
Oxford as a
commoner after twice failing to win a scholarship. During his studies he was supported financially by his parents and a loan from the Kent Education Committee. A talented musician, he won the college's
Organ scholarship in his first term. Heath was awarded a second in
Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1939. While at university he became active in Conservative politics, but unlike some senior party figures such as
Neville Chamberlain and
Stanley Baldwin, was an active opponent of
appeasement. He was elected as President of the
Oxford Union in
1939 as an anti-appeasement candidate, sponsored by Balliol.
Heath's opposition to
appeasement is said to have stemmed from his witnessing first-hand an
NSDAP Nuremberg rally in 1937, where he met top Nazis
Goering,
Goebbels and
Himmler at an SS cocktail party. He said later of
Himmler that he was, "the most evil man I have ever met."
He served in the
Royal Artillery during
World War II and joined the
Honourable Artillery Company after demobilization in August
1946, where he rose to become the
CO. He then 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).
Heath 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 opinions of the Conservative MPs regarding Eden's possible successors. This report was extremely favourable to
Harold Macmillan and was instrumental in eventually securing Macmillan the premiership. Macmillan soon appointed him Minister of Labour after the
1959 election.
Heath was fervently pro-EU and believed 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 Prime Minister 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, the defeated PM Douglas-Home changed the party leadership rules to allow for an MP ballot vote and then resigned. The following year Heath unexpectedly won the party's leadership contest, beating the favourite
Reginald Maudling [
1]. Heath became the youngest leader the party had had up to that point. He retained office despite the second party defeat in the
1966 general election.
|
Edward Heath, interviewed on television as the result of the 1970 general election is declared |
With another general election looming, 1970 saw the emergence of the Conservative policy document from the Selsdon Park Hotel, surprising in its embrace of fairly radical monetarist and free-market oriented policies as solutions to the country's unemployment and inflation problems. Labour's left-leaning Prime Minister
Harold Wilson regarded the document as a vote loser and dubbed it
Selsdon Man in the attempt to portray it as reactionary. But Heath's Conservative Party won the
general election of 1970 in a victory seen as a personal triumph that surprised almost all contemporary commentators.
As with all British governments in the 1970s, Heath's time in office was difficult. The government suffered an early blow with the death of
Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod on
July 20 1970. Heath's planned economic policy changes (including a significant shift from direct to indirect taxation) remained largely unimplemented; the Selsdon policy document was more or less abandoned by 1972. He did attempt to reform the increasingly militant
trade unions, unions which had managed until then to avoid reforms under preceding Labour and Tory governments. Heath's attempt at confronting trade-union power resulted in an unwinnable pitched political battle, hobbled as the government was by the country's galloping inflation and high unenmployment rate. It was also around this time that energy shortages infamously resulted in much of the country's industry working a
three-day week in an attempt to conserve energy. The resulting breakdown of domestic consensus contributed to the eventual downfall of his government.
Heath's government did little to curtail welfare spending, yet at one point the squeeze in the education budget resulted in
Margaret Thatcher famously 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.
Heath governed during the bloodiest period in the history of the
Northern Ireland Troubles. He was prime minister at the time of
Bloody Sunday in 1972 when 14 unarmed men were killed by British soldiers during an illegal march in
Londonderry. In 2003 he gave evidence to the Saville Inquiry and stated that he never promoted or agreed to the use of unlawful lethal force in Northern Ireland. In July
1972, he permitted his
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw to hold unofficial talks in London with a
Provisional IRA delegation by
Seán Mac Stiofáin. In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement with the democratic political parties. In 1974, the
Sunningdale Agreement emerged, but was fiercely repudiated by many Unionists, and the
Ulster Unionist Party ceased to support the Conservatives at Westminster. This also contributed to Heath's eventual fall from power.
Edward Heath's major achievement as prime minister was to take Britain into the
European Community in
1973. Trying 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 coalition negotiations with leaders of the
Liberal Party, but, when these failed, on
March 4,
1974 he resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Harold Wilson and a minority Labour government. Wilson was eventually confirmed with a wafer-thin majority in a second election in October of the same year.
The
Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative Party discussion group with close spiritual ties to the 1970 Selsdon document, then began to formulate a radical free-market diagnosis of the failures of Heath's government. Initially this trend was spearheaded by
Sir Keith Joseph. Although
Margaret Thatcher was associated with the CPS, she was seen as a potential moderating go-between by Heath's lieutenant
James Prior.
With the Conservatives losing (at least in terms of parliamentary seats) three out of four general elections into which he had led the party, Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists, and sympathetic newspaper editors. 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 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 tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules. It was agreed to establish a commission to propose necessary changes and to have Heath put himself up for election under the new rules. Initially he 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, a determined
Airey Neave, acting on behalf of disgruntled back bench MPs seeking a serious challenger to Heath, and Margaret Thatcher, believing that someone adhering to the CPS line should run, led to the latter's standing in the 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 by some to be that of a
stalking horse. Thatcher's campaign manager
Airey Neave was later accused of having deliberately understated her support in order to attract waverers. In the end, Heath lost the first ballot by 119 votes to 130 on
February 4,
1975. Heath then withdrew from the contest, and by then it was too late for any allies from his own wing of the party to overtake Thatcher's lead. His favoured candidate
William Whitelaw lost to Thatcher in a vote one week later, 146 to 79.
 |
Arms of Edward Heath |
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
British Ambassador to the United States. He continued to be seen as a figurehead by some on the left of the party up to the time of the
1981 Conservative Party conference.
He long harboured a bitter hatred of old colleague
Enoch Powell, refusing to show any sympathy to the Powell family on the death of Mr Powell.
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 statesman" who could head such a government. However, the opportunity never came.
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 this capacity he oversaw the election of two
Speakers of the Commons, namely
Betty Boothroyd and
Michael Martin.
In August
2003, Heath suffered a
pulmonary embolism, while on holiday in
Salzburg,
Austria. He lived in
Salisbury until his death from
pneumonia on
July 17,
2005, at the age of 89. He is interred at
Salisbury Cathedral.
In January
2006, it was announced that Heath had left £5 million in his will, most of it bequeathed to a charitable foundation to conserve his 18th century home, Arundells, next to Salisbury Cathedral. As he had no descendants, he left only two legacies: to his brother's widow (£20,000) and his housekeeper (£2500) [
2].
Heath was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first
yacht "Morning Cloud" in
1969 and won the
Sydney to Hobart race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the
Admiral's Cup in
1971 (while Prime Minister) and also captained the team in
1979.
He also maintained a keen interest in classical music, famously installing a Steinway grand in 10 Downing Street and conducting annual carol concerts in his constituency.
*Edward Heath, Esq (
9 July,
1916-
1992)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath (
1945)
*Lieutenant Colonel Edward Heath, MBE (
1946)
*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–
17 July 2005)
Heath was known to the public (even by his enemies) as 'Ted Heath' or simply as 'Ted'.
He was persistently referred to as "The Grocer", or "Grocer Heath" by magazine
Private Eye after he negotiated for Britain at a Common Market food prices conference in November
1962. The nickname was used periodically but became a permanent fixture in the magazine after he fought the
1970 General Election on a promise to reduce the price of groceries.
Heath's disgruntlement at his overthrow by Margaret Thatcher, which endured throughout her leadership of the party, led to him being nicknamed "The Incredible Sulk".
*Edward Heath —
Prime Minister*
Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone —
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 WalesChanges
*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.
*
The Guardian Obituary*
Heath, Edward Chronology
