Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath

Andrew S. Roe-Crines, Timothy Heppell, Andrew S. Roe-Crines, Timothy Heppell

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9783030536725
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030536732
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: British History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book explores the political and intellectual significance of Edward Heath's leadership of the Conservative Party. It contains a series of original and distinctive chapters that feature extensive archival materials and original insights from leading political scientists and historians. The volume contributes significantly to our understanding of Conservative Party politics, leadership, and conservatism more broadly.

© The Author(s) 2021

A. S. Roe-Crines, T. Heppell (eds.)Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward HeathPalgrave Studies in Political Leadershiphttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_1

Begin Abstract

1. The Heath Premiership: Existing Academic Perspectives

Andrew S. Roe-Crines¹ and Timothy Heppell²

(1)

University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

(2)

University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

Andrew S. Roe-Crines

Email: [email protected]

Timothy Heppell (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

End Abstract

In post-war British politics, there have been four periods of Labour Party governance: 1945–1951 under the leadership of Clement Attlee; 1964–1970 under the leadership of Harold Wilson; 1974–1979 under the leadership of Wilson again and then James Callaghan; and the 1997–2010 period under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. There have also been four periods of Conservative governance, and three of those periods have lasted a decade or more: 1951–1964 under the leadership of Winston Churchill; Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home; 1979–1997 under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and John Major; and the period since 2010 under the leadership of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. The fourth period of Conservative governance was the 1970–1974 premiership led by Edward Heath and it holds an unwarranted distinction—it is the only post-war premiership to be removed by the voters at the first opportunity.

All of the aforementioned eras involved some form of re-election for the governing party. The Attlee premiership that entered office in 1945 (majority 146) did secure re-election in 1950 (majority six) before losing office in 1951; the Wilson premiership of 1964 (majority four) secured re-election in 1966 (majority 99) before being defeated in 1970; and the second Wilson era entered office as a minority premiership in March 1974 and secured a small majority (of three) at the General Election of October 1974. The Blair era would involve three successive election victories and majorities of 179 (in 1997), 167 (in 2001) and 66 (in 2005). The three long-serving eras of Conservative governance saw the party securing stronger parliamentary performances when seeking their first re-election. They re-entered office in 1951 with a parliamentary majority of 17 and their majority increased to 59 in 1955 (and increased again to 100 in 1959). The victory that the Conservatives secured at the General Election of 1979, with a majority of 44, was followed by three further victories—in 1983 with a majority of 144; in 1987 with a majority of 102; and then a majority of 21 in 1992. Their return to office in 2010 as a coalition with the Liberal Democrats was followed by three further General Elections in the next decade, all of which resulted in the Conservatives holding onto power—in 2015, they secured a majority of 12 under Cameron; in 2017, they failed to secure a majority but held onto office as a minority premiership (under May); and finally, they held a majority of 80 under the leadership of Johnson in late 2019 (see Cowley and Kavanagh 2018; Cutts et al. 2020).

What must have been distressing for Heath personally was the performance of the Conservatives while he was their party leader, relative to their performances before and after his party leadership tenure. As Table 1.1 demonstrates, he led the Conservatives into four successive General Elections between March 1966 and October 1974 and he led them to three defeats alongside one victory at the General Election of June 1970. The four General Elections prior to him being leader of the Conservative Party (1951–1964) involved them winning three out of four, and the four General Elections after he was leader of the Conservative Party involved them winning all four (1979–1992). The 1951–1959 era saw the Conservative vote base oscillate between 13.1 and 13.7 million. Between 1979 and 1992, their vote base peaked at 14.0 million (in 1992) and was at its lowest in 1983 at 13.0 million, when ironically they secured a landslide parliamentary majority of 144 caused by the nature of the fragmentation of the Labour (27%) and Social Democratic Party (SDP)/Liberal Alliance vote (25%) (Butler and Kavanagh 1984). When the Conservatives lost power at the General Election of 1964, their vote fell to 12.0 million (down by 1.7 million from the 13.7 million secured five years earlier), but that decline did occur at the end of a 13-year period in office. Their vote base when losing office in 1964 (at 12.0 million) was larger than the vote base that the Conservatives secured in February 1974 after only three and half years in office—11.8 million—and the vote share in 1964 was significantly larger (at 43.4%) than the vote share in February 1974 (at 37.9%). That the electorate was sceptical of the merits of the Heath premiership was confirmed by their performance in the second General Election of 1974, when their vote share fell further (to 35.8%) at a vote base of 10.4 million (Butler and Kavanagh 1974, 1975). Between the General Elections of 1970 and October 1974, the Conservatives lost 2.7 million votes and they experienced a vote share reduction of 10.6 percent. That was the Heath effect and, much to his chagrin, the Thatcher effect was just as pronounced but in the opposite direction. Between the October 1974 and May 1979 General Elections, the Conservatives gained 3.2 million votes and increased their vote share by 7.9% (Butler and Kavanagh 1980). That the Heath era seems a failed era for the Conservatives—the so-called self-proclaimed party of government—is evident from the fact that the General Election victory of 2019 was their 8th General Election victory out of 11 General Elections since his era.

Table 1.1

The electoral record of the conservative party (1945–2019)

Election	Elected Conservatives	Percentage share of vote	Total votes received	Government and majority
1945	213	39.8	9,577,667	Labour	146
1950	299	43.5	12,502,567	Labour	5
1951	321	48.0	13,717,538	Conservative	17
1955	345	49.7	13,311,936	Conservative	59
1959	365	49.4	13,749,830	Conservative	100
1964	304	43.4	12,001,396	Labour	4
Heath era
1966	253	41.9	11,418,433	Labour	97
1970	330	46.4	13,145,123	Conservative	31
1974 F	297	37.9	11,872,180	Labour	Minority
1974 O	277	35.8	10,464,817	Labour	3
1979	339	43.9	13,697,923	Conservative	44
1983	397	42.4	13,012,315	Conservative	144
1987	376	42.3	13,763,066	Conservative	101
1992	336	41.9	14,092,891	Conservative	21
1997	165	30.7	9,602,957	Labour	179
2001	166	31.8	8,357,622	Labour	167
2005	198	32.4	8,772,473	Labour	66
2010	307	36.1	10,726,555	Conservative-Lib	Dem Coalition
2015	330	36.9	11,334,226	Conservative	12
2017	317	42.4	13,636,684	Conservative	Minority
2019	365	43.6	13,966,565	Conservative	80

Source: Adapted fro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. The Heath Premiership: Existing Academic Perspectives
• 2. The Conservative Party Leadership Election of 1965
• 3. Modernising Conservatism in Opposition Under Heath
• 4. The 1970 General Election
• 5. Competition and Credit Control, Monetary Performance, and the Perception of Macroeconomic Failure: The Heath Government and the Road to Brexit
• 6. Industrial Relations: Reappraising the Industrial Relations Act 1971
• 7. Social Security Policy
• 8. The Heath Government and Local Government Reform
• 9. Northern Ireland
• 10. Entry into the European Communities
• 11. Party Management
• 12. Heath, Powell and the Battle for the Soul of the Conservative Party
• 13. The Labour Party in Opposition
• 14. Edward Heath: Leadership Competence and Capability
• 15. Who Governs? The General Election Defeats of 1974
• 16. The Conservative Party Leadership Election of 1975
• 17. Margaret Thatcher and the Heath Premiership: Recent History Re-written
• 18. The Heath Premiership: A Transitional Era?
• Back Matter