Hugh Gaitskell easily defeated two leadership challenges from the left, in the forms of Harold Wilson in 1960 and Anthony Greenwood in 1961; seemingly cementing his control over the ideologically polarised Labour Party. By the start of 1963 it was seemingly certain that Labour would finally usurp Harold Wilson and his Conservative; the party after all was far ahead of the Government in the opinion polls. This wasn't very surprising, considering the events of the year prior.
The Tories had lost the Orpington by-election in spectacular fashion, to the Liberal candidate, Eric Lubbock. At the 1959 General Election the seat had been retained by the incumbent Conservative Member of Parliament Donald Sumner, with a majority of nearly fifteen-thousand over his nearest opponent, N. J. Hart of Labour - the Liberals, despite increasing their vote by nearly nine percent, still came in third. Sumner resigned his seat, in order to take up a post as a County Court Judge. The Conservative's selected Peter Goldman, who was seemingly assured to win the safe Conservative seat; his appointment was generally considered to be a way to get Goldman, who had worked with Ian Macleod on the 1959 party manifesto, into parliament. The Liberals meanwhile opted to not re-select their 1959 candidate, Jack Galloway, after it emerged that he had been technically guilty of bigamy - instead they selected local councillor Eric Lubbock.
During the campaign, Goldman attracted criticism for living outside the constituency and admitting that he had no plans to move into it. His close association with the Exchequer also meant his standing was damaged when the Conservative government was forced to announce a pay freeze (Selwyn Lloyd's "Pay Pause") for public sector workers that was seen, in particular, to penalise nurses.
On the 15th March, 1962 the people of Orpington decided to give Goldman, Macmillan and the Tories as a whole a bloody nose when they rejected Goldman in favour of Lubbock by a 7,855 vote margin - representing a swing in the region of twenty-two percent. This is often described as the start of the revival of the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom, indeed due in part to Lubbock's efforts the party continued to gain seats at every General Election until 1976. This also represented the first time since the 1929 Holland with Boston by-election that the Liberals won a by-election from another party and held the seat at the subsequent General Election (the Liberals won the Torrington by-election in 1958, but lost it at the 1959 General Election.)
Later that year, Harold Macmillan instituted a reshuffle of his cabinet; in a move intended to rejuvenate his Government, make Macmillan look decisive and replace those wavering individuals with those who were more in line with the Prime Minister's thinking. Instead he came off as rather too decisive, sacking a third of his cabinet in what would become known as the 'Night of the Long Knives;' out were the likes of David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir, David Eccles, Harold Watkinson, Lord Mills; and National Liberals such as John Maclay and Charles Hill. The most high profile sacking was, however that of his Chancellor, Selwyn Lloyd. Lloyd had become very unpopular as Chancellor the Exchequer; his public persona of being the 'austerity Chancellor' was moulded into places as a result of delayed pay increases and restrictive growth measures; this coupled with his frequent squabbling with the Prime Minister over what he perceived as vain electoral populism and measures he felt would increase inflation. In his place was Secretary of State for the Colonies, Reginald Maudling. Maudling set about cutting purchase tax and interest rates in banks. His 1963 budget aimed at "expansion without inflation". Following a period of economic difficulty, with a growth target of 4%. Maudling was able to remove income tax from owner occupiers' residential premises. He also abolished the rate of duty on home-brewed beer which in effect legalised it. This was the period in which Maudling was at his most popular within the Conservative Party and in the country. Contemporary commentators considered his policies to be responsible for the growth in the nation; later commentators took the contrary point of view - instead viewing his measures as creating the chronic instability with sterling in the latter half of the decade.
Surely with the repeated missteps of the Government, Hugh Gaitskell was only a few months away from moving into Number 10 Downing Street?
As fate would have it - no he wouldn't.
On the 18th of January 1963, Gaitskell died of lupus erythematosus - a rare disease in the western world - leading to suggestions of foul play; though these were never really substantiated. The death of the party leader raised fears among many in the party that factionalism would come to the fore once again as it did during the wilderness years of the 1950's - and especially at a time when the party seemed on the cusp of winning their first General Election since 1950. The divisions between left and right, Bevanite and Gaitskellite surely would come to the forefront; and come to the forefront they did in February.
Deputy Leader George Brown took over as the acting Leader of the Party until a new one was elected. Brown hoped to use the temporary position in order to springboard into the leadership of the party; after all he was the best to prevent the Bevanites and left-wingers like Greenwood and Wilson from gaining power in the power. Brown however after a publicised drunken stupor and criticism from some right-wing MP's; after a meeting with other right-wing Labour MP's he opted not to stand for the leadership. The left of the party saw Greenwood once again stand with the mantle of left-wing firmly his. He had endeared himself with this wing of the party with his left-ward trend on social and nuclear issues. The 1961 left-wing nominee, Harold Wilson opted to not stand, instead seeking to not split the left-wing vote - and angling himself for a shadow cabinet post regardless of the winner.
The right of the party subsequently found their man in the form of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, James 'Jim' Callaghan. Callaghan, a WWII Royal Navy veteran, who had been first elected to parliament in 1945 for a southern Cardiff constituency, was someone who could preach the 'right stuff' about economics, while promoting a social policy that was conservative enough for the party's working class base - something Greenwood could not. One of Callaghan's greatest supporters was Anthony Crosland who wrote that the election was "
a choice between un-electable Bevanite dogma and an electable sensible leader who can take the party and the country kicking and screaming into the nineteen-sixties."
The election itself was as much about image, as it was about policy. On the policy front, Callaghan was the clear winner on this front; for he was more in step with the party as a whole. Greenwood however had charm and charisma and could perform well on television - in front of even the most formidable opponents, such as Robin Day. Callaghan on the other hand was more rusty and 'folksy' for lack of a better word - a better conference and parliamentary speaker - but less so where it really mattered to the electorate. Many political commentators concluded that the race was a dead heat - but that Greenwood could have the edge with his rousing performances on the platform and on the 'box.' Callaghan however was adamant that he had the votes and the policies which could return Labour to Government - something that Greenwood's supporters could not argue against.
Then came election day.
On the 7th of February 1963 the Labour Party elected it's new leader with a larger than expected margin of victory. That someone was James Callaghan who won the election 140 to 107 votes. Greenwood, to his credit, conceded and congratulated Callaghan; who subsequently appointed Greenwood to his now former post of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Gaitskellites, a mere month after their leader's death - could sigh a collective sigh of relief, as they had seen of the Bevanites, hopefully, once and for all. It seemed that common sense Labour policies had finally won out in the end; and that Labour would finally be on it's way to the Government benches.
Callaghan could for the meantime rest on his laurels, the same could not be said for Harold Macmillan who had another storm to weather just along the horizon...
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