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Alan Beith (1981)
When Alan Beith first entered Parliament in a by-election in 1973, it heralded the dawn of a new age for the Liberal Party. In 1979, a year after entering government, Jeremy Thorpe was forced out of the leadership due to a legal scandal surrounding the death of his former close friend Norman Scott, and the reins fell to Beith as Deputy Leader – he managed to defeat David Steel for the leadership in a 27-24 vote of the Liberal Parliamentary Party. Beith became Deputy Prime Minister in addition to his previous role as President of the Board of Trade, and remained in this position until Plumb's ignominious downfall.
With the Centre Party withdrawing from government, a precarious situation arose. Keith Joseph still was not going to be Prime Minister, even Keith Joseph himself knew that, and Labour couldn't return to power without parliamentary support from the Liberals, which they were unwilling to give. In the end, it was decided that as the Liberals were already in government, they should form a small caretaker government that could sit until elections could be held. Beith was invited to the Palace on March the 19th, and became the first Liberal Prime Minister since Lloyd George. He formed a cabinet consisting entirely of his fellow Liberals, which led to some slightly malicious jokes that the entire Liberal Parliamentary Party now had a ministry each. This wasn't quite true, but very nearly – a full quarter of the party was in Cabinet, and another forty percent or so were junior ministers and PPSs.
As one might expect, the Beith ministry was largely ineffective. It proposed a single budget, which contained no significant policy points and passed the Commons easily with cross-party support. It then sat around twiddling its thumbs for much of the summer recess, before dropping the writ in late July for an election to be held on 13 August. This 1981 general election saw the Liberals fall back significantly compared to 1978, but it was outweighed by the surprise surge for the Nationals – Keith Joseph being one of few frontline politicians not to have lost much face during this whole ordeal. Labour ended up short of a majority again, and the right once again formed the government.
When Alan Beith first entered Parliament in a by-election in 1973, it heralded the dawn of a new age for the Liberal Party. In 1979, a year after entering government, Jeremy Thorpe was forced out of the leadership due to a legal scandal surrounding the death of his former close friend Norman Scott, and the reins fell to Beith as Deputy Leader – he managed to defeat David Steel for the leadership in a 27-24 vote of the Liberal Parliamentary Party. Beith became Deputy Prime Minister in addition to his previous role as President of the Board of Trade, and remained in this position until Plumb's ignominious downfall.
With the Centre Party withdrawing from government, a precarious situation arose. Keith Joseph still was not going to be Prime Minister, even Keith Joseph himself knew that, and Labour couldn't return to power without parliamentary support from the Liberals, which they were unwilling to give. In the end, it was decided that as the Liberals were already in government, they should form a small caretaker government that could sit until elections could be held. Beith was invited to the Palace on March the 19th, and became the first Liberal Prime Minister since Lloyd George. He formed a cabinet consisting entirely of his fellow Liberals, which led to some slightly malicious jokes that the entire Liberal Parliamentary Party now had a ministry each. This wasn't quite true, but very nearly – a full quarter of the party was in Cabinet, and another forty percent or so were junior ministers and PPSs.
As one might expect, the Beith ministry was largely ineffective. It proposed a single budget, which contained no significant policy points and passed the Commons easily with cross-party support. It then sat around twiddling its thumbs for much of the summer recess, before dropping the writ in late July for an election to be held on 13 August. This 1981 general election saw the Liberals fall back significantly compared to 1978, but it was outweighed by the surprise surge for the Nationals – Keith Joseph being one of few frontline politicians not to have lost much face during this whole ordeal. Labour ended up short of a majority again, and the right once again formed the government.
- Utgard96
- Word Count: 390