The
Conservative Party leadership election in 1972 was second election in three years to decide the leader of the Conservative Party. The winner of the previous election, Reginald Maudling, had taken over after the party's failure to unseat Harold Wilson's Labour government in 1970 and had begun to lay the groundwork for unseating Wilson at the next general election. However, Maudling's financial dealings with John Poulson, an architectural designer under investigation by the Metropolitan Police for bribery and fraud came to light after Poulson declared bankruptcy in mid-1972 and records of his business with the Leader of the Opposition made public. Reading the tea leaves, Maudling acceded to a leadership election to replace him as Conservative leader in September.
William Whitelaw, the Shadow Home Secretary, soon emerged as the front-runner to succeed Maudling, attracting most support among the 1922 Committee of party leaders. Competing against Whitelaw were Shadow Secretary of Northern Ireland Keith Joseph, Shadow Secretary of Education Margaret Thatcher, and Shadow Minister of Transport John Peyton. All of Whitelaw's challengers belonged to the right-wing of the party, with Joseph and Thatcher advocating monetarist economic solutions to Britain's economic woes. Thatcher, while the first female candidate to be considered a serious contender for the leadership of a major party in Britain, lagged well behind Joseph in gathering support from MPs from the party's right-wing while Peyton was essentially a non-factor throughout.
The rules of the contest necessitated that, to avoid a second round, the winner would have needed to win both a majority of all votes cast as well as having 15 percent or more than the first runner-up. With the right-wing vote divided among Joseph and Thatcher supporters, Joseph hoped to draw enough undecided back-benchers to his side in order to deny Whitelaw a majority by promising a "new way forward" to break from the Heath policies that had failed to unseat Wilson.
The effort failed and Whitelaw was elected on the first ballot, with a majority of 12 and a large margin between him and Joseph, who won 71 votes, more than double that of Thatcher's total (30) and several times that of John Peyton (11). Whitelaw would go on to lead the party for 14 years, and the last seven of them as prime minister. Joseph and Thatcher both would serve in the Whitelaw government, while Peyton opted to retire in the 1979 election that brought the Conservatives into power for the first time since 1964.
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