Winston Churchill 1951-55
The War Hero
It was never supposed to be Macmillan. When Winston Churchill reclaimed office in 1951, thanks in part to an informal electoral pact with Clement Davies' Liberal Party, his assumed successor was longtime deputy Anthony Eden. The Foreign Secretary was handsome, telegenic, and (many suspected) rather more suited to post-war leadership than the Bulldog himself. Failing that, Chancellor Rab Butler was the architect of the new tripartite education system, and a formidable policy mind. When Churchill retired-an event anticipated as sooner rather than later by his Cabinet-it appeared that one of these two men would take over leadership of the Conservative Party.
However, events would quickly overtake both Eden and Butler.
The first shock was Clement Atlee's retirement as Labour Leader. While he was sixty-eight years old, it was felt that the sedate Atlee would be able to match the septuagenarian Churchill at the despatch box for a four-year stint, allowing for potential Labour successors to mature on the frontbench. However, the starting pistol was fired early on a race not expected until 1955 at the earliest. The end of the Labour Government of 1945-51 had been defined by a battle between the right, increasingly represented by Chancellor Hugh Gaitskell, and the left-wing rebels represented by Nye Bevan, who resigned from the government along with several others in 1951. Not joining him, however, was President of the Board of Trade Harold Wilson, previously widely derided as "Nye's Little Dog", who instead announced that while he had misgivings over prescription charges, as well as the NHS now requiring patients to pay for spectacles, "these mistakes are best corrected in office, not fruitlessly pounding our chests on the backbenches". However, Wilson would quickly be left out in the cold, when a smarting Labour Party took a rash decision that would prove to be its end. With Gaitskell joined by Herbert Morrison on the ballot representing the party's right, the new intake of young, angry Labour MPs instead elected the rebel Bevan as leader.
Labour were now led by a man many within the party saw as unelectable, and Churchill concurred. Seemingly secure in his position until the Welsh Windbag was removed, talk of retirement quickly faded, as the Conservative government plowed on with the denationalisation of steel, pursuing a Great Power summit with the US and USSR, and the building of new homes. This task fell to Harold Macmillan, and he set to it with aplomb. "It will make or mar your political career", said Churchill of Macmillan's task to build 300,000 houses. However, Macmillan succeeded, and in 1953 Lord Beaverbrook was rumoured to have advised him to be ready for a dead heat between Eden and Butler. Of course, the Chancellor and Foreign Secretary were frontrunners to succeed Churchill, but Beaverbrook had previous on this count, advising Andrew Bonar Law as he stole the leadership in 1911. Macmillan was under no illusions that the possibility of inheriting the leadership was likely, but just in case, he postponed a gall bladder operation that would have left him out of political action for some months.
Then, in 1954, Anthony Eden died.
An operation to remove a kidney stone in 1953 had ruptured a bile duct, leaving Eden weakened and prone to infection. While he soldiered on as Foreign Secretary, an increasing reliance on Benzedrine was noted by civil servants, and his behaviour became more and more erratic. Then, in July 1954, Eden sickened rapidly, and passed away at his home. His doctor quickly realised that his liver had failed, not aided by the large quantities of Benzedrine, the so-called "miracle drug". Unable to process the toxic waste in his blood, Eden had been lucky to survive a year after the botched operation.
Robbed of his favoured successor, Churchill soldiered on until 1955 despite a series of debilitating strokes. Eventually, the hero of World War II realised that his time was up, and a younger man must take over. However, Churchill hated the idea of "that bloody Butler" taking over, and commissioned Lord Salisbury to "take soundings" of Conservative MPs. Macmillan, now serving as Foreign Secretary himself, saw his chance, and intimated to the lisping peer that he might be considered "in place of poor Anthony". Sensing what must be done, Salisbury asked a succession of MPs: "Will it be Wab or Hawold?". Very few of those consulted in the so-called "Magic Circle" favoured Wab, and when the results were taken to Churchill, he quickly resigned, requesting that Queen Elizabeth II send for Macmillan. The monarch, crowned only two years previously, consented.
After kissing hands and agreeing to form a new government (with Rab Butler moved sideways to the Foreign Office), Macmillan called a General Election. Faced with a choice between the urbane patrician Macmillan (who many recalled lay distinctly on the left of the Conservative Party), and the red-faced, haranguing Bevan, the British public overwhelmingly chose Macmillan. Notably, the Liberal Party, down to only six MPs, declined to run candidates against a man they felt represented their views, furthering the subsumption of Liberalism into the Conservative fold. Macmillan won 370 seats-a majority of 110. Sensing an opportunity, he had published the Tory manifesto as that of the Conservative and Liberal Party, and reaped the rewards. Britain's party of government was strengthened further, and things continued to look rosy for the newly-minted premier when Bevan fought off the challenge of Harold Wilson to remain Leader of the much-reduced Labour Party. Notably, the five former Liberal MPs all consented to run under the Conservative-Liberal banner, with Megan Lloyd-George the only exception. All five were elected, and their sacrifice would be rewarded by Macmillan.
Armed with a mandate, the support of the former Liberal Party, and a desire to make Britain a better place, Harold Macmillan prepared for a long stint in Number Ten. Meanwhile, a group of Labour MPs, notably the defeated Wilson, began to consider their political future....
