Ted Heath holds onto the Tory leadership in 1975

Despite losing office, Ted Heath was actually expected to retain the Tory leadership in 1975; it came as a shock when he was overthrown by Margaret Thatcher.

What if he had successfully managed to fight off that challenge? How would a 1980s Heath government (assuming he'd have led his party to victory in 1979) have looked?
 
He wouldn't have made it that far; someone else would've been gunning for him instead.

It wasn't like Heath was even very popular with the Tories. By 1975 he had lost them three general elections, and presided over an unpopular government for a single term. Had Thatcher not run, or somehow lost, it's possible that another Conservative challenges him later and this time wins.
 
The Labour polling recovery in 1978 and the rumours of a snap election could plausibly have ended up as the point at which Heath's leadership ended.
 
If Thatcher hadn't won then then someone like Neave might have stood and won due to disaffection
 
If Thatcher hadn't won then then someone like Neave might have stood and won due to disaffection

Keith Joseph was intending to be the challenger to Heath...until he gave a foolish speech that came off as an endorsement of eugenics.
 
The Labour polling recovery in 1978 and the rumours of a snap election could plausibly have ended up as the point at which Heath's leadership ended.

Let's say that Heath stays on in 1975, and polling in 1978 not only shows that Labour will beat the Tories but that they could have a working majority in Parliament. A general election is called, Labour barely wins and Heath finally steps down. Or, there is a hung Parliament and Callaghan forms a coalition with the Liberals. (If Heath couldn't work with the Liberals in 1974, I don't see why he could four years later). Either way, Heath never becomes PM again. A Thatcher loss in 1975 would only prolong the inevitable in regards to Heath.
 
Keith Joseph was intending to be the challenger to Heath...until he gave a foolish speech that came off as an endorsement of eugenics.

Ok, lets butterfly away Joseph's faux pas. If he had won then his extremism would have led to woe for the Tories.
 
Ok, lets butterfly away Joseph's faux pas. If he had won then his extremism would have led to woe for the Tories.

Perhaps Callaghan, convinced that Labour can beat Joseph's Tories, calls an election in 1978 and Labour wins. Thatcher could succeed Joseph as leader, however Tory chances in the next election would depend on how Labour handles the Falklands. Best case scenario for Labour is they fight a war, win it, then call an election in 1982 and come out with a majority. But IMO the Tories are definitely going to regain power by 1986 or so.
 
Joseph was too far to the right for the bulk of the party in the late seventies. He would have been the stalking horse. Then Willie Whitelaw or Geoffrey Howe (or both) would have come forward after Heath had the chat with the men in grey suits and stood down. Callaghan if he won in 1978 probably wouldn't have a Falklands factor. While PM he quietly saw off a military threat from Argentina by sending addditional submarines to the South Atlantic. Would have been the same in 1982. Extensive naval manoevres in South Atlantic and the Argentines stand down their forces. And, bless their innocent little hearts, the junta thought that Thatcher being a woman would have no stomach for a fight (they must have missed out on Golda Meir and Indira Gandhi).
 
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