Part IX
PART IX
Divided and Conquered;
Maudling and Heath on the Opposition Frontbench shortly before Douglas-Home's resignation, 1965
Divided and Conquered;
Maudling and Heath on the Opposition Frontbench shortly before Douglas-Home's resignation, 1965
The 1965 General Election had seen the Conservative Party utterly routed, having been thrown out of government after fourteen long, and seemingly affluent, years in power. Now, with Douglas-Home unwilling to serve any longer and his continued leadership untenable, the battle for control of the party was about to begin. He announced his resignation on the 30th May, just over a month after his defeat and introduced a reformed electoral system in which the Parliamentary Conservative Party would elect a new leader, but vowed to stay on at least until the first round of voting on the 1st of July. From the very beginning the Shadow Chancellor Reginald Maudling and former Secretary of State for Industry and Trade (now provisionally holding the position of Shadow Home Secretary) Edward Heath declared their candidacy, as had been expected since even before the General Election. Maudling was clearly of the One Nation, moderate, centre of the party whilst Heath was seen as more of a reformer, advocating rolling back some of the social democratic, interventionist, measures implemented by successive "Consensus" governments.
With a One Nation and centre right candidate both in the running there was still a gaping vacuum on the right of the party for a candidate willing to take more radical positions. Quintin Hogg, the Viscount Halisham, had been seen as a future candidate since Harold Macmillan's resignation but his overenthusiastic conference speech had scuppered his leadership bid. The 1965 Leadership Election seemed ideal for Hogg, but his antiquated manner and his aggressive campaigning style had alienated many on the right. Instead there was a desire for something more modern, for a leader who embraced the monetarist ideals of the New Right - vowing to run himself if he could find no one more senior, Enoch Powell announced he would back any candidate on the right of the party and organise their campaign.
Enter Peter Thornyecroft. The man who Macmillan had all but forced to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer, alongside whom Powell himself had resigned as a Junior Treasury Minister, had also brought monetarism to the party mainstream and was now emerging as the champion of the right of the party. Nominated by Powell and seconded - to many people's surprise - by Julian Amery after a stirring anti-Vietnam speech, Thorneycroft had a considerable amount of early media interest and a strong, if very small, core support base with a strict ideological dedication to advancing not only his interests, but the interest of a new kind of Conservatism.
Thorneycroft in a profile by The Times, 1965
As the race for the leadership grew more intense, however, Heath began to pivot to the right and suck support away from Thorneycroft with promises of tax cuts, decreased regulation, and the denationalisation of some key "lame duck" industries as well as a less conciliatory approach towards the Trade Unions. Thorneycroft had other issues too - for one at nearly sixty he was far older than his too rivals, although Douglas-Home himself had proved advanced age was hardly a problem when it came to running the country, having become Prime Minister in the year of his sixtieth birthday. Further, the zeal of some of his supporters was, to quote Douglas-Home himself, "utterly terrifying - they would put ideology before country" and made a number of MPs who might have supported Thorneycroft far more reticent.
In the end, however, Heath's very successful attempt to steal support form his rival to the right proved to bis downfall. The right of the party did not have the influence it would later gain, and appealing to it would harm Heath in the eyes of more moderate MPs with whom he was more personally popular than Maudling. He had squandered an advantage in order to attract the right of the party - this strategy was in fact a late decision, and when Powell had been the assumed candidate of the right, Heath had assumed the right to be too fanatical to be worth wooing now, with a more respected figurehead, he had wasted time and lost votes trying to lure the right in. Maudling, painting himself as the moderate candidate and a "firm hand on the tiller" with experience of government, Maudling would secure a slim majority of votes with a secure lead of almost five points over his closest rival.
Thorneycroft, and the right wing clique he represented, were crushed although one young, quiet, supporter Margaret Thatcher would quickly flit into the sphere of Edward Heath and from there advance the right's agenda from within the moderate bubble... For now, however, such concerns were forgotten as the jubilant Maudling supporters began drawing up their plans for opposition. Heath, for his part, was awarded with the position of Shadow Chancellor, and a small Shadow Cabinet was drawn up to coordinate opposition to the Crosland government.
With a One Nation and centre right candidate both in the running there was still a gaping vacuum on the right of the party for a candidate willing to take more radical positions. Quintin Hogg, the Viscount Halisham, had been seen as a future candidate since Harold Macmillan's resignation but his overenthusiastic conference speech had scuppered his leadership bid. The 1965 Leadership Election seemed ideal for Hogg, but his antiquated manner and his aggressive campaigning style had alienated many on the right. Instead there was a desire for something more modern, for a leader who embraced the monetarist ideals of the New Right - vowing to run himself if he could find no one more senior, Enoch Powell announced he would back any candidate on the right of the party and organise their campaign.
Enter Peter Thornyecroft. The man who Macmillan had all but forced to resign as Chancellor of the Exchequer, alongside whom Powell himself had resigned as a Junior Treasury Minister, had also brought monetarism to the party mainstream and was now emerging as the champion of the right of the party. Nominated by Powell and seconded - to many people's surprise - by Julian Amery after a stirring anti-Vietnam speech, Thorneycroft had a considerable amount of early media interest and a strong, if very small, core support base with a strict ideological dedication to advancing not only his interests, but the interest of a new kind of Conservatism.
Thorneycroft in a profile by The Times, 1965
As the race for the leadership grew more intense, however, Heath began to pivot to the right and suck support away from Thorneycroft with promises of tax cuts, decreased regulation, and the denationalisation of some key "lame duck" industries as well as a less conciliatory approach towards the Trade Unions. Thorneycroft had other issues too - for one at nearly sixty he was far older than his too rivals, although Douglas-Home himself had proved advanced age was hardly a problem when it came to running the country, having become Prime Minister in the year of his sixtieth birthday. Further, the zeal of some of his supporters was, to quote Douglas-Home himself, "utterly terrifying - they would put ideology before country" and made a number of MPs who might have supported Thorneycroft far more reticent.
In the end, however, Heath's very successful attempt to steal support form his rival to the right proved to bis downfall. The right of the party did not have the influence it would later gain, and appealing to it would harm Heath in the eyes of more moderate MPs with whom he was more personally popular than Maudling. He had squandered an advantage in order to attract the right of the party - this strategy was in fact a late decision, and when Powell had been the assumed candidate of the right, Heath had assumed the right to be too fanatical to be worth wooing now, with a more respected figurehead, he had wasted time and lost votes trying to lure the right in. Maudling, painting himself as the moderate candidate and a "firm hand on the tiller" with experience of government, Maudling would secure a slim majority of votes with a secure lead of almost five points over his closest rival.
Thorneycroft, and the right wing clique he represented, were crushed although one young, quiet, supporter Margaret Thatcher would quickly flit into the sphere of Edward Heath and from there advance the right's agenda from within the moderate bubble... For now, however, such concerns were forgotten as the jubilant Maudling supporters began drawing up their plans for opposition. Heath, for his part, was awarded with the position of Shadow Chancellor, and a small Shadow Cabinet was drawn up to coordinate opposition to the Crosland government.
- Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party: Reginald Maudling
- Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer: Edward Heath
- Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs: Selwyn Lloyd
- Shadow Secretary of State for the Home Department: Ian Macleod
- Shadow Secretary of State for Defence: Duncan Sandys
- Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Science: Margaret Thatcher
- Shadow Commonwealth Secretary: Christopher Soames
- Chairman of the Conservative Party: Anthony Barber
- Opposition Chief Whip: William Whitelaw
- Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords: Lord Carrington
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