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February 9th 1975 was a big day in the history of the Conservative Party. Willie Whitelaw stood outside Parliament flanked by both Geoffrey Howe and James Prior. Both had agreed not to stand for the leadership of the party and put their backing behind the candidacy of Whitelaw.

Whitelaw looked up at the throngs of the assembled media and began to speak.

“We are living through times of strife. We need a Government which will unite the people and move the nation forward. We need to end the years of drift which have been accumulating since before the last Great War.

This cannot be achieved overnight, but this can be achieved if we unite. As a nation we must move forward.

The time is now.”

The impact was strong. Whitelaw had managed to persuade two of the leading candidates not to stand in the leadership election and throw their lot in behind him. As such he was positioning himself as the unity candidate.

The Thatcher campaign which was ably led by Airey Neave, were thrown by the move. For the first time since Thatcher had surprisingly defeated Heath in the first round, it seemed she may lose the leadership election.

It was in this scenario those two days later the second round of the Conservative leadership election took place. The impact was to lead to a third round.

Result, Second Round, Conservative Leadership Election, 11th February 1975.

William Whitelaw. 136 Votes. 49.7%
Margaret Thatcher. 132 Votes. 48.1%
John Peyton 6 Votes. 2.2 %

This was to lead to the third round a week later which would be a straight run-off between Whitelaw and Thatcher. Fears abound that whoever won now, the party would be split. Secretly, Whitelaw and Thatcher met on Valentines Day.

They reached a deal. Margaret Thatcher would withdraw from the race to be leader, but would become Shadow Chancellor and then Chancellor of the Exchequer once the Conservatives won the next general election with more power than any Chancellor in history.

In return for standing aside, Whitelaw agreed to stand aside after one term. Nothing was put to paper, and it was in secret the deal was made, but a deal there was. Margaret Thatcher withdrew from the Conservative leadership contest.

Willie Whitelaw became leader of the Opposition.
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