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Political Biography:

Edward Heath

(b. 9 July 1916; 17 July 2005) British; leader of the Conservative Party 1965 – 75, Prime Minister 1970 – 4; Kt. 1992 Ted Heath was the only son of a carpenter, later a master builder. He was educated at Chatham School, Ramsgate, and Balliol College, Oxford. At university he was active in the Conservative Party and president of the Oxford Union. After a good war record he sought entry to the House of Commons. He was one of a new breed of young post-war Conservatives, somebody who wanted to be a professional politician. He had no family tradition of political involvement and did not come from a public school, an established profession, business, or the land.

In 1950 Health won the Bexley seat, part of which was renamed Old Bexley and Sidcup in February 1974. Health's maiden speech was, significantly, a call for Britain to respond favourably to attempts to build a united Western Europe. He was quickly appointed to the whips' office and between 1955 and 1959 was chief whip. He was credited with keeping the party together during the Suez crisis (1956) and involved in the emergence of Harold Macmillan, rather than R. A. Butler, as leader in 1957.

In 1960 Heath was appointed Lord Privy Seal, charged with handling negotiations for Britain's entry into the European Community. He became Britain's "Mr Europe" and was bitterly disappointed when General de Gaulle vetoed the British application in January 1963. Sir Alec Douglas-Home appointed him to the Board of Trade. In this post he overcame party opposition to achieve the abolition of resale price maintenance. The measure showed his interest in economics competition and did much to improve his leadership prospects.

In Opposition after 1964 the Conservative Party sought a more meritocratic leader than Sir Alec, one who could stand up to Labour's Harold Wilson. The grammar school Heath seemed to fit the bill. In a leadership contest in July 1965 Heath gained 150 votes to 133 for Reginald Maudling and Enoch Powell's 15 votes. Maudling immediately stood down, thus giving the leadership to Heath. At the age of 49 Heath was the youngest Conservative leader for over a century. Considering that many Conservative MPs came from an upper-class background, Heath's rise was noteworthy.

As Opposition leader, Heath was determined to pursue policies for modernizing Britain. His proposals for trade union reform, tax cuts, constraints on public spending, disengagement from industry, and avoidance of incomes policies might be seen as a first shot at Thatcherism. Some part of the shift to the right was a consequence of opposing the economic interventionism of the Labour government. Heath had the opportunity to deliver the programme when the party gained an unexpected election victory in 1970.

The Heath government (1970 – 4) has been noted for reversals of policy, what were known as U-turns. It was badly hit by the sharp rises in commodity prices in 1971 and then the quadrupling of Arab oil prices in late 1973. The government felt itself forced to rescue firms because of fears of rising unemployment, and adopted a statutory prices and incomes policy to arrest inflation. There were a record number of days lost due to strikes and direct rule was imposed in Northern Ireland, following violence in the province. The incomes policy proved Heath's undoing. The miners disrupted normal life by their strike against the policy in the winter of 1973 – 4. As industry struggled to cope, Heath felt that there was no option but to call a general election. Although the Conservatives ended with most votes, Labour had more seats in the February 1974 election.

After leading the party to a second general election defeat in October 1974, his position as Conservative leader was weak. He had lost three out of four general elections and was widely regarded as an electoral liability. Conservative MPs were disenchanted for various reasons — he lacked tact in dealing with backbenchers, had been niggardly with political honours, and some on the right never forgave his abandonment of free market policies in government. In a leadership contest on 4 February 1975 Margaret Thatcher defeated him on the first round by 130 to 119 votes and he resigned immediately. Heath had been the first Tory leader to be chosen in a contested election and was the first to be defeated in one.

Heath's determination to defend the record of his government brought him into conflict with Mrs Thatcher. He stood for One-Nation Conservatism, incomes policy, and state intervention in the economy, when the party was moving to the right. She clearly was determined to break with policies of the past, including those of Heath, and would not have him in her Cabinet. In the 1980s he was a vehement critic of the Thatcher government's policies on the economy, education, welfare, Europe, and the poll tax. His critics saw him as a bad loser and he was probably counter-productive to the causes he espoused. He welcomed the leadership of Major but became critical of what he regarded as appeasement of the anti-European right in the party.

Heath's outstanding achievement was entry into the European Community. Support for European unity and integration was a constant theme in his political career. He played a prominent role in the 1975 referendum on EC membership and spoke against the growing Euro-scepticism in his own party in the 1990s. As a leader he was handicapped by an inability to communicate effectively his visions, notably for enterprise and Britain in Europe.

 
 
Biography: Edward Richard George Heath

Edward Heath (born 1916) was Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1970 to 1974. His major achievement was to gain membership for Britain in the European Common Market.

The Rt. Hon. Sir Edward Richard George Heath K.G., M.B.E., was born in Broadstairs, Kent, on July 9, 1916, the son of a builder. He won a music scholarship to Chatham House (a grammar school in Ramsgate) and attended Balliol College, Oxford, where in 1939 he received a degree in politics, philosophy, and economics. Heath's political interests developed at Oxford. He was president of the Oxford Union and of the University Conservative Association. As a student he strongly opposed the aggressive foreign policies of Hitler and Mussolini.

Heath joined the army shortly after World War II began. In 1940 he was assigned to the Royal Artillery, where he advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His distinguished war record included time spent on the Normandy front and in the crossing of the Rhine River. In the immediate postwar years he began to prepare for a career in politics. He worked successively as a civil servant in the Ministry of Civil Aviation, as news editor of the Church Times, and for a merchant bank in the City of London.

In 1950 Heath was elected Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexley, Kent, a constituency that (taking into account changes in boundary and title) he continued to represent into the 1980s. When the Conservatives were returned to power (over the Labour Party) under Winston Churchill in 1951, Heath was appointed to a junior position in the government. Two years later he was made government chief whip, a position he held until 1959. The chief whip is in charge of party discipline, and Heath's skills at conciliation served him well. He helped to preserve the unity of the Conservative Party during the controversial Suez invasion of 1956.

In 1959, with Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister, Heath was appointed Minister of Labor with a seat in the Cabinet. A year later he became Lord Privy Seal. Then from 1963 to 1964 he was secretary of state for industry, trade, and regional development as well as president of the board of trade. These were years of transition within the Conservative Party. An older generation of leaders, including Anthony Eden, Macmillan, and Sir Alec Douglas-Home, was passing from the scene. Heath was among the younger politicians who were competing for the future leadership of the party. Though not an ideologue, he was identified with the moderate wing of the party on social and economic questions. Above all, he was a "European" who wanted Britain to join the Common Market. As lord privy seal, he conducted lengthy negotiations to that end, only to have President Charles de Gaulle of France exercise a veto in January 1963.

Heath was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1965 in succession to Douglas-Home. At 49, he was the youngest Conservative leader in a century; he was also the first to be chosen by members of Parliament rather than private consultation. Although he was defeated by Harold Wilson in the election of 1966, Heath worked hard to prepare his party for power, emphasizing personal initiative and a reduction of the role of the central government as elements of modern conservatism. In 1968 he dismissed Enoch Powell from his shadow cabinet as a "racist" after the latter made an extreme anti-immigrant speech.

In the election of 1970 Heath won the prime ministership with a narrow victory over Wilson. From the outset he turned his attention to the unresolved question of the Common Market. He and President Georges Pompidou of France reached an historic agreement in 1972, and the following year Britain entered the Common Market. This attempt at unity with the continent of Europe was almost certainly Heath's major achievement in politics.

On domestic matters, Heath pursued a "quiet revolution" involving fewer governmental controls, reduced taxation, and the reform of trade union law. However, by 1972 he had reversed some of his policies. The Industrial Relations Act, passed in 1971, was not enforced effectively, and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Anthony Barber, carried out a policy of increased expenditure to deal with rising unemployment. In February 1974, in the midst of a miners' strike that led to severe power cuts, the Conservatives were defeated in a general election and Wilson returned to power with the Labour government.

Heath fought and lost another election to Wilson in October, 1974. The following February he was replaced as leader of the opposition by Margaret Thatcher. After that he was on poor terms with Thatcher and lost much of his influence within the Conservative Party. He continued to be a vigorous spokesman for the Conservative "wets," who favor a consentual approach to social and economic problems and have generally been critical of Thatcher's policies.

Internationalist

Losing the General Election of October 1974 to Margaret Thatcher and the Party Election to Harold Wilson in 1975 did not remove Sir Edward Heath from political life, as he retained his seat in Parliament as the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup. Thus, he was still a Member of the House and of the ruling Conservative Party. As such, he chaired important governmental committees which determined national policy. During the 1990-1991 war in the Persian Gulf, Heath was the British government's negotiator with Saddam Hussein of Iraq, and succeeded in gaining the release of many British hostages.

Renaissance Man

Like the aristocrats of the past, Edward Heath cultivated his multiple talents to a high degree of skill. Not only was he an able negotiator and international statesman, but also a first-class recital and concert organist who conducted classical orchestras in Britain and on the Continent. He took up yachting when he was fifty years old and won the Sydney, Australia to Hobart, Tasmania Race, with his personal yacht. He was also chosen to captain the British Admiral's Cup Team in 1971 and 1979. He was a consummate politician, sportsman, organ virtuoso, journalist, writer and investment counsellor. He was truly a man of universal talents.

In April 1972, Edward Heath was appointed Knight of the Garter by Queen Elizabeth II, i.e., an ancient British title which elevated Heath to the peerage (British aristocracy). He had already been decorated with the Order of the British Empire in November 1965, for meritious service to the nation. He was now addressed formally as The Rt. Hon. Sir Edward (Richard George) Heath, KG, MBE. In Parliament he was termed the Father of the House of Parliament and, as such, he presided over the internal elections.

Sir Edward Heath figures in history as the man who brought Great Britain back into the European community of nations as Britain had been so many centuries ago.

Further Reading

Margaret Thatcher's two volumes of political memoirs presented portraits of Edward Heath as her political opponent, The Downing Street Years (1993) and The Path to Power (1995). For an encapsulated but detailed biographical listing of Edward Heath's achievements and positions held, Who's Who 1997: An Annual Biographical Dictionary, has all the facts chronologically arranged.

Although not an adequate biography of Edward Heath, George Hutchinson's, Edward Heath: A Personal and Political Biography (1970) provides an interesting portrait. The published accounts of Heath's tenure as Prime Minister have been generally critical. The best of these are Martin Holmes, Political Pressure and Economic Policy: British Government, 1970-4 (1982) and Robert Blake, The Conservative Party from Peel to Thatcher (1985). Edward Heath has written three non-political books, all of which are entertaining to read: Sailing: A Course of My Life (1975); Music: A Joy for Life (1976); and Travels: People and Places in My Life (1977).

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Sir Edward Richard George Heath

(born July 9, 1916, Broadstairs, Kent, Eng. — died July 17, 2005, Salisbury, Wiltshire) British politician, prime minister of Britain (1970 – 74). He held various government positions after being elected to Parliament in 1950, and after the Conservative defeat in 1964 he became a major opposition figure. As prime minister, he faced the crisis of violent conflict in Northern Ireland, over which he imposed direct British rule in 1972, and won French acceptance of British entry into the European Economic Community. Unable to cope with Britain's mounting economic problems, chiefly rising inflation and unemployment and crippling labour strikes, he was succeeded as prime minister by Harold Wilson in 1974 and replaced as party leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975. Heath, who was knighted in 1992, remained in the House of Commons until 2001.

For more information on Sir Edward Richard George Heath, visit Britannica.com.

 
British History: Sir Edward Heath

Heath, Sir Edward (1916-2005). Prime minister. Heath went to Balliol College, Oxford, where he secured an organ scholarship and became president of the Union. The Second World War deepened Heath's conviction that European reconstruction and unity represented the greatest challenge facing his generation. He was among the impressive new Conservative MPs elected in 1950, joining the ‘One Nation’ group of Tories who took a particular interest in social policy. His maiden speech was on the subject of Europe—the most consistent theme in his career. Heath enjoyed good relations with both Eden and Macmillan; under the latter his career prospered. After the 1959 general election he became minister of labour. In 1960, however, Macmillan decided to make Lord Home foreign secretary with a second cabinet minister (Heath) in the Commons. This proved a turning-point in Heath's career. In 1961 the government determined to seek membership of the Common Market and Heath had the delicate task of negotiating the terms of entry. Though the mission was doomed, Heath won widespread applause for his handling of the discussions.

The choice of Home as a short-term leader in 1963 suited Heath since he was himself not yet ready to stake a claim. In the last year of Conservative government, Heath, as president of the Board of Trade, surprised many by introducing controversial legislation to abolish retail price maintenance. As shadow chancellor in 1965 Heath further impressed. With his commitment to the tasks of opposition he stood in marked contrast to his leading rival for the succession, Reginald Maudling. When Home suddenly resigned in July, Heath secured a narrow victory over Maudling. But Heath never had the subtlety or political skills to compete effectively with Wilson, the Labour leader. His popularity lagged behind that of the prime minister even when the Conservatives were running well ahead. None the less Heath prepared assiduously for government. A major policy review emerged in the document ‘Putting Britain Right Ahead’. It spoke of encouraging a competitive economy, moving from direct to indirect taxation, greater selectivity in the social services, and taking Britain into Europe.

Heath's defeat in the 1966 election had been widely expected. But his comfortable victory in June 1970 surprised most commentators. Whatever Heath's true intentions, his government seemed more right-wing than any since the war. It was certainly beset by bad luck. The chancellor, Iain Macleod, died within a month of the election; Northern Ireland provided unlooked-for difficulties; world economic problems, especially the quadrupling of Arab oil prices in 1973, distorted domestic politics and fuelled inflation. None the less, it is hard to escape the conclusion that Heath's government was a failure. Its one lasting achievement was to take Britain into the EEC, though on terms which ensured that this would remain a contentious issue.

Rising unemployment initiated an abrupt change in policy by the end of 1971. Heath's government now became one of the most interventionist since the war. By 1972 he had re-embraced the notion of an incomes policy. Industrial relations policy proved a disaster. The government finally collapsed in the wake of the miners' strike of 1973-4, to which Heath responded with a three-day week and finally a general election. The campaign was mishandled. A minority Labour government took office after Heath failed to negotiate a deal with the Liberals.

Further defeat followed in a second election in October. By now Heath had succeeded in alienating many of his own backbenchers. Challenged by Margaret Thatcher, he withdrew from the leadership contest after failing to win the first ballot in February 1975. Heath never reconciled himself to these events, and time failed to heal or even soothe his wounds. Heath remained an MP throughout her premiership, devoid of his earlier charm. He remained in the Commons until 2001, becoming father of the House.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Heath, Sir Edward Richard George,
1916–2005, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he served in the Royal Artillery during World War II, rising to the rank of colonel. He was elected to Parliament as a Conservative in 1950, and held several posts in the party whip's office (1951–55) before becoming government chief whip and parliamentary secretary to the treasury (1955–59), minister of labour (1959–60), and lord privy seal with foreign office responsibilities (1960–63). In the last capacity he negotiated unsuccessfully for Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (Common Market), a policy to which he remained firmly committed. He was secretary of state for industry and trade and president of the Board of Trade (1963–64) and was elected leader of the Conservative party, then in opposition, in 1965. Heath became prime minister when the Conservatives won the 1970 general election, largely on the issue of the economy. His administration was marked by Britain's entry into the European Community (the successor to the Common Market and the predecessor of the European Union) in 1973, by legislation to restrict immigration from Commonwealth countries, and also by legislation, which proved ineffective, to regulate industrial relations. The intensification of strife in Northern Ireland led to the suspension of the Northern Irish Parliament in 1972. A new provincial assembly and a coalition executive were created (1973), but both proved short-lived. Soaring inflation led Heath to abandon his free-market platform and institute wage and price controls, but the controls worsened the government's relations with the trade unions. A series of major industrial disputes (1973–74) culminated in a confrontation (Nov., 1973–Feb., 1974). The miners' strike so reduced energy supplies that the country was forced to a three-day work week. Heath called an election (Feb., 1974), asking for a mandate for his tough policy toward the unions. He did not receive sufficient support to form a Conservative government and resigned as prime minister. After a second defeat in 1974, Heath lost (1975) the party leadership to Margaret Thatcher. In the 1980s he was a vocal and bitter critic of Thatcher's government; he retired from Parliament in 2001. Heath wrote many books, including Old World, New Horizons (1970), Music (1976), and British Approach to European Foreign Policy (1977). He was knighted in 1992.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1998); biographies by M. I. Laing (1972) and A. Roth (1972).

 
Quotes By: Edward Heath

Quotes:

"We are the trade union for pensioners and children, the trade union for the disabled and the sick... the trade union for the nation as a whole."

"The unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism."

 
Wikipedia: Edward Heath
For other persons named Edward Heath, see Edward Heath (disambiguation).
The Rt Hon. Sir Edward Heath
Edward Heath
In office
19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Monarch Elizabeth II
Preceded by Harold Wilson
Succeeded by Harold Wilson
In office
20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by Fred Erroll
Succeeded by Douglas Jay
In office
14 October 1959 – 27 July 1960
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan
Preceded by Iain MacLeod
Succeeded by John Hare
Born 9 July 1916(1916--)
Broadstairs, Kent, England
Died 17 July 2005 (aged 89)
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Political party Conservative
Alma mater Balliol College, Oxford
Religion Anglican

Sir Edward Richard George Heath, KG, MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath's accession represented a change in the leadership of the Conservative party, from aristocratic figures such as Harold Macmillan to the self-consciously meritocratic (Heath, and later, Margaret Thatcher).

Early life

Ted (or "Teddy" as he was known as a young man) Heath was born the son of a carpenter and a maid from Broadstairs in Kent, England. His father was later a successful small businessman. He was educated at Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate, and also at The King's School, Canterbury for the Sixth form, where he was head boy, and in 1935 with the aid of a county scholarship he went up to study at Balliol College, Oxford. A talented musician, he won the college's Organ scholarship in his first term (he had previously tried for the organ scholarships at St Catharine's College, Cambridge and Keble College, Oxford), which enabled him to stay at the University for a fourth year; he eventually graduated, with a second in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics in 1939. In later life Heath's peculiar accent, with its "strangulated" vowel sounds, was a source of much comment; Heath's biographer John Campbell speculates that, unlike his father and younger brother who both spoke with Kent accents, his speech must have undergone "drastic alteration on encountering Oxford".

While at university Heath became active in Conservative politics. However, on the key political issue of the day, foreign policy, he opposed the Conservative-dominated government of the day ever more openly. His first Paper Speech (ie. a major speech listed on the order paper along with the visiting guest speakers) at the Oxford Union, in Michaelmas 1936, was in opposition to the appeasement of Germany by returning her colonies, confiscated after the First World War. In June 1937 he was elected President of the Oxford University Conservative Association as a pro-Spanish Republic candidate, in opposition to the pro-Franco John Stokes (later a Conservative MP). In 1937-8 he was also chairman of the national Federation of University Conservative Associations, and in the same year (his third at University) he was Secretary then Librarian of the Oxford Union. At the end of the year, however, he was defeated for the Presidency of the Oxford Union by another Balliol candidate, Alan Wood, on the issue of whether the Chamberlain government should give way to a left-wing Popular Front. On this occasion Heath supported the government.

In his final year Heath was President of Balliol College Junior Common Room, an office held in subsequent years by his near-contemporaries Denis Healey and Roy Jenkins, and as such was invited to support the Master of Balliol Alexander Lindsay, who stood as an anti-Munich 'Independent Progressive' candidate against the official Conservative candidate, Quintin Hogg, in the October 1938 Oxford by-election. Heath, who had himself applied to be the Conservative candidate for the by-election [1], accused the government in an October Union Debate of "turning all four cheeks" to Hitler, and was elected as President of the Oxford Union in November 1938, sponsored by Balliol, after winning the Presidential Debate that "This House has No Confidence in the National Government as presently constituted". He was thus President in Hilary Term 1939; the visiting Leo Amery described him in his diaries as "a pleasant youth".

As an undergraduate Heath travelled widely in Europe. His opposition to appeasement was nourished by his witnessing first-hand a Nazi Party Nuremberg rally in 1937, where he met top Nazis Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler at an SS cocktail party. He later described Himmler as "the most evil man I have ever met". In 1938 he visited Barcelona, then under attack from Spanish Nationalist forces. In the summer of 1939 he again travelled across Germany, returning to England just in time before the declaration of war.

World War II

Heath spent the winter of 1939-40 on a debating tour of the United States before being called up, and early in 1941 was commissioned in the Royal Artillery. During the Second World War he initially served with heavy anti-aircraft guns around Liverpool (which suffered heavy German bombing in May 1941), and by early 1942 was regimental adjutant, with the rank of captain. Later, by now a major commanding a battery of his own, he provided artillery support in the European campaign of 1944-5. He later remarked that, although he did not personally kill anybody, as the British forces advanced he saw devastation which must have been caused by his unit's bombardments. In September 1945 he commanded a firing squad to execute a Polish soldier convicted of rape and murder, a fact which he did not reveal until his memoirs were published in 1998. After demobilisation as a lieutenant-colonel in August 1946 Heath joined the Honourable Artillery Company, in which he remained active throughout the 1950s, rising to Commanding officer of the Second Regiment; a portrait of him in full dress uniform still hangs in the regimental mess. In April 1971, as Prime Minister, he wore his lieutenant-colonel's insignia to inspect troops.

Before the war Heath had won a scholarship to Gray's Inn and had begun making preparations for a career at the Bar, but after the war he instead passed top into the Civil Service. He then became a civil servant in the Ministry of Civil Aviation (he was disappointed not to be posted to the Treasury, but declined an offer to join the Foreign Office, fearing that foreign postings might prevent him from entering politics [2]). He resigned in November 1947 after his adoption as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Bexley.

Member of Parliament

He was Editor of the Church Times and later a banker at Brown, Shipley & Co. until his election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bexley in the February 1950 general election. In the election he defeated an old contemporary from the Oxford Union, Ashley Bramall, with a majority of 133 votes. Heath made his maiden speech in the House of Commons on 26 June 1950, in which he appealed to the Labour Government to participate in the Schuman Plan.

In February 1951, Heath was appointed as an Opposition Whip by Winston Churchill. He remained in the Whip's Office after the Conservatives won the 1951 general election, rising rapidly to Joint Deputy Chief Whip, Deputy Chief Whip and, in December 1955, Government Chief Whip under Anthony Eden. Because of the convention that Whips do not speak in Parliament, Heath managed to keep out of the controversy over the Suez Crisis. On the announcement of Anthony Eden's resignation, Heath submitted a report on the opinions of the Conservative MPs regarding Eden's possible successors. This report favoured Harold Macmillan and was instrumental in eventually securing Macmillan the premiership in January 1957.[citation needed] Macmillan later appointed Heath Minister of Labour after the successful October 1959 election.

Heath was appointed Lord Privy Seal in 1960 by Harold Macmillan with responsibility for the (ultimately unsuccessful) first round of negotiations to secure the UK's accession to the Common Market (as the European Community was then called). After the failure of these negotiations Heath was not a contender for the party leadership on Macmillan's retirement in October 1963. Under Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home he was President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development, and oversaw the abolition of retail price controls.

Leadership bid

After the Conservative Party lost the general election of 1964, the defeated Douglas-Home changed the party leadership rules to allow for an MP ballot vote, and then resigned. The following year Heath - who was Shadow Chancellor at the time, and had recently won favourable publicity for leading the fight against Labour's Finance Bill - unexpectedly won the party's leadership contest, gaining 150 votes to Reginald Maudling's 133 and Enoch Powell's 15. [3] Heath became the Tories' youngest leader and retained office after the party's defeat in the general election of 1966.

Leader of Opposition

Heath sacked Enoch Powell from the Shadow Cabinet after Powell made his Rivers of Blood speech on 20 April 1968. Heath never spoke to him again. Powell hadn't notified Conservative Central Office of his intentions to deliver the speech, and this was put forward as one reason for his dismissal. When Powell died on 8 February 1998, Heath was asked for his reaction, but he simply told the media: "I won't be making a statement."

Prime Minister

With another general election looming in 1970, a Conservative policy document emerged from the Selsdon Park Hotel, which according to some historians [citation needed] embraced fairly radical monetarist and free-market oriented policies as solutions to the country's unemployment and inflation problems. Heath stated that the Selsdon weekend only reaffirmed policies which had actually been evolving since he became leader of the Conservative Party. Labour's Prime Minister Harold Wilson thought the document a vote loser and dubbed it Selsdon Man in the attempt to portray it as reactionary. But Heath's Conservative Party won the general election of 1970 in a victory seen as a personal triumph that surprised almost all contemporary commentators. [citation needed]

Industrial unrest

As with all British governments in the 1970s, Heath's time in office was difficult. The government suffered an early blow with the death of Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod on 20 July 1970. Heath's planned economic policy changes (including a significant shift from direct to indirect taxation) remained largely unimplemented; the Selsdon policy document was more or less abandoned by 1972. He did attempt to reform the increasingly militant trade unions, unions which had managed until then to avoid reforms under preceding Labour and Tory governments. Yet Heath's attempt to confront trade-union power only resulted in an unwinnable pitched political battle, hobbled as the government was by the country's galloping inflation and high unemployment rate. It was also around this time that energy shortages infamously resulted in much of the country's industry working a three-day week in an attempt to conserve energy. The resulting breakdown of domestic consensus contributed to the eventual downfall of his government.

Heath's government did little to curtail welfare spending, yet at one point the squeeze in the education budget resulted in Margaret Thatcher's office famously phasing out free school milk rather than cutting back spending on the Open University.

Foreign policy

Edward Heath took the United Kingdom into the European Community in 1973. In October 1973 he placed a British arms embargo on all combattants in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur war; that mainly affected the Israelis in obtaining spares for the Centurion tank. He also officially recognized the People's Republic of China in 1972, visited Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1974 and 1975 and remained an honoured guest in China on frequent visits thereafter. Heath also maintained a good relationship with U.S. President Richard Nixon.

Heath depicted in a political cartoon as a British colonial in conflict with the Irish in Northern Ireland.
Enlarge
Heath depicted in a political cartoon as a British colonial in conflict with the Irish in Northern Ireland.

Ireland

Heath governed during the bloodiest period in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He was prime minister at the time of Bloody Sunday in 1972 when 14 unarmed men were killed by British soldiers during an illegal march in Londonderry. (In 2003, he gave evidence to the Saville Inquiry and stated that he never sanctioned unlawful lethal force in Northern Ireland.) In July 1972, he permitted his Secretary of State for Northern Ireland William Whitelaw to hold unofficial talks in London with a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) delegation by Seán Mac Stiofáin. In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement with the democratic political parties.

The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement was strongly repudiated by many Unionists and the Ulster Unionist Party soon ceased to support the Conservative party at Westminster. This breakdown in co-operation largely accounted for Heath's eventual electoral defeat in 1974.

Heath was targeted by the IRA for introducing 'Internment' in Ulster. In December 1974, terrorists from the Balcombe Street gang threw a bomb on to the first-floor balcony of his home in Wilton Street, Belgravia where it exploded. Heath had been conducting a Christmas carol concert in his constituency at Broadstairs, Kent, and arrived home 10 minutes after the bomb exploded. No one was injured in the attack, but a landscape portrait painted by Winston Churchill — given to Heath as a present — was damaged. [4]

Fall from power

1974 general elections

Heath tried to bolster his government by calling a general election for 28 February 1974. The result was inconclusive: the Conservative Party received a majority in terms of votes cast but the Labour Party gained a majority in terms of seats due to the Ulster Unionist MPs refusing to support the Conservatives. Heath then began coalition negotiations with leaders of the Liberal Party, but, when these failed, on 4 March 1974, he resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by Harold Wilson and a minority Labour government. Wilson was eventually confirmed with a wafer-thin majority in a second election in October of the same year. In the second 1974 general election, Heath called for an all party "National Government".

It was around this time that The Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative discussion group with close spiritual ties to the 1970 Selsdon document, began to formulate a monetarist and free-market diagnosis of the failures of Heath's government. Initially the group was spearheaded by Sir Keith Joseph. Although Margaret Thatcher was associated with the CPS, she was initially seen as a potential moderate go-between by Heath's lieutenant, James Prior.

The rise of Thatcher

With the Conservative Party losing three out of four general elections by 1974 under his leadership, Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists, and sympathetic newspaper editors. Among the wider electorate he attracted more sympathy, partly because of public statements he had made hinting at his willingness to consider the idea of serving in a government of national unity.

Heath resolved to remain Conservative leader and at first it appeared that by calling on the loyalty of his front bench colleagues he might prevail. At the time the Conservative leadership rules allowed for an election to fill a vacancy but contained no provision for a sitting leader to either seek a fresh mandate or be challenged. In late 1974, Heath came under tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules.

It was agreed to establish a commission to propose changes in the election rules, and to have Heath put himself up for election under the new guidelines. Initially he expected to be comfortably re-elected, for there was no clear challenger to him after Enoch Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had ruled himself out following controversial statements on birth control. However, a determined Airey Neave, acting on behalf of back-bench MPs seeking a serious challenger to Heath, and Margaret Thatcher, who believed an adherent to CPS philosophy should run, led to the latter's standing in the leadership challenge.

As the rules of the leadership contest permitted new candidates to enter the fray in a second round of voting should the leader not be confirmed by a large enough majority in the first, Thatcher's challenge was considered by some to be that of a stalking horse. Heath himself blamed his defeat on the "cunning" of Neave in deliberately understating her support in order to attract wavering votes [5]. In the end, Heath lost on the first ballot, 119 to 130 votes, on 4 February 1975. Heath then withdrew from the contest and his favoured candidate William Whitelaw lost to Thatcher in the second vote one week later, 146 to 79.

The new leader Margaret Thatcher visited him at his flat; accounts differ as to whether she offered him a place in her Shadow Cabinet - by some accounts she was detained for coffee by a colleague so that the waiting press would not realise how brief the meeting had been. Heath himself claimed that he had already informed her that he did not want a Shadow Cabinet place, and the purpose of her visit was simply to seek his advice as to how to handle the press. Nonetheless, after the 1979 general election, he nursed hopes of being appointed Foreign Secretary. Instead he was offered, and declined, the post of British Ambassador to the United States.

After the Leadership

Edward Heath's monument in Salisbury Cathedral.
Enlarge
Edward Heath's monument in Salisbury Cathedral.

Heath remained bitter over his defeat and was persistent in his criticisms of the party's new ideological direction for many years. He never forgave Margaret Thatcher for challenging and replacing him as leader of the Conservatives and would refer to her as 'That woman'. At the time of his defeat he was still popular with rank and file Conservative members, and was warmly applauded at the 1975 Party Conference, facts which were used after 1997 as an argument against giving Party members too large a say in the election of the Party Leader (usually as a retort to the argument that ordinary members supported Mrs Thatcher when she was in turn ousted in 1990). He continued to be seen as a figurehead by some on the left of the party up to the time of the 1981 Conservative Party conference, at which he openly criticised the government's economic policies.

Heath played a leading role in the 1975 referendum campaign, in which Britain voted to remain part of the EEC. He also remained active on the international stage, serving on the Brandt Commission investigation into developmental issues, particularly on the North-South projects. In 1990 he flew to Baghdad to attempt to negotiate the release of British aircraft passengers taken hostage when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. After Black Wednesday in 1992 he called in the House of Commons for governments to build up a fund of reserves to defeat what he called currency "speculators".

In the 1960s Heath had lived at a flat in the Albany, off Piccadilly; at the unexpected end of his premiership he was left homeless and had to take over the flat of a Conservative MP Tim Kitson for some months. In February 1985, Heath moved to Salisbury, where he resided until his death.

In 1987 Heath was nominated in the election for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford but came third, behind Roy Jenkins and Lord Blake.

Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the London constituency of Old Bexley and Sidcup until retiring from Parliament at the 2001 general election, by which time he had been created a Knight of the Garter and was, from 1992, the longest-serving MP and "Father of the House", as well as the oldest sitting British MP. As Father of the House, he oversaw the election of two Speakers of the Commons, Betty Boothroyd and Michael Martin.

Parliament broke with precedent by commissioning a bust of Heath while he was still alive. [6] The 1993 bronze work, by Martin Jennings, was moved to the Members' Lobby in 2002.

Death

In August 2003, at the age of 87, Heath suffered a pulmonary embolism in August 2003 while on holiday in Salzburg, Austria. He never fully recovered, and due to his declining health and mobility made very few public appearances in the final two years of his life. Sir Edward Heath died from pneumonia at 19:30 on the evening of 17 July 2005, at the age of 89. He was cremated on 25 July 2005 at a funeral service with fifteen hundred people present. As a tribute, the day after his death the BBC Parliament channel showed the BBC coverage of the 1970 election. A memorial service was held for Heath in Westminster Abbey on 8 November 2005 which was attended by two thousand people. Three days later his ashes were interred in Salisbury Cathedral.

In January 2006, it was announced that Heath had left £5 million in his will, most of it to a charitable foundation to conserve his eighteenth-century house, Arundells, next to Salisbury Cathedral. As he had no descendants, he left only two legacies: to his brother's widow (£20,000); and to his housekeeper (£2500). [7]

Personal life

Yachting

Heath was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first yacht Morning Cloud in 1969 and won the Sydney to Hobart race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971 — while Prime Minister — and also captained the team in the 1979 Fastnet race.

Prime Minister conducting the LSO in Elgar's Cockaigne
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Prime Minister conducting the LSO in Elgar's Cockaigne

Conductor

Heath also maintained a keen interest in classical music as an organist and conductor, famously installing a Steinway grand in 10 Downing Street — bought with his £450 Charlemagne Prize money, awarded for his efforts to bring Britain into the EEC in 1963, and chosen on the advice of his friend, the pianist Moura Lympany — and conducting Christmas carol concerts in Kent every year from his teens until old age. He also conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Germany and the U.S.. Heath received honorary degrees from the Royal College of Music and Royal College of Organists. During his premiership, Heath invited musician friends, such as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet, to perform either at Chequers or Downing Street.

Performing arts

Heath enjoyed the performing arts as a whole. In particular, he gave a great deal of support to performing arts causes in his constituency and was known to be proud of the fact that his constituency boasted two of the country's leading performing arts schools. Rose Bruford College and Bird College are both situated in Sidcup, and a purpose built facility for the latter was officially opened by Heath in 1979.

Author

He wrote three non-political books, Sailing, Music, and Travels, and an autobiography, The Course of My Life (1998). The latter took 14 years to produce; Heath's obituary in the Daily Telegraph alleged that he never paid many of the ghost-writers.

Sexuality

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Heath was a lifelong bachelor and is not known ever to have had any sexual relationship, although he always had the company of women when social (and particularly musical) circumstances required.

John Campbell, who published a biography of Heath in 1993, devoted four pages to a discussion of the evidence concerning Heath's sexuality. Whilst acknowledging that Heath was often assumed by the public to be gay, not least because it is "nowadays... whispered of any single man" he found "no evidence whatsoever" that this was actually so "except for the faintest unsubstantiated rumour" (the footnote refers to a mention of a "disturbing incident" at the beginning of the war in a 1972 biography by Andrew Roth).[8] Campbell also points out that Heath was at least as likely to be a repressed heterosexual (given his awkwardness with women) or "simply asexual".

Heath had been expected to marry childhood friend Kay Raven, who reportedly tired of waiting and married an RAF officer whom she met on holiday in 1950. In a terse four-sentence paragraph of his memoirs, Heath claimed that he had been too busy establishing a career after the war and had "perhaps... taken too much for granted". In a 1998 TV interview with Michael Cockerell Heath admitted that he had kept her photograph in his flat for many years afterwards.

After Heath's death, gay rights campaigner and Conservative London Assembly member Brian Coleman suggested in 2007 that the former Prime Minister was a homosexual. Coleman, writing on the website of the New Statesman on the issue of 'outing', said: "The late Ted Heath managed to obtain the highest office of state after he was supposedly advised to cease his cottaging activities in the 1950s when he became a privy councillor." [9][10] The claim was dismissed by MP Sir Peter Tapsell [11] , and Heath's friend and MP Derek Conway stated that "if there was some secret I’m sure it would be out by now". [12]

Titles from birth

Nicknames

Heath was persistently referred to as "The Grocer", or "Grocer Heath" by magazine Private Eye after he negotiated for Britain at a Common Market food prices conference in November 1962. The nickname was used periodically, but became a permanent fixture in the magazine after he fought the 1970 General Election on a promise to reduce the price of groceries.

Edward Heath's Government (June 1970 – March 1974)

Changes

  • July 1970 — Iain Macleod dies, and is succeeded as Chancellor by Anthony Barber. Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Barber as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. John Davies succeeds Rippon as Secretary for Technology.
  • October 1970 — The Ministry of Technology and the Board of Trade are merged to become the Department of Trade and Industry. John Davies becomes Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Michael Noble leaves the cabinet. The Ministry of Housing and Local Government is succeeded by the new department of the Environment which was headed by Peter Walker.
  • March 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds William Whitelaw as Lord President and Leader of the House of Commons. Maurice Macmillan succeeds Carr as Secretary for Employment. Whitelaw becomes Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
  • July 1972 — Robert Carr succeeds Reginald Maudling as Home Secretary. James Prior succeeds Robert Carr as Lord President and Leader of the House of Commons. Joseph Godber succeeds Prior as Secretary for Agriculture.
  • November 1972 — Geoffrey Rippon succeeds Peter Walker as Secretary for the Environment. John Davies succeeds Rippon as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Peter Walker succeeds Davies as Secretary for Trade and Industry. Geoffrey Howe becomes Minister for Trade and Consumer Affairs with a seat in the cabinet.
  • June 1973 — Lord Windlesham succeeds Lord Jellicoe as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
  • December 1973 — William Whitelaw succeeds Maurice Macmillan as Secretary for Employment. Francis Pym succeeds Whitelaw as Secretary for Northern Ireland. Macmillan becomes Paymaster-General.
  • January 1974 — Ian Gilmour succeeds Lord Carrington as Secretary for Defence; Lord Carrington becomes Secretary of State for Energy.

Political offices


Political offices
Preceded by
William Wilkins		 Junior Lord of the Treasury
1951 – 1955		 Succeeded by
Edward Birkbeck Wakefield
Preceded by
Patrick Buchan-Hepburn		 Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
(Government Chief Whip)
1955 – 1959		 Succeeded by
Martin Redmayne
Preceded by
The Viscount Hailsham		 Lord Privy Seal
1960 – 1963		 Succeeded by
Selwyn Lloyd
Preceded by
Fred Erroll		 President of the Board of Trade
1963 – 1964		 Succeeded by
Douglas Jay
Preceded by
Alec Douglas-Home		 Leader of the Opposition
1965 – 1970		 Succeeded by
Harold Wilson
Preceded by
Harold Wilson		 Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
1970 – 1974
Leader of the Opposition
1974 – 1975		 Succeeded by
Margaret Thatcher
Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–present)
Preceded by
Ashley Bramall		 Member of Parliament for Bexley
1950 – 1974		 Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Sidcup
1974 – 1983
Member of Parliament for Old Bexley and Sidcup
1983 – 2001		 Succeeded by
Derek Conway
Party political offices
Preceded by
Alec Douglas-Home