Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
from 1970 to 1974 and
Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a
yachtsman
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...
, a musician, and an author.
Born to a lady's maid and a carpenter, Heath was educated at a
grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...
in Ramsgate, Kent (
Chatham House Grammar School
(May Chatham House Flourish)
, established = 1797
, free_label_3 = Merged
, free_3 = 2011
, closed =
, type = Grammar schoolAcademy
, religious_affiliation =
, president =
, head_label =
, head ...
for boys) and became a leader within student politics while studying at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
. He served as an officer in the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
. He worked briefly in the
Civil Service, but resigned in order to stand for Parliament, and was elected for
Bexley
Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...
at the
1950 election. He was promoted to become
Chief Whip by
Anthony Eden in 1955, and in 1959 was appointed to the
Cabinet by
Harold Macmillan as
Minister of Labour Minister of Labour (in British English) or Labor (in American English) is typically a cabinet-level position with portfolio responsibility for setting national labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, traini ...
. He later held the role of
Lord Privy Seal and in 1963, was made
President of the Board of Trade by
Alec Douglas-Home. After the Conservatives were defeated at the
1964 election, Heath
was elected as Leader of the Conservative Party in 1965, becoming
Leader of the Opposition. Although he led the Conservatives to a landslide defeat at the
1966 election, he remained in the leadership, and at the
1970 election led his party to an unexpected victory.
During his time as prime minister, Heath oversaw the
decimalisation of British coinage in 1971, and in 1972 he led the reformation of
local government in the United Kingdom, significantly reducing the number of local authorities and creating several new metropolitan counties, much of which remains to this day. Perhaps Heath's most prominent achievement came in 1973, when he led the United Kingdom into membership of the
European Communities popularly known as entry to the Common Market (which would later become the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
) as a
member state
A member state is a state that is a member of an international organization or of a federation or confederation.
Since the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) include some members that are not sovereign state ...
. Heath had always been a strong supporter of British membership of the EC, and after winning the decisive vote in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
by 356 to 244 to join, he led the negotiations that culminated in the UK's
entry into the EC on 1 January 1973. According to biographer
John Campbell, Heath regarded this as his personal "finest hour".
Heath's time as prime minister also coincided with the height of
the Troubles
The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in Northern Ireland, with his approval of
internment without trial and subsequent suspension of the
Stormont Parliament seeing the imposition of
direct British rule. Unofficial talks with
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
delegates were unsuccessful, as was the
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...
of 1973, which led the MPs of the
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...
to withdraw from the Conservative whip. Heath also tried to reform British trade unionism with the
Industrial Relations Act
The Industrial Relations Act 1971 (c.72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It was based on proposals outlined in the governing Conservative Party's manifesto for the 1970 general election. The goal was to stab ...
, and hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from
direct to
indirect taxation. However, a
miners' strike
Miners' strikes are when miners conduct strike actions.
See also
* List of strikes
References
{{Reflist
Miners
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are tw ...
at the start of 1974 severely damaged the Government, causing the implementation of the
Three-Day Week
The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom in 1973–1974 by Edward Heath's Conservative government to conserve electricity, the generation of which was severely restricted owing to industrial action by coal m ...
to conserve energy. Attempting to resolve the situation, Heath called an
election
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has opera ...
for February 1974, attempting to obtain a mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, but this instead resulted in a
hung parliament
A hung parliament is a term used in legislatures primarily under the Westminster system to describe a situation in which no single political party or pre-existing coalition (also known as an alliance or bloc) has an absolute majority of legisla ...
, with the Conservatives losing their majority. Despite gaining fewer votes, the Labour Party won four more seats, and Heath resigned as Prime Minister on 4 March after talks with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
to form a coalition government were unsuccessful.
After losing a
second successive election in October 1974, Heath insisted he would continue as leader, but in January 1975,
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
announced she would
challenge Heath for the leadership, and on 4 February, she narrowly outpolled him in the first round. Heath chose to resign the leadership rather than contest the second round. Heath returned to the backbenches, where he would remain until 2001. In 1975, he played a major role in the
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
on British membership of the EC, campaigning for the eventually successful "Yes" vote to remain in the Community. Heath would later become an embittered critic of Thatcher during her time as prime minister, speaking and writing against the policies of
Thatcherism
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and general style of manag ...
. Following the
1992 election, he became
Father of the House, until his retirement in 2001. He died in 2005, aged 89.
Heath is one of four British prime ministers never to have married. He has been described by the BBC as "the first working-class meritocrat" to become Conservative leader in "the party's modern history" and "a
One Nation Tory in the
Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a centr ...
tradition who rejected the
laissez-faire capitalism
''Laissez-faire'' ( ; from french: laissez faire , ) is an economic system in which transactions between private groups of people are free from any form of economic interventionism (such as subsidies) deriving from special interest groups. ...
that Thatcher would enthusiastically endorse."
Early life
Heath was born at 54 Albion Road, Broadstairs, Kent, on 9 July 1916, the son of William George Heath (1888–1976), a carpenter who built
airframes for
Vickers
Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...
during the First World War, and was subsequently employed as a builder
[British Society Since 1945: The Penguin Social History of Britain, ]Arthur Marwick
Arthur John Brereton Marwick (29 February 1936 – 27 September 2006) was a British social historian, who served for many years as Professor of History at the Open University. His research interests lay primarily in the history of Britain in the ...
, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 158 and Edith Anne Heath (''née'' Pantony; 1888–1951), a lady's maid. His father was later a successful small businessman after taking over a building and decorating firm. Heath's paternal grandfather had run a small dairy business, and when that failed worked as a porter at Broadstairs Station on the Southern Railway.
Edward was four years old when his younger brother, John, was born; there was no question that Edward was the "favoured brother". Heath was known as "Teddy" as a young man. He was educated at
Chatham House Grammar School
(May Chatham House Flourish)
, established = 1797
, free_label_3 = Merged
, free_3 = 2011
, closed =
, type = Grammar schoolAcademy
, religious_affiliation =
, president =
, head_label =
, head ...
in
Ramsgate, and in 1935 with the aid of a county scholarship he went up to study at
Balliol College, Oxford.
In later years, Heath's peculiar accent, with its "strangulated" vowel sounds, combined with his non-Standard pronunciation of "l" as "w" and "out" as "eout", was satirised by
Monty Python in the audio sketch "
Teach Yourself Heath
"Teach Yourself Heath" is the name of a one-sided 33rpm flexi-disc by Monty Python which was given away free with issue 27 of ''ZigZag'' magazine in December 1972 and also included inside initial copies of their third album ''Monty Python's Prev ...
" (released on a 7" flexi-disc single included with initial copies of their 1972 LP ''
Monty Python's Previous Record
''Monty Python's Previous Record'' is the third album by Monty Python. Released in 1972, it marked the group's first collaborations with regular sound engineer Andre Jacquemin as well as musician Neil Innes, who had previously appeared with fu ...
''). Heath's biographer
John Campbell speculates that his speech, unlike that of his father and younger brother, who both spoke with Kent accents, must have undergone "drastic alteration on encountering Oxford", although retaining elements of Kent speech.
Oxford
A talented musician, Heath won the college's
organ scholar
An organ scholar is a young musician employed as a part-time assistant organist at a cathedral, church or institution where regular choral services are held. The idea of an organ scholarship is to provide the holder with playing, directing and adm ...
ship 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 Class Honours
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...
BA in
Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1939.
While at university Heath became active in Conservative Party politics. 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 (i.e. a major speech listed on the
Order Paper along with the visiting guest speakers) at the
Oxford Union
The Oxford Union Society, commonly referred to simply as the Oxford Union, is a debating society in the city of Oxford England, whose membership is drawn primarily from the University of Oxford. Founded in 1823, it is one of Britain's oldest ...
, in 1936, was in opposition to the
appeasement of Germany by returning her colonies, confiscated during the First World War.
In June 1937 he was elected President of the
Oxford University Conservative Association
The Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) is a student Conservative association founded in 1924, whose members are drawn from the University of Oxford. Since October 2009, OUCA has been affiliated to Conservative Future and its su ...
as a pro-
Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 A ...
candidate, in opposition to the pro-
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when ref ...
John Stokes (himself later a Conservative MP). In 1937–38 Heath was chairman of the national
Federation of University Conservative Associations, and in the same year (his third at university) he was Secretary and then Librarian of the Oxford Union. At the end of the year 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
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
. On that occasion, Heath supported the government.
In his final year Heath was President of Balliol College
Junior Common Room
A common room is a group into which students and the academic body are organised in some universities in the United Kingdom and Ireland—particularly collegiate universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, as well as the University of Bristol ...
, an office held in subsequent years by his near-contemporaries
Denis Healey, who would become a lifelong friend and political rival and
Roy Jenkins, and as such was invited to support the Master of Balliol
Alexander Lindsay, who stood as an anti-appeasement 'Independent Progressive' candidate against the official Conservative candidate,
Quintin Hogg, in the
1938 Oxford by-election
The 1938 Oxford by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Oxford, held on 27 October 1938. The by-election was triggered when Robert Croft Bourne, the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament di ...
.
Heath, who had himself applied to be the Conservative candidate for the by-election, accused the government in an October Union Debate of "turning all four cheeks" to
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
, and was elected as
President of the Oxford Union
Past elected presidents of the Oxford Union are listed below, with their college and the year/term in which they served. ''Iterum'' indicates that a person was serving a second term as president (which is not possible under the current Union rule ...
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
Hilary term is the second academic term of the University of Oxford[Leo Amery
Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery, (22 November 1873 – 16 September 1955), also known as L. S. Amery, was a British Conservative Party politician and journalist. During his career, he was known for his interest in military preparedness, ...](_blank)
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
Nuremberg Rally
The Nuremberg Rallies (officially ', meaning ''Reich Party Congress'') refer to a series of celebratory events coordinated by the Nazi Party in Germany. The first rally held took place in 1923. This rally was not particularly large or impactful; ...
in 1937, where he met leading Nazis
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
,
Joseph Goebbels, and
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
at an
SS cocktail party. He later described Himmler as "the most evil man I have ever met". He was in Germany for two months to learn German but did not keep up any fluency in the language in later life. In 1938 he visited
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
, then under attack from Spanish Nationalist forces during the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
. On one occasion a car in which he was travelling came under machine-gun fire, while on another a bomb hit his hotel whilst he was observing an air raid from outside. In the summer of 1939, accompanied by his Jewish friend
Madron Seligman
Richard Madron Seligman (10 November 1918 – 9 July 2002) was a British Conservative Party politician. He spent most of his career in industry, where he came to understand and support the European Economic Community and was latterly a member of ...
, he travelled to
Danzig and
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. They made the return journey by hitchhiking and rail across Germany through mobilising troops, returning to Britain just before the declaration of war.
Second World War
Heath spent late 1939 and early 1940 on a debating tour of the United States before being called up. On 22 March 1941, he received an emergency commission as a
second lieutenant in the
Royal Artillery
The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...
. During the war he initially served with heavy anti-aircraft guns around
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
(which suffered
heavy German bombing in May 1941) and by early 1942 was regimental
adjutant, with the war substantive rank of
captain.
[Ziegler, ''Edward Heath'' (2010) ch. 3]
Heath participated as an adjutant in the
Normandy landings
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and ...
, where he met
Maurice Schumann
Maurice Schumann (; 10 April 1911 – 9 February 1998) was a French politician, journalist, writer, and hero of the Second World War who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs under Georges Pompidou from 22 June 1969 to 15 March 1973. Schumann w ...
, French Foreign Minister under
Pompidou. As a temporary major commanding a battery of his own, he provided artillery support during the Allied campaigns in France and Germany in 1944–45, for which he received a
mention in despatches
To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...
on 8 November 1945.
Heath later remarked that, although he did not personally kill anybody, as the British forces advanced he saw the devastation caused by his unit's artillery bombardments. In September 1945 he commanded a firing squad that executed a Polish soldier convicted of rape and murder. He was appointed a
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations,
and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
, Military Division (MBE) on 24 January 1946. He was demobilised in August 1946 and promoted to the substantive rank of
lieutenant-colonel
Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colo ...
on 1 May 1947.
Heath joined the
Honourable Artillery Company
The Honourable Artillery Company (HAC) is a reserve regiment in the British Army. Incorporated by royal charter in 1537 by King Henry VIII, it is the oldest regiment in the British Army and is considered the second-oldest military unit in the w ...
as a lieutenant-colonel on 1 September 1951, in which he remained active throughout the 1950s, rising to commanding officer of the Second Battalion; a portrait of him in full dress uniform still hangs in the HAC's Long Room. In April 1971, as prime minister, he wore his lieutenant-colonel's insignia to inspect troops.
Post-war, 1945–1950
Before the war, Heath had won a scholarship to
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and W ...
and had begun making preparations for a career at the Bar, but after the war he was placed in joint top position in the
civil service examination
Civil service examinations are examinations implemented in various countries for recruitment and admission to the civil service. They are intended as a method to achieve an effective, rational public administration on a merit system for recruitin ...
s. 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).
Heath joined a team under
Alison Munro
Dame Alison Munro (12 February 1914 – 2 September 2008) was an English civil servant and school headmistress.
Life and work
Munro was born in Liskeard, Cornwall, and brought up in South Africa by her father, a doctor, and her mother, a conce ...
tasked with drawing up a scheme for British airports using some of the many Second World War
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
bases, and was specifically charged with planning the home counties. Years later she attributed his evident enthusiasm for Maplin Airport to this work. Then much to the surprise of civil service colleagues, he sought adoption as the prospective parliamentary candidate for
Bexley
Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...
and resigned in November 1947.
After working as news editor of the ''
Church Times
The ''Church Times'' is an independent Anglican weekly newspaper based in London and published in the United Kingdom on Fridays.
History
The ''Church Times'' was founded on 7 February 1863 by George Josiah Palmer, a printer. It fought for the ...
'' from February 1948 to September 1949, Heath worked as a management trainee at the
merchant bankers
Brown, Shipley & Co. until his election as
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Bexley
Bexley is an area of south-eastern Greater London, England and part of the London Borough of Bexley. It is sometimes known as Bexley Village or Old Bexley to differentiate the area from the wider borough. It is located east-southeast of Ch ...
in the
February 1950 general election. In the election he defeated an old contemporary from the Oxford Union,
Ashley Bramall
Sir Ernest Ashley Bramall (6 January 1916 – 10 February 1999) was a British Labour Party politician, Member of Parliament for Bexley from 1946 to 1950 and Leader of the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) for 11 years.
Family and early c ...
, by a margin of 133 votes.
Member of Parliament (1950–1965)
![Sir Edward Heath](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Sir_Edward_Heath.jpg)
Heath made his
maiden speech
A maiden speech is the first speech given by a newly elected or appointed member of a legislature or parliament.
Traditions surrounding maiden speeches vary from country to country. In many Westminster system governments, there is a convention th ...
in the House of Commons on 26 June 1950, in which he appealed to the Labour government to participate in the
Schuman Plan. As MP for Bexley, he gave enthusiastic speeches in support of the young candidate for neighbouring
Dartford, Margaret Roberts, later Margaret Thatcher.
He was appointed as an
opposition whip
A whip is an official of a political party whose task is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. This means ensuring that members of the party vote according to the party platform, rather than according to their own individual ideology ...
by
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
in February 1951. He remained in the whips' 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. Journalist
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Geoffrey Albert Wheatcroft (born 23 December 1945) is a British journalist, author, and historian.
Early life and education
Wheatcroft is the son of Stephen Frederick Wheatcroft (1921–2016), OBE, and his first wife, Joyce (née Reed). He w ...
has observed that "Of all government jobs, this requires firmness and fairness allied to tact and patience and Heath's ascent seems baffling in hindsight".
Due to 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 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 helped to secure Macmillan the premiership in January 1957. Macmillan later appointed Heath Minister of Labour, a Cabinet Minister—as Chief Whip Heath had attended Cabinet, but had not been formally a member—after winning the
October 1959 election.
In 1960 Macmillan appointed Heath
Lord Privy Seal with responsibility for the negotiations to secure the UK's first attempt to join the
European Communities (or
Common Market
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...
, as it was then more widely known). After extensive negotiations, involving detailed agreements about the UK's agricultural trade with
Commonwealth countries such as
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, British entry was vetoed by the French President,
Charles de Gaulle, at a press conference in January 1963 – much to the disappointment of Heath, who was a firm supporter of European common market membership for the United Kingdom. He oversaw a successful application when serving as prime minister a decade later.
After this setback, a major humiliation for Macmillan's foreign policy, 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 maintenance.
Leader of the Opposition (1965–1970)
After the Conservative Party lost the
general election of 1964, the defeated Home changed the party leadership rules to allow for a ballot by MPs and then resigned. The following year, Heath—who was
Shadow Chancellor
The Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in the British Parliamentary system is the member of the Shadow Cabinet who is responsible for shadowing the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The title is given at the gift of the Leader of the Opposition a ...
at the time, and had recently won favourable publicity for leading the fight against Labour's
Finance Bill
A government budget is a document prepared by the government and/or other political entity presenting its anticipated tax revenues (Inheritance tax, income tax, corporation tax, import taxes) and proposed spending/expenditure (Healthcare, Educat ...
—unexpectedly won the
party's leadership contest, gaining 150 votes to
Reginald Maudling
Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...
's 133 and
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
's 15. Heath became the Conservatives' youngest leader and retained office following the party's defeat in the
general election of 1966.
In April 1968,
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
made his controversial
"Rivers of Blood" speech, which criticised
immigration to the United Kingdom
Since 1945, immigration to the United Kingdom, controlled by British immigration law and to an extent by British nationality law, has been significant, in particular from the Republic of Ireland and from the former British Empire, especially ...
. Soon afterwards, Heath telephoned Margaret Thatcher to inform her that he was going to sack Powell from the
Shadow cabinet; she recalled that she "really thought that it was better to let things cool down for the present rather than heighten the crisis". The next day, Heath sacked Powell. Several Conservatives on the right protested against Powell's sacking. According to Heath, he never spoke to Powell again.
1970 election
With another general election approaching in 1970 a Conservative policy document emerged from the
Selsdon Park Hotel
Selsdon Park Hotel is a luxury hotel located in Selsdon, London, England. It is housed in a country house.
History
Selsdon Park passed through several private owners until 1924 when Allan Doble Sanderson bought the house and the accompanying ...
that offered free-market–oriented policies as solutions to the country's unemployment and inflation problems.
[Young, Hugo. ''One Of Us'' London: MacMillan, 1989] Heath stated that the Selsdon weekend only reaffirmed policies that had actually been evolving since he became leader of the Conservative Party. The Labour prime minister,
Harold Wilson, thought the document a vote-loser and dubbed it the product of ''Selsdon Man'' – after the supposedly prehistoric ''
Piltdown Man
The Piltdown Man was a paleoanthropological fraud in which bone fragments were presented as the fossilised remains of a previously unknown early human. Although there were doubts about its authenticity virtually from the beginning, the remains ...
'' – to portray it as reactionary. Heath's Conservative Party won the
general election of 1970 with 330 seats to Labour's 287. The new cabinet included the future prime minister Margaret Thatcher (Education and Science),
William Whitelaw
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...
(Leader of the House of Commons) and the former prime minister
Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs).
Prime minister (1970–1974)
Welfare state
During Heath's first year in office, higher charges were introduced for benefits of the welfare state such as school meals, spectacles, dentistry, and prescriptions. Entitlement to State Sickness Benefit was also changed so that it would only be paid after the first three days of sickness.
[The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State by Nicholas Timmins] As a result of the squeeze in the education budget, the provision of
free school milk was ended for 8- to 11-year-olds (it had already been ended for older children by Harold Wilson); the tabloid press christened Margaret Thatcher, the then Education Secretary as "Margaret Thatcher: Milk Snatcher". Despite these measures, the Heath government encouraged a significant increase in welfare spending, and Thatcher blocked Macleod's other posthumous education policy: the abolition of the
Open University
The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...
, which had recently been founded by the preceding Labour government.
Provision was made under the 1970 National Insurance (Old Persons' and Widows' Pensions and Attendances Allowances) Act for pensions to be paid to old people who had been excluded from the pre-1948 pension schemes and were accordingly excluded from the comprehensive scheme that was introduced in 1948. About 100,000 people were affected by this change, half of whom were receiving
Supplementary Benefit
Supplementary Benefit was a means-tested benefit in the United Kingdom, paid to people on low incomes, whether or not they were classed as unemployed, such as pensioners, the sick and single parents. Introduced in November 1966, it replaced the ea ...
under the social security scheme. The Act also made improvements to the Widow's Pension scheme by introducing a scale that started at 30 shillings a week for women widowed at the age of 40 and rose to the full rate of £5 at the age of 50.
Considerable support was provided for nursery school building, and a long-term capital investment programme in school building was launched. A
Family Fund was set up to assist families with children who had congenital conditions, while new benefits were introduced benefiting hundreds of thousands of disabled persons whose disabilities had been caused neither by war nor by industrial injury. An
Attendance Allowance was introduced for those needing care at home, together with
Invalidity Benefit for the long-term sick, while a higher Child Allowance was made available where invalidity allowance was paid. Widow's Benefits were introduced for those aged between forty and fifty years of age, improved subsidies for
slum clearance
Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...
were made available, while Rent Allowances were introduced for private tenants.
In April 1971, the right to education was given to all children with Down's syndrome for the first time.
The school leaving age was raised to 16, while
Family Income Supplement Family Income Supplement was a means-tested benefit for working people with children introduced in Britain in 1970 by the Conservative government of Edward Heath, effective from August 1971. It was not intended to be a permanent feature of the socia ...
was introduced to boost the incomes of low-income earners.
Families who received this benefit were exempted from
NHS charges while the children in such families were eligible for
free school meal
A school meal or school lunch (also known as hot lunch, a school dinner, or school breakfast) is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world ...
s.
Non-contributory pensions were also introduced for all persons aged eighty and above, while the Social Security Act 1973 was passed which introduced benefit indexation in the United Kingdom for the first time by index-linking benefits to prices to maintain their real value.
Scottish nationalism
Scottish nationalism
Scottish nationalism promotes the idea that the Scottish people form a cohesive nation and national identity.
Scottish nationalism began to shape from 1853 with the National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights, progressing into t ...
grew as a political force, while the
decimalisation of British coinage, begun under the previous Labour government, was completed eight months after Heath came to power. The
Central Policy Review Staff was established by Heath in February 1971, while the
Local Government Act 1972 changed the boundaries of the counties of England and Wales and created Metropolitan Counties around the major cities (e.g. Merseyside around Liverpool): this caused significant public anger. Heath did not divide England into regions, choosing instead to await the report of the
Crowther Commission on the constitution; the 10
Government Office Regions were eventually set up by the Major government in 1994.
Economic policy
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Iain Macleod died and was replaced on 20 July 1970 by
Anthony Barber
Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber, (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1970 to 1974.
After serving in both the Territorial Army and the Royal A ...
. 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 as unemployment increased considerably by 1972. By January that year, the number of unemployed reached a million, the highest level for more than two decades. Opposed to unemployment on moral grounds, Heath encouraged a famous "U-Turn" in economic policy that precipitated what became known as the "
Barber Boom
Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber, (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1970 to 1974.
After serving in both the Territorial Army and the Royal A ...
". This was a two-range process involving the budgets of
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
and 1973, the former of which pumped £2.5 billion into the economy in increased pensions and benefits and tax reductions. By early 1974, as a result of this Keynesian economic strategy, unemployment had fallen to under 550,000. The economic boom did not last, and the Heath government implemented various cuts that led to the abandonment of policy goals such as a planned expansion of nursery education.
Trade unions
Much of the government's attention, as well as the media and public opinion, focused on deteriorating labour relations, as the government sought to weaken the economic power of the trade unions, which had grown steadily since 1945. The
Industrial Relations Act 1971
The Industrial Relations Act 1971 (c.72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, since repealed. It was based on proposals outlined in the governing Conservative Party's manifesto for the 1970 general election. The goal was to stabil ...
set up a special court under the judge
Lord Donaldson. Its imprisonment of striking dockworkers was a public relations disaster and became an object lesson for the Thatcher government of the 1980s. Thatcher relied instead on confiscating the assets of unions that courts found to have violated anti-strike laws.
The trade unions responded with a full-scale counterattack on a government hobbled by inflation and high unemployment. Especially damaging to the government's credibility were the two miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which resulted in much of the country's industry working a
Three-Day Week
The Three-Day Week was one of several measures introduced in the United Kingdom in 1973–1974 by Edward Heath's Conservative government to conserve electricity, the generation of which was severely restricted owing to industrial action by coal m ...
in an attempt to conserve energy. The
National Union of Mineworkers won its case but the energy shortages and the resulting breakdown of domestic consensus contributed to the eventual downfall of his government.
Unemployment
There was a steep rise in unemployment for the first two years of the Heath ministry, but it was then reversed. Labour in 1964 had inherited an unemployment count of around 400,000 but saw unemployment peak at 631,000 in early 1967. At election time in June 1970, the unemployment numbers were still high at 582,000. Heath and the Conservatives were pledged to "full employment" but within a year it became clear that they were losing that battle, as the official unemployment count crept towards 1,000,000 and some newspapers suggested that it was even higher. In January 1972 it was officially confirmed that unemployment had risen above 1,000,000 – a level not seen for more than 30 years. Various other reports around this time suggested that unemployment was higher still, with ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' newspaper claiming that "nearly 3,000,000" people were jobless by March of that year.
Foreign policy
Upon entering office in June 1970, Heath immediately set about trying to reverse Wilson's policy of ending Britain's military presence
East of Suez
East of Suez is used in British military and political discussions in reference to interests beyond the European theatre, and east of the Suez Canal, and may or may not include the Middle East. . Heath took the United Kingdom into Europe on 1 January 1973, following passage in Parliament of the
European Communities Act 1972 in October (21 Eliz. II c.68). He publicly supported the massive US bombing of
Hanoi
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...
and
Haiphong
Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta.
Haiphong wa ...
in April 1972.
His government quickly recognised the military regime of
Augusto Pinochet
Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte (, , , ; 25 November 1915 – 10 December 2006) was a Chilean general who ruled Chile from 1973 to 1990, first as the leader of the Military Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1981, being declared President of ...
in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and maintained good relations with it, despite the illegal nature of the Pinochet regime's
coup d'état
A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...
.
In October 1973 he placed a British arms embargo on all combatants in the Arab-Israeli
Yom Kippur War
The Yom Kippur War, also known as the Ramadan War, the October War, the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, or the Fourth Arab–Israeli War, was an armed conflict fought from October 6 to 25, 1973 between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by E ...
, which mostly affected the Israelis by preventing them obtaining spares for their Centurion tanks. Heath refused to allow US intelligence gathering from
British bases in Cyprus, resulting in a temporary halt in the US signals intelligence tap. He also refused permission for the US to use any British bases for resupply.
He favoured links with the
People's Republic of China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, visiting
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
in Beijing in 1974 and 1975 and remaining an honoured guest in China on frequent visits thereafter and forming a close relationship with Mao's successor
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
. Heath realised that to become closer to Europe he needed to be further from the United States, so he downplayed the
Special Relationship that had long knitted the two nations together. The two nations differed on such major crises as Britain's EC membership, the
Nixon economic "shocks" of 1971, the
Bangladesh Liberation War, détente with Soviet Union, Kissinger's Year of Europe and the Middle East crisis of 1973.
Northern Ireland
Heath governed during a bloody period in the history of the
Northern Ireland Troubles. On
Bloody Sunday in 1972, 14 men and youths were shot dead by British soldiers during an anti-internment march in
Derry City. In early 1971 Heath sent in a
Secret Intelligence Service officer, Frank Steele, to talk to the IRA and find out what common ground there was for negotiations. Steele had carried out secret talks with
Jomo Kenyatta ahead of the British withdrawal from
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
. In July 1972, Heath permitted his Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, to hold unofficial talks in London with an IRA delegation by
Seán Mac Stíofáin
Seán Mac Stíofáin (born John Edward Drayton Stephenson; 17 February 1928 – 18 May 2001) was an English-born chief of staff of the Provisional IRA, a position he held between 1969 and 1972.
Childhood
Although he used the Gaelicised ver ...
. In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement with the political parties exclusively committed to non-violence.
The 1973
Sunningdale Agreement
The Sunningdale Agreement was an attempt to establish a power-sharing Northern Ireland Executive and a cross-border Council of Ireland. The agreement was signed at Sunningdale Park located in Sunningdale, Berkshire, on 9 December 1973. Unioni ...
, which proposed a power-sharing deal, was strongly repudiated by many Unionists and the
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...
who withdrew its MPs at Westminster from the Conservative whip. The proposal was finally brought down by the Loyalist
Ulster Workers' Council strike
The Ulster Workers' Council (UWC) strike was a general strike that took place in Northern Ireland between 15 May and 28 May 1974, during " the Troubles". The strike was called by unionists who were against the Sunningdale Agreement, which had ...
in 1974, by which time Heath was no longer in office.
Heath was targeted by the IRA for introducing internment in Northern Ireland. In December 1974, the
Balcombe Street ASU threw a bomb onto the first-floor balcony of his home in Wilton Street,
Belgravia
Belgravia () is a district in Central London, covering parts of the areas of both the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
Belgravia was known as the 'Five Fields' during the Tudor Period, and became a dang ...
where it exploded. Heath had been conducting a Christmas carol concert at Broadstairs and arrived home 10 minutes after the bomb exploded. No one was injured in the attack, but a landscape painted by Winston Churchill – given to Heath as a present – was damaged.
In January 2003, Heath gave evidence to the
Saville Inquiry
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, also known as the Saville Inquiry or the Saville Report after its chairman, Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by British Prime Minister Tony Blair after campaigns for a second inquiry by families of ...
and stated that he had never sanctioned unlawful lethal force in Northern Ireland.
Fall from power
1974 general elections
Heath tried to bolster his government by calling a
general election for 28 February 1974, using the election slogan "Who governs Britain?". The result of the election was inconclusive with no party gaining an overall majority in the House of Commons; the Conservatives had the most votes but Labour had slightly more seats. Heath began negotiations with
Jeremy Thorpe
John Jeremy Thorpe (29 April 1929 – 4 December 2014) was a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979, and as leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976. In May 1979 he was tried at the ...
, leader of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
but, when these failed, he resigned as prime minister on 4 March 1974, and was replaced by Wilson's minority Labour government, eventually confirmed, though with a tiny majority, in a second election in October.
Rise of Thatcher
Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists and newspaper editors. His personality was considered cold and aloof, annoying even to his friends.
Alan Watkins
Alan Rhun Watkins (3 April 1933 – 8 May 2010) was for over 50 years a British political columnist in various London-based magazines and newspapers. He also wrote about wine and rugby.
Life and career
Alan Watkins was born in Tycroes, Carmar ...
observed in 1991 that his "brusqueness, his gaucherie, his lack of small or indeed any talk, his sheer bad manners" were among the factors costing him the support of Conservative backbenchers in the subsequent
Conservative leadership election.
He resolved to remain Conservative leader, even after losing the October 1974 general election, and at first it appeared that by calling on the loyalty of his front-bench colleagues he might prevail. In the weeks following the second election defeat, Heath came under tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules and agreed to establish a commission to propose changes and to seek re-election. There was no clear challenger after
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
had left the party and
Keith Joseph had ruled himself out after controversial statements implying that the working classes should be encouraged to use more birth control. Joseph's close friend and ally
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
, who believed that an adherent to the philosophy of the
Centre for Policy Studies
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a think tank and pressure group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independ ...
should stand, joined the leadership contest in his place alongside the outsider
Hugh Fraser. Aided by
Airey Neave's campaigning among backbench MPs — whose earlier approach to
William Whitelaw
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...
had been rebuffed, out of loyalty to Heath — she emerged as the only serious challenger.
The new rules permitted new candidates to enter the ballot in a second round of voting should the first be inconclusive, so Thatcher's challenge was considered by some to be that of a stalking horse. Neave deliberately understated Thatcher's support to attract wavering votes from MPs who were keen to see Heath replaced even though they did not necessarily want Thatcher to replace him.
On 4 February 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the first ballot by 130 votes to 119, with Fraser coming in a distant third with 16 votes. This was not a big enough margin to give Thatcher the 15% majority necessary to win on the first ballot, but having finished in second place Heath immediately resigned and did not contest the next ballot. His favoured candidate, William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher in the second vote one week later (Thatcher 146, Whitelaw 79,
Howe
Howe may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Howe (surname), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Howe Browne, 2nd Marquess of Sligo (1788–1845), Irish peer and colonial governor
Titles
* Earl Howe, two titles, an ext ...
19,
Prior 19,
Peyton 11). The vote polarised along right-left lines, with in addition the region, experience and education of the MP having their effects. Heath and Whitelaw were stronger on the left, among Oxbridge and public school graduates, and in MPs from Northern England or Scotland.
Thatcher had promised Heath a seat in the Shadow Cabinet and planned to offer him whatever post he wanted. His advisors agreed he should wait at least six months, so he declined. He never relented and his refusal was called "the incredible sulk". Thatcher visited Heath at his home shortly after her election as leader and had to stay for coffee with his PPS
Timothy Kitson
Sir Timothy Peter Geoffrey Kitson (28 January 1931 – 18 May 2019) was a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Richmond, North Yorkshire. He was first elected at the 1959 general election, and stood down at the 19 ...
so the waiting press would not realise how brief the visit had been. Heath claimed that he had simply declined her request for advice about how to handle the press, whilst Thatcher claimed that she offered him any Shadow Cabinet position he wanted and asked him to lead the Conservative campaign in the imminent
EEC referendum, only to be rudely rebuffed.
Later career (1975–2001)
![Edward Heath appearing on 'After Dark', 10 June 1989](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Edward_Heath_appearing_on_%27After_Dark%27%2C_10_June_1989.jpg)
For many years, Heath persisted in criticism of the party's new ideological direction. At the time of his defeat, he was still popular with rank-and-file Conservative members and was warmly applauded at the 1975 Conservative Party Conference. He played a leading role in the 1975 referendum campaign in which the UK voted to remain part of the EEC, and he remained active on the international stage, serving on the
Brandt Commission investigation into developmental issues, particularly on
North–South projects (
Brandt Report
The Brandt Report is the report written by the Independent Commission, first chaired by Willy Brandt in 1980. The Independent Commission for International Developmental Issues was established in 1977 with the aim to review international development ...
).
His relations with Thatcher remained poor, and in 1979–80, he turned down her offers of the positions of
Ambassador to the United States
The following table lists ambassadors to the United States, sorted by the representative country or organization.
See also
*Ambassadors of the United States
Notes
{{reflist, 30em
External linksCurrent and former Ambassadors to the United Sta ...
and
Secretary General of NATO
The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...
. He continued as a central figure on the left of the party and, at the 1981 Conservative Party conference, openly criticised the government's economic policy of
monetarism
Monetarism is a school of thought in monetary economics that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. Monetarist theory asserts that variations in the money supply have major influences on nation ...
, which had seen inflation rise from 13% in 1979 to 18% in 1980 then fall to 4% by 1983, but had seen unemployment double from around 1.5 million to a postwar high of 3.3 million during that time.
In 1990, he flew to
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
to attempt to negotiate the release of aircraft passengers on
British Airways Flight 149
British Airways Flight 149 was a flight from London Heathrow Airport to Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, then the international airport for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, via Kuwait and Madras International Airports, operated by British Airways u ...
and other British nationals taken hostage when
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
invaded
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
. After the events of
Black Wednesday
Black Wednesday (or the 1992 Sterling crisis) occurred on 16 September 1992 when the UK Government was forced to withdraw sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), after a failed attempt to keep its exchange rate above the ...
in 1992, he stated in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
that government should build a fund of reserves to counter currency speculators.
In 1987, he was nominated in the
election for the Chancellorship of the University of Oxford but lost to
Roy Jenkins as a result of splitting the Conservative vote with
Lord Blake.
![Sir Edward Heath 1995](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/da/Sir_Edward_Heath_1995.jpg)
Heath continued to serve as a backbench MP for the London constituency of
Old Bexley and Sidcup and was, from 1992, the longest-serving MP ("
Father of the House") and the oldest British MP. As Father of the House, he oversaw the election of two
Speakers
Speaker may refer to:
Society and politics
* Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly
* Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture
* A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially:
** I ...
of the Commons,
Betty Boothroyd
Betty Boothroyd, Baroness Boothroyd (born 8 October 1929) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for West Bromwich and West Bromwich West from 1973 to 2000. From 1992 to 2000, she served as Speaker of the House of ...
and
Michael Martin. Heath was created a
Knight of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...
on 23 April 1992. He retired from Parliament at the
2001 general election. Heath and
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. A member of the Labour Party, ...
were the last two serving MPs to have been elected during the reign of
George VI, with Heath serving continuously since 1950.
Heath maintained business links with several companies including a Saudi think tank, two investment funds and a Chinese freight operator, mainly as an adviser on China or a member of the governing board. According to
Chris Patten, the last
Governor of Hong Kong
The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the British Crown in Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council and commander-in-chief of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. ...
, his commercial interests in China could have been one of the reasons why he denounced the democratic reforms introduced in the run-up to the
handover of Hong Kong
Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admini ...
.
Parliament broke with precedent by commissioning a bust of Heath while he was still alive. Commentators have noted how the statue of
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
appears to overshadow Heath's bust. The 1993 bronze work, by
Martin Jennings
Martin Jennings, FRBS (born 31 July 1957, in Chichester, West Sussex) a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statu ...
, was moved to the
Members' Lobby
The Members' Lobby is a hallway in the Palace of Westminster used by members of the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Members of Parliament may congregate here for discussions while not dealing with other ...
in 2002. On 29 April 2002, in his eighty-sixth year, he made a public appearance at Downing Street alongside the then–prime minister
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
and the three other surviving former prime ministers at the time (
James Callaghan,
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...
and
John Major), as well as relatives of deceased prime ministers, for a dinner which was part of the
Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II was the international celebration held in 2002 marking the 50th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. It was intended by the Queen to be both a commemoration of her 50 years as ...
. This was to be one of his last public appearances, as the following year saw a decline in his health.
Personal life
Private residence
![Sir Edward Heath - Arundells 59 Cathedral Close Salisbury SP1 2EN](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Sir_Edward_Heath_-_Arundells_59_Cathedral_Close_Salisbury_SP1_2EN.jpg)
In the 1960s, Heath had lived in the
Albany, off Piccadilly; at the unexpected end of his premiership, the French couple living there refused his demand that they move out so that he could have his flat back ("So much for European Unity!" Heath later wrote in his memoirs). For four months, Heath took the flat of Conservative MP
Timothy Kitson
Sir Timothy Peter Geoffrey Kitson (28 January 1931 – 18 May 2019) was a British Conservative politician who was Member of Parliament for Richmond, North Yorkshire. He was first elected at the 1959 general election, and stood down at the 19 ...
; Kitson declined his offer to pay rent but later recalled an occasion when his own watch broke, and Heath in response invited him to take one of a large collection that he had been given on his travels. In July 1974,
the Duke of Westminster, a major London landowner and ardent Europhile, allowed Heath to rent a property in Wilton Street, Belgravia, for an annual rent of £1,250 (just under £10,000 at 2014 prices), a tenth of the market value. The house had three storeys and a basement flat for Heath's housekeeper, and he continued to use it as his London home until old age prevented him from climbing the stairs.
In February 1985, Heath acquired a Wiltshire home,
Arundells, in the
Cathedral close at
Salisbury
Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath.
Salisbury is in the southeast of ...
, where he resided until his death twenty years later. In January 2006, it was announced that Heath had placed his house and contents, valued at £5 million in his will, in a charitable foundation, the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, to conserve the house as a museum to his career. The house is open to the public for guided tours from March to October; displayed therein is a large collection of personal effects as well as Heath's personal library, photo collections, and paintings by Winston Churchill.
In his will, Heath, who had no descendants, left only two legacies: £20,000 to his brother's widow, and £2,500 to his housekeeper.
Yachting
Heath was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first yacht ''
Morning Cloud
Morning Cloud was the name given by the British politician Edward Heath to a series of five yachts which he owned between 1969 and 1983.
The yachts
No. 1
Sparkman and Stephens S&S 34, length 34 ft., year of launch 1969. Edward Heath won th ...
'' in 1969 and won the
Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the
Admiral's Cup
The Admiral's Cup was an international yachting regatta. For many years it was known as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing.
The Admiral's Cup regatta was started in 1957 and was normally a biennial event (occurring in odd-numbe ...
in 1971 – while prime minister – and also captained the team in the
1979 Fastnet race
The 1979 Fastnet Race was the 28th Royal Ocean Racing Club's Fastnet Race, a yachting race held generally every two years since 1925 on a 605-mile course from Cowes direct to the Fastnet Rock and then to Plymouth via south of the Isles of S ...
. He was a member of the Broadstairs Sailing Club, where he learnt to sail on a
Snipe
A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a ...
and a
Fireball before moving on to success in larger boats.
Classical music
Heath maintained an interest in classical music as a pianist, organist and orchestral conductor, famously installing a
Steinway
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway (), is a German-American piano company, founded in 1853 in Manhattan by German piano builder Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later known as Henry E. Steinway). The company's growth led to the opening of a ...
grand in
10 Downing Street – bought with his £450
Charlemagne Prize
The Charlemagne Prize (german: Karlspreis; full name originally ''Internationaler Karlspreis der Stadt Aachen'', International Charlemagne Prize of the City of Aachen, since 1988 ''Internationaler Karlspreis zu Aachen'', International Charlemagn ...
money, awarded for his unsuccessful efforts to bring Britain into the EEC in 1963, and chosen on the advice of his friend, the pianist
Moura Lympany
Dame Moura Lympany DBE (18 August 191628 March 2005) was an English concert pianist.
Biography
She was born as Mary Gertrude Johnstone at Saltash, Cornwall. Her father was an army officer who had served in World War I and her mother original ...
– and conducting Christmas carol concerts in Broadstairs every year from his teens until old age. Heath often played the organ for services at
Holy Trinity Brompton Church
Holy Trinity Brompton with St Paul's, Onslow Square and St Augustine's, South Kensington, often referred to simply as HTB, is an Anglican church in London, England. The church consists of six sites: HTB Brompton Road, HTB Onslow Square (formerl ...
in his early years.
Heath conducted the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...
, notably at a gala concert at the
Royal Festival Hall in November 1971, at which he conducted
Sir Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
's overture ''
Cockaigne (In London Town)
''Cockaigne (In London Town)'', Op. 40, also known as the ''Cockaigne Overture'', is a concert overture for full orchestra written by the British composer Edward Elgar in 1900–1901.
History
The success of the ''Enigma Variations'' in 1899 was ...
''. He also conducted the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic is a music organisation based in Liverpool, England, that manages a professional symphony orchestra, a concert venue, and extensive programmes of learning through music. Its orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmon ...
and the
English Chamber Orchestra
The English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and their ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall. The orchestra regularly tours in the UK and internationall ...
, as well as orchestras in Germany and the United States. During his premiership, Heath invited musician friends, such as
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.
Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and ...
,
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name:
* Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor
** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England
** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to t ...
,
Clifford Curzon
Sir Clifford Michael Curzon CBE (né Siegenberg; 18 May 19071 September 1982) was an English classical pianist.
Curzon studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and subsequently with Artur Schnabel in Berlin and Wanda Landowska and Na ...
and the
Amadeus Quartet, to perform either at
Chequers or 10 Downing Street. Heath was the founding President of the European Community Youth Orchestra (in 1976), now the
European Union Youth Orchestra
The European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) is a youth orchestra with members drawn from the 27 members states of the European Union. Since its foundation in 1976, it has connected music colleges and the professional music world for generations o ...
.
In 1988, Heath recorded
Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Op. 56 (with members of the Trio Zingara as soloists) and
Boccherini's Cello Concerto in G major, G480.
Football
Heath was a supporter of the
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
football club
Burnley
Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, Lancashire, Preston, at the confluence of the River C ...
, and just after the end of his term as prime minister in 1974 he opened the £450,000
Bob Lord Stand at the club's
Turf Moor
Turf Moor is an association football stadium in Burnley, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Burnley F.C. since 1883. This unbroken service makes Turf Moor the second-longest continuously used ground in English professional footba ...
stadium.
Author
![Boeken, politici, Bestanddeelnr 929-1293](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Boeken%2C_politici%2C_Bestanddeelnr_929-1293.jpg)
Heath wrote several books in the second half of the 1970s: ''Sailing'', ''Music'', and ''Travels''. He also compiled a collection of carols called ''The Joy of Christmas'', published in 1978 by Oxford University Press, which contained the music and lyrics to a wide variety of Christmas carols, each accompanied by a reproduction of a piece of religious art and a short introduction by Heath.
Heath's autobiography, ''The Course of My Life'', appeared in 1998. According to his obituary in ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
'', this "had involved dozens of researchers and writers (some of whom he never paid) over many years".
"Grocer Heath"
In 1964, despite substantial opposition from many Conservative MPs and independent grocers and shopkeepers, Heath led a successful fight to abolish
resale price maintenance
Resale price maintenance (RPM) or, occasionally, retail price maintenance is the practice whereby a manufacturer and its distributors agree that the distributors will sell the manufacturer's product at certain prices (resale price maintenance), a ...
.
''
Private Eye'', a satirical current affairs magazine, thereupon persistently ridiculed him as "Grocer Heath". The magazine also parodied him as the managing director of a struggling small company, "Heathco".
Sexuality
Heath never married. He had been expected to marry childhood friend Kay Raven, who was reportedly tired of waiting and married an RAF officer whom she met on holiday in 1950. In a 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 said that he had kept her photograph in his flat for many years afterwards.
His interest in music kept him on friendly terms with female musicians, including pianist Moura Lympany. When Heath was prime minister she was approached by the Conservative MP
Tufton Beamish, who said: "Moura, Ted must get married. Will you marry him?" She said she would have done but was in love with someone else. She later said the most intimate thing Heath had done was to put his arm around her shoulder.
Bernard Levin
Henry Bernard Levin (19 August 1928 – 7 August 2004) was an English journalist, author and broadcaster, described by ''The Times'' as "the most famous journalist of his day". The son of a poor Jewish family in London, he won a scholarship t ...
wrote at the time in ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' that the UK had to wait until the emergence of the
permissive society
A permissive society, also referred to as permissive culture, is a society in which some social norms become increasingly liberal, especially with regard to sexual freedom. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. While ty ...
for a prime minister who was a virgin.
In later life, according to his official biographer
Philip Ziegler
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian.
Background
Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Field ...
, at dinner parties Heath was "apt to relapse into morose silence or completely ignore the woman next to him and talk across her to the nearest man";
others at the time claimed Heath was just not talkative at parties.
Heath's status as a bachelor led to speculations and rumours, some quite wild, about his private life. The public assumed that he was "
queer". There were many innuendos in ''Private Eye'' about it and homophobic chants could be heard outside Downing Street during protests by trade unionists against his Industrial Relations Bill.
John Campbell, who published a biography of Heath in 1993, devoted four pages to a discussion of the evidence concerning Heath's sexuality. While acknowledging that Heath was often assumed by the public to be gay, not least because it is "nowadays ... whispered of any bachelor", he found "no positive evidence" that this was so "except for the faintest unsubstantiated rumour" (the footnote refers to a mention of a "disturbing incident" at the beginning of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
in a 1972 biography by
Andrew Roth
Andrew Roth (23 April 1919 – 12 August 2010) was a biographer and journalist known for his compilation of ''Parliamentary Profiles'', a directory of biographies of British Members of Parliament, a small sample of which is available online in ...
). Campbell ultimately concluded that the most significant aspect of Heath's sexuality was his complete
repression of it.
Brian Coleman
Brian Coleman FRSA (born 25 June 1961) is a former Independent Conservative politician and a former councillor in the London Borough of Barnet. He was a Conservative Party member of the London Assembly for Barnet and Camden between 2000 an ...
, the Conservative Party London Assembly member for
Barnet and Camden, claimed in 2007 that Heath, to protect his career, had stopped
cottaging in the 1950s. Coleman said it was "common knowledge" among Conservatives that Heath had been given a stern warning by police when he underwent background checks for the post of
privy councillor. Heath's biographer Philip Ziegler wrote in 2010 that Coleman was able to provide "little or no information" to back up this statement, that no man had ever claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Heath, nor was any trace of homosexuality to be found in his papers, and that "those who knew him well" insist that he had no such inclination. He believes Heath to have been
asexual, although he does mention a letter from one "Freddy", who seems hurt that "Teddie" had spurned his advances (Chapter 2 of his book).
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, who was Heath's friend and former
private secretary
A private secretary (PS) is a civil servant in a governmental department or ministry, responsible to a secretary of state or minister; or a public servant in a royal household, responsible to a member of the royal family.
The role exists in ...
, stated his belief that Heath was asexual, saying that he "never detected a whiff of sexuality in relation to men, women or children." Another friend and confidant, Sara Morrison, former vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, said Heath had "effectively" told her "that he was sexless".
Charles Moore, in his authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, said that
Bill Deedes
William Francis Deedes, Baron Deedes, (1 June 1913 – 17 August 2007) was a British Conservative politician, army officer and journalist. He was the first person in Britain to have been both a member of the Cabinet and the editor of a major da ...
believed that Thatcher "seem
dconvinced" Heath was gay, whilst Moore believed it is "possible" that Thatcher's reference, in interview in 1974, to Heath not having a family, was a deliberate hint that he was gay, in order to discredit him. Thatcher certainly seems to have disliked Heath. "When I look at him and he looks at me," she once remarked, according to Ziegler (Chapter 4), "it doesn't feel like a man looking at a woman, more like a woman looking at another woman."
When he moved to Arundells in 1985, Heath hired Derek Frost, life partner of
Jeremy Norman
Jeremy Gordon Norman (born 1947) is a British entrepreneur, whose ventures have included ''Burke's Peerage'', Mayfair's Embassy nightclub, the gay 'ultradisco' Heaven, the clubs Embargo and Leopard Lounge on Fulham Broadway, the Power Station g ...
, to modernise and redecorate the house in Salisbury. He became friends with the couple, though never close. When they asked Heath why he had not supported homosexual law reform (he was either absent from the debates in the 1960s or voted against
Lord Arran's first Bill in May 1965), he replied that he had always been in favour but that "the rank and file of the party would never have stood for it." Norman's view is that Heath was "a deeply closeted gay man" who "decided early in life to sublimate his sexuality to his political ambitions." In later life, Heath voted for the lowering of the age of same-sex consent to eighteen and then sixteen.
Similarly, Michael McManus, who was Heath's private secretary in the 1990s and helped with his memoirs, writes in his book on gay conservative politicians that he "was left in no doubt whatsoever that Heath was a gay man who had sacrificed his personal life to his political career, exercising iron self-control and living a celibate existence as he climbed the 'greasy pole' of preferment."
Allegations of child sexual abuse
In April 2015, a rape claim against Heath was investigated by the
Metropolitan Police but was dropped. In August 2015, several police forces were investigating allegations of
child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...
by Heath.
Hampshire, Jersey, Kent, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Thames Valley constabularies and London's Metropolitan Police investigated such claims.
It was reported that a man had claimed that at the age of 12 years he had been raped by Heath in a
Mayfair flat in 1961, after he had run away from home.
Allegations about Heath were investigated as part of
Operation Midland
Operation Midland was a criminal investigation which the London Metropolitan Police carried out between November 2014 and March 2016 in response to false allegations of historic child abuse made by Carl Beech.
The operation focused on investiga ...
, the Metropolitan Police inquiry into claims of historic child abuse and related
homicides. A witness called "Nick" was introduced to the police by the former
Exaro
''Exaro'' or ''Exaro News'' was a British website based in London between 2011 and 2016. It purportedly undertook political investigative journalism, but is now primarily known (together with its editor Mark Watts) for its direct involvement in ...
website, who had asked him about alleged child sexual abuse by prominent figures at the
Dolphin Square
Dolphin Square is a block of private flats with some ground floor business units near the River Thames in Pimlico, Westminster, London built between 1935 and 1937. Until the building of Highbury Square, it was the most developed garden square i ...
apartment complex in
Pimlico, London; Heath was reported to be one of the figures. In 2018 "Nick", whose real name is
Carl Beech, was arrested and charged over child pornography offences and in January 2019 he pleaded guilty. Beech, who had fabricated allegations against Heath and other prominent politicians and civil servants, was sentenced in July 2019 to eighteen years in prison.
Also in August 2015,
Sky News reported that Jersey police were investigating allegations against Heath as part of
Operation Whistle,
and a similar investigation, Operation Conifer, was launched by
Wiltshire Police
Wiltshire Police, formerly known as Wiltshire Constabulary, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the county of Wiltshire (including the Borough of Swindon) in South West England.
The force serves 722,000 people over an area ...
at the same time. The Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, which operates the museum at Arundells, his home in Salisbury, said it welcomed the investigation. In November 2016, criminologist
Richard Hoskins said that the evidence used against Heath in Operation Conifer, including discredited allegations of
satanic ritual abuse
The Satanic panic is a moral panic consisting of over 12,000 unsubstantiated cases of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA, sometimes known as ritual abuse, ritualistic abuse, organized abuse, or sadistic ritual abuse) starting in the United States in th ...
, was "preposterous", "fantastical" and gained through the "controversial" practice of
recovered-memory therapy.
Operation Conifer was closed in March 2017, having cost a reported £1.5 million over two years, as no corroborating evidence had been found in any of the 42 allegations by 40 individuals (including three different names used by one person).
In September 2017, it was announced that the
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in England and Wales was an inquiry examining how the country's institutions handled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. It was announced by the British Home Secretar ...
would review the police investigation into Heath. Police said that if Heath were still alive they would have interviewed him
under caution in relation to seven out of the 42 allegations,
but nothing should be inferred about his guilt or innocence. In his summary report, Chief Constable
Mike Veale confirmed that "no further corroborative evidence was found" to support the satanic abuse claims.
Illness and death
![Edward Heath monument](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f7/Edward_Heath_monument.jpg)
In August 2003, at the age of 87, Heath suffered a
pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has moved from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream ( embolism). Symptoms of a PE may include shortness of breath, chest pain particularly upon breathin ...
while on holiday in
Salzburg
Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872.
The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...
, Austria. He never fully recovered, and owing to his declining health and mobility made very few public appearances in the last two years of his life, his last one was at the unveiling of a set of gates at
St Paul's Cathedral dedicated to Churchill on 30 November 2004.
In his final public statement, Heath paid tribute to
James Callaghan, who died on 26 March 2005, saying "James Callaghan was a major fixture in the political life of this country during his long and varied career. When in opposition he never hesitated to put firmly his party's case. When in office he took a smoother approach towards his supporters and opponents alike. Although he left the House of Commons in 1987 he continued to follow political life and it was always a pleasure to meet with him. We have lost a major figure from our political landscape".
Just under four months later, Sir Edward Heath died at his home from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
at 7.30pm on 17 July 2005, at the age of 89. He was cremated on 25 July 2005 at a funeral service attended by 1,500 people. On the day after his death, the
BBC Parliament
BBC Parliament is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel from the BBC that broadcasts live and recorded coverage of the House of Commons, House of Lords and Select Committees of the British Parliament, the Scottish Parliamen ...
channel showed the BBC results coverage of the 1970 election. A memorial service was held for Heath in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the Unite ...
on 8 November 2005, which was attended by 2,000 people. Three days later his ashes were interred in
Salisbury Cathedral. In a tribute to him, the then–prime minister Tony Blair stated "He was a man of great integrity and beliefs he held firmly from which he never wavered".
Heath ministry
Honours
Edward Heath received several accolades and honours.
Coat of arms
Honorary degrees
Heath was awarded many
honorary degree
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...
s for his Service to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. These include:
Foreign honours
*
Bangladesh Liberation War Honour (Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona)
Books by Heath
*
*
*
*
*
References
Further reading
Biographies of Heath
* Campbell, John. ''Edward Heath: A Biography''. London: Jonathan Cape, 1993.
* Garnett, Mark. "Edward Heath, 1965–70 and 1974–75" in ''Leaders of the opposition: from Churchill to Cameron'' ed. by Timothy Heppell. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), pp 80–96.
* Hennessey, Peter. ''The Prime Minister: The Office and Its Holders Since 1945'' (2001) pp. 331–356.
Hurd, Douglas. "Heath, Sir Edward Richard George (1916–2005)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford University Press, Jan 2009; online edn, September 2012 Retrieved 1 September 2013.
* McManus, Michael. ''Edward Heath: A Singular Life'' (2016).
*
MacShane, Denis, ''Heath'' (British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century) (2006
(excerpt and text search)*
Ziegler, Philip
Philip Sandeman Ziegler (born 24 December 1929) is a British biographer and historian.
Background
Born in Ringwood, Hampshire, Ziegler was educated at St Cyprian's School, Eastbourne, and went with the school when it merged with Summer Fields ...
, ''Edward Heath: The Authorised Biography'', Harper Press, 2010;
excerpt and text search
Politics and domestic policy
* Ball, Stuart, and Anthony Seldon, eds. ''The Heath Government: 1970–1974: A Reappraisal'' (London: Longman, 1996) 423pp.
* Beckett, Andy. ''When The Lights Went Out: What Really Happened to Britain in the Seventies'' (2010)
* Blake, Robert. ''The Conservative Party from Peel to Major'' (Faber & Faber, 2012) pp. 299–220.
*
Butler, David E. et al. ''The British General Election of 1970'' (1971)
* Butler, David E. et al. ''The British General Election of February 1974'' (1975)
* Butler, David E. et al. ''The British General Election of October 1974'' (1975)
* Cowley, Philip; Bailey, Matthew. "Peasants' Uprising or Religious War? Re-examining the 1975 Conservative Leadership Contest," ''British Journal of Political Science'' (2000) 30#4 pp. 599–63
in JSTOR* Dunton, Mark. "Probing the 1970s: A Case Study: Inflation, Public Relations, and the Heath Administration, 1972." ''Archives: The Journal of the British Records Association'' 38.126 (2013): 28–39.
* Foster, John. "Upper Clyde Shipbuilders 1971–2 and Edward Heath's U-turn: How a united workforce defeated a divided government." ''Mariner's Mirror'' 102#1 (2016): 34–48.
* Heppell, Timothy. ''Choosing the Tory Leader: Conservative Party Leadership Elections from Heath to Cameron'' (IB Tauris, 2007).
* Heppell, Timothy, and Michael Hill. "Prime ministerial powers of patronage: ministerial appointments and dismissals under Edward Heath." ''Contemporary British History'' 29.4 (2015): 464–485.
* Holmes, Martin. ''The Failure of the Heath Government '' (2nd ed. 1997
excerpt and text search* Holmes, Martin. ''Political pressure and economic policy: British government 1970–1974'' (1982
excerpt
* Hughes, Rosaleen Anne. Governing in hard times': the Heath government and civil emergencies–the 1972 and the 1974 miners' strikes." (Dissertation, Queen Mary University of London; 2012
online
* Hurd, Douglas. ''An end to promises: sketch of a government, 1970–1974'' (1976)
* Lockwood, Charles. "‘Action Not Words’: The Conservative Party, Public Opinion and ‘Scientific’ Politics, c. 1945–70." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 31.3 (2020): 360-386.
* Moore, Charles. '' Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands'' (2013)
* Pearce, Robert. "Bad Blood: Powell, Heath and the Tory party." ''History Today'' (April 2008), 58#4 pp 33–39.
* Pentland, Gordon. "Edward Heath, the Declaration of Perth and the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, 1966–70." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 26#2 (2015): 249–273.
* Ramsden, J. ''The winds of change: Macmillan to Heath, 1957–1975'' (1996), Volume 5 of the History of the Conservative Party.
* Roe-Crines, Andrew S., and Timothy Heppell, eds. ''Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath'' (2020
excerpt* Sandbrook, Dominic. ''State of Emergency The Way We Were Britain 1970–1974'' (2010) 755pp
* Smith, Jeremy. "‘Walking a Real Tight-rope of Difficulties’: Sir Edward Heath and the Search for Stability in Northern Ireland, June 1970 – March 1971," ''Twentieth Century British History'' (2007) 18#2 pp 219–253.
* Turner, Alwyn W. ''Crisis? What Crisis?: Britain in the 1970s'' (2009), how the popular culture handled political issues
* Watkins, Alan. ''A Conservative Coup''. London: Duckworth, 1991
*
Young, Hugo and
Goodman, Geoffrey. "The Trade Unions and the Fall of the Heath Government," ''Contemporary Record'' (1988) 1#4 pp 36–46.
Foreign and defence policy
* Benvenuti, Andrea. "The Heath Government and British Defence Policy in Southeast Asia at the End of Empire (1970–71)," ''Twentieth Century British History'' 20#1 (2009), 53–73.
* Brummer, Justin Adam. "Anglo-American relations and the EC enlargement, 1969–1974' (PhD dissertation, University College London, 2012
online* Hamai, Yumiko. "‘Imperial Burden’ or ‘Jews of Africa’?: An Analysis of Political and Media Discourse in the Ugandan Asian Crisis (1972)." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 22.3 (2011): 415-436.
* Hughes, R. Gerald, and Thomas Robb. "Kissinger and the Diplomacy of Coercive Linkage in the 'Special Relationship' between the United States and Great Britain, 1969–1977." ''Diplomatic History 37.4 (2013): 861–905.
* Hynes, Catherine. ''The Year That Never Was: Heath, the Nixon Administration, and the Year of Europe'' (University College Dublin Press, 2009).
* Jeffrey, Samuel Robert. "A Most Divisive Year: The Year of Europe and the Special Relationship in 1973" (Thesis, Vanderbilt University History Dept., 2016
online bibliography pp. 133–146.
* Langlois, Laëtitia. "Edward Heath and the Europeanisation of Englishness: The Hopes and Failures of a European English Leader," in ''Englishness revisited'' ed. by Floriane Reviron-Piégay. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2009), pp. 174–88
* Leonard, Dick. "Edward Heath—Cheerleader for Europe." in Leonard, ''A Century of Premiers'' (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2005). 263–281.
* Lord, Christopher. ''British Entry to the European Community under the Heath Government, 1970–74'' (1993) p. 194
* Mockli, Daniel. ''European foreign policy during the Cold War: Heath, Brandt, Pompidou and the dream of political unity'' (IB Tauris, 2008).
* Novak, Andrew. "Averting an African Boycott: British Prime Minister Edward Heath and Rhodesian Participation in the Munich Olympics," ''Britain and the World'' (2013) 6#1 pp 27–47 DOI:10.3366/brw.2013.0076
* Parr, Helen. "The British Decision to Upgrade Polaris, 1970–4," ''Contemporary European History'' (2013) 22#2 pp. 253–274.
* Parr, Helen. "‘The Nuclear Myth’: Edward Heath, Europe, and the International Politics of Anglo-French Nuclear Co-Operation 1970–3." ''International History Review'' 35#3 (2013): 534–555.
* Patterson, Henry. "The border security problem and Anglo-Irish relations 1970–1973." ''Contemporary British History'' 26.2 (2012): 231–251.
* Robb, Thomas. "Antelope, Poseidon or a Hybrid: The Upgrading of the British Strategic Nuclear Deterrent, 1970-1974." ''Journal of Strategic Studies'' (2010) 33#6 pp 797–817
* Robb, Thomas. "The Power of Oil: Edward Heath, the ‘Year of Europe’ and the Anglo-American ‘Special Relationship’", ''Contemporary British History'' (2012) 26#1 pp. 73–96. on 1974
* Rossbach, Niklas H. ''Heath, Nixon and the Rebirth of the Special Relationship: Britain, the US and the EC, 1969–74'' (2009
excerpt and text search* Scott, Andrew. ''Allies apart: Heath, Nixon and the Anglo-American relationship'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) 272 pp
* Smith, Simon C. "Coming Down on the Winning Side: Britain and the South Asia Crisis, 1971." ''Contemporary British History'' 24.4 (2010): 451–470.
* Spelling, Alex. "Edward Heath and Anglo-American Relations 1970–1974: A Reappraisal," ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' (2009) 20, Number 4, pp. 638–658.
* Spelling, Alex. "‘Recrimination and reconciliation’: Anglo-American relations and the Yom Kippur War." ''Cold War History'' 13.4 (2013): 485-506.
* Stoddart, Kristan. "The Heath Government, France, and the Not So Special Relationship, 1970–1974." in Stoddart, ''The Sword and the Shield: Britain, America, NATO and Nuclear Weapons, 1970–1976 '' (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2014) pp. 11–42.
Historiography
* Holmes, Martin. ''The Failure of the Heath Government '' (2nd ed. 1997
excerpt and text searchpp ix to xx.
External links
*
''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' (London). Retrieved 9 December 2014.
Sir Edward Heath chronology badley.info. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
Profile of Arundells, Sir Edward Heath's home arundells.org. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
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Edward Heathinterview on BBC Radio 4 ''
Desert Island Discs
''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942.
Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...
'', 23 December 1988
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Bronze bust of Sir Edward Heath in the UK Parliamentary Collections
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