Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, PC, FRS, FSS (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970 and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He was the Leader of the Labour Party from 1963 to 1976, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1983. Wilson is the only Labour leader to have formed administrations following four general elections.
For other people named Harold Wilson, see Harold Wilson (disambiguation).
The Lord Wilson of Rievaulx
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II
Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Elizabeth II
- Harold Macmillan
- Alec Douglas-Home
George Brown
Alec Douglas-Home
Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
- Hugh Gaitskell
- George Brown
- Hugh Gaitskell
- George Brown
Hugh Gaitskell
Hugh Gaitskell
James Callaghan
Constituency established
Constituency established
Constituency abolished
24 May 1995 (aged 79)
London, England
St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, England
2, including Robin
- Politician
- author
- lecturer
Civil servant
Born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to a politically active middle-class family, Wilson studied PPE at Jesus College, Oxford. He was later an Economic History lecturer at New College, Oxford, and a research fellow at University College, Oxford. Elected to Parliament in 1945, Wilson was appointed to the Attlee government as a Parliamentary Secretary; he became Secretary for Overseas Trade in 1947, and was elevated to the Cabinet shortly thereafter as President of the Board of Trade. Following Labour's defeat at the 1955 election, Wilson joined the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chancellor, and was moved to the role of Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1961. When Labour Leader Hugh Gaitskell died suddenly in January 1963, Wilson won the subsequent leadership election to replace him, becoming Leader of the Opposition.
Wilson led Labour to a narrow victory at the 1964 election. His first period as prime minister saw a period of low unemployment and economic prosperity, although this would later become hindered by significant problems with Britain's external balance of payments. The Wilson government oversaw significant societal changes, abolishing both capital punishment and theatre censorship, partially decriminalising male homosexuality in England and Wales, relaxing the divorce laws, limiting immigration, and liberalising birth control and abortion law. In the midst of this programme Wilson called a snap election in 1966, which Labour won with a much increased majority. Wilson's government armed Nigeria during the Biafran War. In 1969, he sent British troops to Northern Ireland. After losing the 1970 election to Edward Heath's Conservatives, Wilson chose to remain in the Labour leadership, and spent four years back in the role of Leader of the Opposition before leading Labour through the February 1974 election, which resulted in a hung parliament. Wilson was appointed prime minister for a second time; he called a snap election in October 1974, which gave Labour a small majority. During his second term as prime minister, Wilson oversaw the referendum that confirmed the UK's membership of the European Communities.
In March 1976 he suddenly announced his resignation as prime minister. Wilson remained in the House of Commons until retiring in 1983, when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Wilson of Rievaulx. Historians evaluate Wilson in terms of leading the Labour Party through difficult political issues with considerable skill. Wilson's reputation was low when he left office and was still poor in 2016.[1] Key issues he faced included the role of public ownership, membership of the European Communities, and how to avoid committing British troops to the Vietnam War.[2] His stated ambitions of substantially improving Britain's long-term economic performance, applying technology more democratically, and reducing inequality went to some extent unfulfilled.[3]
Member of Parliament (1945–1947)[edit]
As the war drew to an end, he searched for a seat to contest at the impending general election. He was selected for the constituency of Ormskirk, then held by Stephen King-Hall. Wilson agreed to be adopted as the candidate immediately rather than delay until the election was called, and was therefore compelled to resign from his position in the Civil Service. He served as Praelector in Economics at University College between his resignation and his election to the House of Commons. He also used this time to write A New Deal for Coal, which used his wartime experience to argue for the nationalisation of the coal mines on the grounds of the improved efficiency he predicted would ensue.
In the 1945 general election, Wilson won his seat in the Labour landslide. To his surprise, he was immediately appointed to the government by Prime Minister Clement Attlee as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works. Two years later, he became Secretary for Overseas Trade, in which capacity he made several official trips to the Soviet Union to negotiate supply contracts.
The boundaries of his Ormskirk constituency were significantly altered before the general election of 1950. He stood instead for the new seat of Huyton near Liverpool, and was narrowly elected; he served there for 33 years until 1983.[11]
Cabinet minister, 1947–1951[edit]
Bonfire of controls[edit]
Wilson was appointed President of the Board of Trade on 29 September 1947, becoming, at the age of 31, the youngest member of a British Cabinet in the 20th century. Initially Wilson favoured a more interventionist policy, seeking requirements for government officials to be seated on private boards of directors, further price controls, and nationalisations of private industries which opposed government policy. However, he abandoned these plans after his colleagues disagreed.[12] He made it a priority to reduce wartime rationing, which he referred to as a "bonfire of controls".[13] Wilson decided that the massive number of wartime controls was slowing the conversion to peacetime prosperity and he was committed to removing them as fast as possible.[14] He ended rationing of potatoes, bread and jam, as well as shoes and some other clothing controls.
In November 1948 Wilson announced his Board of Trade had removed the need for over 200,000 licenses and permits. By March 1949 he promised to remove the need for another 900,000, although meat remained in short supply and was still rationed, as was petrol.[15] Henry Irvine argues that Wilson's success with the bonfire controls established his reputation as a modernizing specialist, with both the general public and the political elite. Irving also argues that the selection timing and especially the publicity Wilson devoted to the bonfire represented the emerging skills of a brilliant young politician. While each major bonfire was justified in terms of technical economic advantages, it was selected and publicized widely to reach the largest possible audience so that everybody could understand that their bread and jam became free again.[16]
Three ambitious young men[edit]
In mid-1949, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Stafford Cripps having gone to Switzerland in an attempt to recover his health, Wilson was one of a group of three young ministers, all of them former economics dons and wartime civil servants, convened to advise Prime Minister Attlee on financial matters. The others were Douglas Jay (Economic Secretary to the Treasury) and Hugh Gaitskell (Minister of Fuel and Power), both of whom soon grew to distrust him. Jay wrote of Wilson's role in the debates over whether or not to devalue sterling that "he changed sides three times within eight days and finished up facing both ways". Wilson was given the task during his Swiss holiday of taking a letter to Cripps informing him of the decision to devalue, to which Cripps had been opposed.[17] Wilson had tarnished his reputation in both political and official circles.[13] Although a successful minister, he was regarded as self-important. He was not seriously considered for the job of Chancellor when Cripps stepped down in October 1950—it was given to Gaitskell—possibly in part because of his cautious role during devaluation.[18][19]
Wilson was becoming known in the Labour Party as a left-winger, and joined Aneurin Bevan and John Freeman in resigning from the government in April 1951 in protest at the introduction of National Health Service (NHS) medical charges to meet the financial demands imposed by the Korean War. At this time, Wilson was not yet regarded as a heavyweight politician: Hugh Dalton referred to him scornfully as "Nye [Bevan]'s dog".[20]
After Labour lost the 1951 election, he became the Chairman of Keep Left, Bevan's political group. At the bitter Morecambe Conference in late 1952, Wilson was one of the Bevanites elected as constituency representatives to Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC), whilst senior right-wingers such as Dalton and Herbert Morrison were voted off.[21]
In Opposition (1951-1964)[edit]
Shadow Cabinet, 1954–1963[edit]
Wilson had never made much secret that his support of the left-wing Aneurin Bevan was opportunistic. In early 1954, Bevan resigned from the Shadow Cabinet (elected by Labour MPs when the party was in opposition) over Labour's support for the setting-up of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO). Wilson, who had been runner-up in the elections, stepped up to fill the vacant place. He was supported in this by Richard Crossman, but his actions angered Bevan and the other Bevanites.[22]
Wilson's course in intra-party matters in the 1950s and early 1960s left him neither fully accepted nor trusted by the left or the right in the Labour Party. Despite his earlier association with Bevan, in 1955 he backed Hugh Gaitskell, the right-wing candidate in internal Labour Party terms, against Bevan for the party leadership election.[23] Gaitskell appointed him Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1955, and he proved to be very effective.[24] One of his procedural moves caused a substantial delay to the progress of the Government's Finance Bill in 1955, and his speeches as Shadow Chancellor from 1956 were widely praised for their clarity and wit. He coined the term "Gnomes of Zurich" to ridicule Swiss bankers for selling Britain short and pushing the pound sterling down by speculation.[25] He conducted an inquiry into the Labour Party's organisation following its defeat in the 1955 general election; its report compared Labour's organisation to an antiquated "penny farthing" bicycle, and made various recommendations for improvements.[26] Unusually, Wilson combined the job of Chairman of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee with that of Shadow Chancellor from 1959, holding that position until 1963.
Gaitskell's leadership was weakened after the Labour Party's 1959 defeat, his controversial attempt to ditch Labour's commitment to nationalisation by scrapping Clause Four, and his defeat at the 1960 Party Conference over a motion supporting unilateral nuclear disarmament. Bevan had died in July 1960, so Wilson established himself as a leader of the Labour left by launching an opportunistic but unsuccessful challenge to Gaitskell's leadership in November 1960. Wilson would later be moved to the position of Shadow Foreign Secretary in 1961, before he challenged for the deputy leadership in 1962 but was defeated by George Brown.
Return to opposition (1970–1974)[edit]
Following the elections and Labour’s subsequent defeat, Wilson survived as leader of the Labour Party in opposition. In August 1973, holidaying on the Isles of Scilly, he tried to board a motorboat from a dinghy and stepped into the sea. He was unable to get into the boat and was left in the cold water for more than half an hour, hanging on to the fenders of the motorboat. He was close to death before he was saved by Paul Wolff, the father of novelist Isabel Wolff. When word of the incident became public the following month, Wilson downplayed its severity; it was taken up by the press and resulted in some embarrassment. His press secretary, Joe Haines, tried to deflect some of the comment by blaming Wilson's dog Paddy for the problem.[131]
Early in 1974, Wilson became the victim of a personation fraud. A Staffordshire property developer, Ronald Milhench, forged a letter purporting to be from the former Prime Minister.[132] Milhench was involved in negotiations for a property deal; unable to provide finance, he met a journalist, claiming that Wilson was involved with the deal. Milhench further claimed he wanted to deal “a body blow” to Labour’s election chances and that he could sell the letter for £25000. In November 1974, Milhench was convicted of forgery, theft and firearms charges. [132][133]
Economic conditions during the 1970s were becoming more difficult for Britain and many other western economies as a result of the Nixon shock and the 1973 oil crisis, and the Heath government in its turn was buffeted by economic adversity and industrial unrest (notably including confrontation with the coalminers which led to the Three-Day Week) towards the end of 1973, and on 7 February 1974 (with the crisis still ongoing) Heath called a snap election for 28 February.[134]
Personal life[edit]
On New Year's Day 1940, in the chapel of Mansfield College, Oxford, he married Mary Baldwin, who remained his wife until his death. Mary Wilson became a published poet, and outlived Harold by 23 years, dying in 2018 at the age of 102. They had two sons, Robin and Giles (named after Giles Alington); Robin became a professor of Mathematics, and Giles became a teacher and later a train driver.[158] In their twenties, his sons were under a kidnap threat from the IRA because of their father's prominence.[159]
In April 2024 Joe Haines, who had served as Wilson's press secretary during his time as Prime Minister, revealed that Wilson had had an affair with Haines' deputy Janet Hewlett-Davies during his final two years in office. Hewlett-Davies died aged 85 in October 2023.[160][161] Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Wilson's former adviser Bernard Donoughue said the affair had provided "a little sunshine at sunset" for Wilson, who was becoming "increasingly paranoid about the security services", was dealing with political difficulties, and was possibly in the early stages of dementia.[162]
Legacy[edit]
Political style[edit]
Wilson regarded himself as a "man of the people" and did much to promote this image, contrasting himself with the stereotypical aristocratic conservatives and other statesmen who had preceded him, as an example of social mobility. He largely retained his Yorkshire accent. Other features of this persona included his working man's Gannex raincoat, his pipe (the British Pipesmokers' Council voted him Pipe Smoker of the Year in 1965 and Pipeman of the Decade in 1976, though in private he preferred cigars), his love of simple cooking and fondness for popular British relish HP Sauce, and his support for his home town's football team, Huddersfield Town.[163] His first general election victory relied heavily on associating these down-to-earth attributes with a sense that the UK urgently needed to modernise after "thirteen years of Tory mis-rule".[164]
Wilson exhibited his populist touch in June 1965 when he had the Beatles honoured with the award of MBE. The award was popular with young people and contributed to a sense that the prime minister was "in touch" with the younger generation. There were some protests by conservatives and elderly members of the military who were earlier recipients of the award, but such protesters were in the minority. Critics claimed that Wilson acted to solicit votes for the next general election (which took place less than a year later), but defenders noted that, since the minimum voting age at that time was 21, this was hardly likely to impact many of the Beatles' fans who at that time were predominantly teenagers. It cemented Wilson's image as a modernistic leader and linked him to the burgeoning pride in the 'New Britain' typified by the Beatles.[165] The Beatles mentioned Wilson rather negatively, naming both him and his opponent Edward Heath in George Harrison's song "Taxman", the opener to 1966's Revolver—recorded and released after the MBEs.[166]
In 1967, Wilson had a different interaction with a musical ensemble. He sued the pop group the Move for libel after the band's manager Tony Secunda published a promotional postcard for the single "Flowers in the Rain", featuring a caricature depicting Wilson in bed with his female assistant, Marcia Williams. Gossip had hinted at an improper relationship, though these rumours were never substantiated. Wilson won the case, and all royalties from the song (composed by Move leader Roy Wood) were assigned in perpetuity to a charity of Wilson's choosing.[167]
Wilson coined the term 'Selsdon Man' to refer to the free market policies of the Conservative leader Edward Heath, developed at a policy retreat held at the Selsdon Park Hotel in early 1970. This phrase, intended to evoke the 'primitive throwback' qualities of anthropological discoveries such as Piltdown Man and Swanscombe Man, was part of a British political tradition of referring to political trends by suffixing 'man'.[168] Other memorable phrases attributed to Wilson include "the white heat of the [technological] revolution", and "a week is a long time in politics", meaning that political fortunes can change extremely rapidly.[169] In his broadcast after the 1967 devaluation of the pound, Wilson said: "This does not mean that the pound here in Britain—in your pocket or purse—is worth any less" and the phrase "the pound in your pocket" subsequently took on a life of its own.[170]
Reputation[edit]
Despite his successes, Wilson's reputation took a long time to start a recovery from the low ebb reached immediately following his second premiership. The reinvention of the Labour Party would take the better part of two decades at the hands of Neil Kinnock, John Smith and, electorally and most conclusively, Tony Blair. Disillusion with Britain's weak economic performance and troubled industrial relations, combined with active spadework by figures such as Sir Keith Joseph, had helped to make a radical market programme politically feasible for Margaret Thatcher (which was, in turn, to influence the subsequent Labour leadership, especially under Blair). An opinion poll in September 2011 found that Wilson came in third place when respondents were asked to name the best post-war Labour Party leader. He was beaten only by John Smith and Tony Blair.[171]
According to Glen O'Hara in 2006:[172]