Denis Healey

The Right Honourable The Lord Healey CH MBE PC FRSL
Healey in 1974
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office 4 November 1980 – 2 October 1983
Leader	Michael Foot
Preceded by	Michael Foot
Succeeded by	Roy Hattersley
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 4 March 1974 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Preceded by	Anthony Barber
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Howe
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Peter Thorneycroft
Succeeded by	The Lord Carrington
Shadow Cabinet posts Shadow Foreign Secretary In office 8 December 1980 – 13 July 1987 Leader Michael Foot Neil Kinnock Preceded by Peter Shore Succeeded by Gerald Kaufman In office 20 June 1970 – 19 April 1972 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by Alec Douglas-Home Succeeded by James Callaghan In office 11 October 1959 – 2 November 1961 Leader Hugh Gaitskell Preceded by Aneurin Bevan Succeeded by Harold Wilson Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 4 May 1979 – 8 December 1980 Leader James Callaghan Preceded by Geoffrey Howe Succeeded by Peter Shore In office 19 April 1972 – 4 March 1974 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by Roy Jenkins Succeeded by Robert Carr Shadow Secretary of State for Defence In office 1 April 1964 – 16 October 1964 Leader Harold Wilson Preceded by Office established Succeeded by Peter Thorneycroft
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Life peerage 29 June 1992 – 3 October 2015 Member of Parliament for Leeds East In office 26 May 1955 – 16 March 1992 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by George Mudie Member of Parliament for Leeds South East In office 7 February 1952 – 6 May 1955 Preceded by James Milner Succeeded by Alice Bacon
Personal details
Born	Denis Winston Healey (1917-08-30)30 August 1917 Mottingham, Kent, England
Died	3 October 2015(2015-10-03) (aged 98) Alfriston, East Sussex, England
Resting place	St Andrew's Church
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Edna Edmunds ​ ​ (m. 1945; died 2010)​
Children	3
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford
Military service
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	1940–1945
Rank	Major
Unit	Royal Engineers
Battles/wars	Second World War North African campaign Italian campaign Battle of Anzio
Awards	Member of the Order of the British Empire

Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey,^[1] CH, MBE, PC, FRSL (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he remains the longest-serving Defence Secretary to date. He was a Member of Parliament from 1952 to 1992, and was Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1980 to 1983. To the public at large, Healey became well known for his bushy eyebrows, his avuncular manner and his creative turns of phrase.

Healey attended the University of Oxford and served as a Major in the Second World War. He was later an agent for the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the Foreign Office dedicated to spreading anti-communist propaganda during the early Cold War.^[2][3][4] Healey was first elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1952 for the seat of Leeds South East. He moved to the seat of Leeds East at the 1955 election, which he represented until his retirement at the 1992 election.

After Labour's victory at the 1964 election, he was appointed to the Cabinet by Prime Minister Harold Wilson as Defence Secretary; he held this role until Labour's defeat at the 1970 election, making him the longest-serving Secretary of State for Defence to date. When Labour returned to power after the 1974 election, Wilson appointed Healey Chancellor of the Exchequer. He stood for the leadership of the Labour Party in the election to replace Wilson in March 1976, but lost to James Callaghan; Callaghan retained Healey as Chancellor in his new government. During his time as Chancellor, Healey notably sought out an international loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the British economy, which imposed external conditions on public spending.^[5][6]

Healey stood a second time for the leadership of the Labour Party in November 1980, but narrowly lost to Michael Foot. Foot immediately chose Healey as his Deputy Leader, but after the Labour Party agreed a series of changes to the rules governing leadership elections, Tony Benn launched a challenge to Healey for the role; the election was bitterly contested throughout most of 1981, and Healey was able to beat the challenge by less than 1%. Standing down as Deputy Leader after Labour's landslide defeat at the 1983 election, Healey remained in the Shadow Cabinet until 1987, and entered the House of Lords soon after his retirement from Parliament in 1992. Healey died in 2015 at the age of 98, having become the oldest sitting member of the House of Lords, and the last surviving member of Harold Wilson's first government formed in 1964.