Denis Healey

The Lord Healey
Healey in 1974
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party
In office
4 November 1980 – 2 October 1983
LeaderMichael Foot
Preceded byMichael Foot
Succeeded byRoy Hattersley
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
4 March 1974 – 4 May 1979
Prime Minister
Preceded byAnthony Barber
Succeeded byGeoffrey Howe
Secretary of State for Defence
In office
16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byPeter Thorneycroft
Succeeded byThe Lord Carrington
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office
8 December 1980 – 13 July 1987
Leader
Preceded byPeter Shore
Succeeded byGerald Kaufman
In office
20 June 1970 – 19 April 1972
LeaderHarold Wilson
Preceded byAlec Douglas-Home
Succeeded byJames Callaghan
In office
11 October 1959 – 2 November 1961
LeaderHugh Gaitskell
Preceded byAneurin Bevan
Succeeded byHarold Wilson
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
4 May 1979 – 8 December 1980
LeaderJames Callaghan
Preceded byGeoffrey Howe
Succeeded byPeter Shore
In office
19 April 1972 – 4 March 1974
LeaderHarold Wilson
Preceded byRoy Jenkins
Succeeded byRobert Carr
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
In office
1 April 1964 – 16 October 1964
LeaderHarold Wilson
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byPeter Thorneycroft
Parliamentary offices
Member of the House of Lords
Life peerage
29 June 1992 – 3 October 2015
Member of Parliament
for Leeds East
In office
26 May 1955 – 16 March 1992
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byGeorge Mudie
Member of Parliament
for Leeds South East
In office
7 February 1952 – 6 May 1955
Preceded byJames Milner
Succeeded byAlice Bacon
Personal details
Born
Denis Winston Healey

(1917-08-30)30 August 1917
Mottingham, Kent, England
Died3 October 2015(2015-10-03) (aged 98)
Alfriston, East Sussex, England
Resting placeSt Andrew's Church
Political partyLabour
Spouse
(m. 1945; died 2010)
Children3
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Military service
Branch/serviceBritish Army
Years of service1940–1945
RankMajor
UnitRoyal Engineers
Battles/wars
AwardsMember 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.

  1. ^ "House of Lords, Official Website – Lord Healey". Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  2. ^ Lashmar, Paul; Oliver, James (1988). Britain's Secret Propaganda War 1948–1977. Phoenix Mill: Sutton Publishing. p. 43.
  3. ^ Defty, Andrew (2005). Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda 1945-1953: The Information Research Department. E-book version: Routledge. p. 3.
  4. ^ Shaw, Tony (1999). "The Information Research Department of the British Foreign Office and the Korean War 1950-53". Journal of Contemporary History. 34 (2): 267. doi:10.1177/002200949903400206. JSTOR 261219. S2CID 159855506 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ [1] Archived 20 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ^ [2] Archived 20 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine