Edward Heath

Sir Edward Heath
Portrait by Allan Warren, 1987
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office
19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
MonarchElizabeth II
Preceded byHarold Wilson
Succeeded byHarold Wilson
Leader of the Opposition
In office
4 March 1974 – 11 February 1975
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byHarold Wilson
Succeeded byMargaret Thatcher
In office
28 July 1965 – 19 June 1970
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterHarold Wilson
Preceded byAlec Douglas-Home
Succeeded byHarold Wilson
Leader of the Conservative Party
In office
28 July 1965 – 11 February 1975
Preceded byAlec Douglas-Home
Succeeded byMargaret Thatcher
Ministerial offices
President of the Board of Trade
In office
20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime MinisterAlec Douglas-Home
Preceded byFred Erroll
Succeeded byDouglas Jay
Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development
In office
20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964
Prime MinisterAlec Douglas-Home
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byOffice abolished
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office
14 February 1960 – 20 October 1963
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byThe Viscount Hailsham
Succeeded bySelwyn Lloyd
Minister of Labour
In office
14 October 1959 – 27 July 1960
Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan
Preceded byIain Macleod
Succeeded byJohn Hare
In office
20 December 1955 – 14 October 1959
Prime Minister
Preceded byPatrick Buchan-Hepburn
Succeeded byMartin Redmayne
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office
7 November 1951 – 20 December 1955
Prime Minister
Preceded byWilliam Wilkins
Succeeded byEdward Wakefield
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
16 February 1965 – 11 November 1965
Leader
  • Alec Douglas-Home
  • Himself
Preceded byReginald Maudling
Succeeded byIain Macleod
Parliamentary offices
Father of the House of Commons
In office
9 April 1992 – 14 May 2001
Preceded byBernard Braine
Succeeded byTam Dalyell
Member of Parliament
for Old Bexley and Sidcup
In office
9 June 1983 – 14 May 2001
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byDerek Conway
Member of Parliament
for Sidcup
In office
28 February 1974 – 13 May 1983
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of Parliament
for Bexley
In office
23 February 1950 – 8 February 1974
Preceded byAshley Bramall
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Edward Richard George Heath

(1916-07-09)9 July 1916
Broadstairs, Kent, England
Died17 July 2005(2005-07-17) (aged 89)
Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
Resting placeSalisbury Cathedral
Political partyConservative
Alma materBalliol College, Oxford
Occupation
Awards
Signature
Military service
Branch/serviceBritish Army
RankLieutenant colonel
Unit
Battles/warsSecond World War
Service number179215

Sir Edward Richard George Heath KG MBE (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005), commonly known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 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 from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a yachtsman, a musician, and an author.

Born in Broadstairs, Kent, Heath was the son of a chambermaid and carpenter. He attended Chatham House Grammar School in Ramsgate, Kent, and became a leader within student politics while studying at Balliol College at the University of Oxford. During World War II, Heath served as an officer in the Royal Artillery. He worked briefly in the Civil Service, but resigned in order to stand for Parliament, and was elected for Bexley at the 1950 election.[1] 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. 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, significantly reducing the number of local authorities and creating several new metropolitan counties, much of which remains to this day. A strong supporter of British membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), Heath's "finest hour" came in 1973, when he led the United Kingdom into membership of what would later become the European Union.[2][3] However, his premiership also coincided with the height of the Troubles 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 delegates were unsuccessful, as was the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973, which led the MPs of the Ulster Unionist Party to withdraw from the Conservative whip. Heath also tried to reform British trade unionism with the Industrial Relations Act, and hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from direct to indirect taxation. However, a miners' strike at the start of 1974 severely damaged the Government, causing the implementation of the Three-Day Week to conserve energy. Attempting to resolve the situation, Heath called an election for February 1974, attempting to obtain a mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, but this instead resulted in a hung parliament, 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 to form a coalition government were unsuccessful.

After losing a second successive election in October 1974, Heath's leadership was challenged by Margaret Thatcher and, on 4 February, she narrowly outpolled him in the first round. Heath chose to resign the leadership rather than contest the second round, returning to the backbenches, where he would remain until 2001. In 1975, he played a major role in the referendum on British membership of the EEC, campaigning for the eventually successful "remain" vote. Heath would later become an embittered critic of Thatcher during her time as prime minister, speaking and writing against the policies of Thatcherism. Following the 1992 election, he became Father of the House, until his retirement from the Commons 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 tradition who rejected the laissez-faire capitalism that Thatcher would enthusiastically endorse."[4]

  1. ^ "Edward Heath: A profile of the former UK Prime Minister". BBC News. 4 August 2015. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
  2. ^ "European Communities (Hansard, 28 October 1971)". api.parliament.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  3. ^ John Campbell, Edward Heath (1993) pp. 404–405.
  4. ^ Langdon, Julia (1 October 2015). "Sir Edward Heath: One Nation Tory's political legacy". BBC News. Retrieved 18 December 2019.