The Fall of the Wilson Government, 1970

Abstract

The Labour government’s defeat in the June 1970 general election was a considerable surprise to many commentators, because, according to Gallup Polls, the party had enjoyed a 49–42 per cent lead over the Conservatives through May and the first half of June. The same opinion polls had shown that Labour’s leader, Harold Wilson, enjoyed a much higher approval rating than his Conservative counterpart, Edward Heath; their respective approval ratings were 49–28 per cent in May and 51–28 per cent in June. In the context of such figures, the proportion of people expecting a Labour victory increased from 56 per cent in May to 68 per cent in June, while those envisaging a Conservative victory fell from 26 per cent to a mere 13 per cent.

Cross the river by groping for the stones under your feet.

There are just four days to go and so far it has been one of the easiest campaigns I’ve known … that the mood is on our side and that people are good-humouredly willing to accept another six years of Labour Government … at this particular moment, as in the spring of ‘’66, the British elector feels good. The country isn’t in the mood for Cassandra [Edward Heath] prophesying doom, nor does the electorate want Heath’s reconstructed, reactionary Toryism of free enterprise and anti-trade unionism.

(Crossman, 1977: 944–5, diary entry for 14 June 1970)

I sensed an undercurrent of detachment among our own activists and Party audiences. As early as 13 June, I was writing in my diary: ‘I wish there weren’t another five days before the Election! I don’t believe those poll figures … I have a haunting feeling there is a silent majority sitting behind its lace curtains, waiting to come out and vote Tory’.

(Castle, 1990: 407)