Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to examine how and why Edward Heath was removed from the leadership of the Conservative Party in 1975. This chapter focuses on three core issues. First, it explains how, in order to replace Heath, the 1922 Executive Committee of Conservative backbenchers campaigned for a change to the leadership selection rules so as to permit a challenge to his leadership. Second, having created the means to evict Heath, this chapter considers the difficulties that his critics had in finding a viable challenger, as possible candidates such as Edward du Cann, William Whitelaw and Keith Joseph, all decided not to stand against him. Third, this chapter identifies how and why Margaret Thatcher emerged as an unlikely challenger, before profiling the campaigning period and the ballots as a means of identifying why Heath was defeated but also why Thatcher was selected as his replacement. [152]
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
To launch a challenge, the challenger would only need the support of a proposer and a seconder (CPA, 6/2/11 ‘Procedure for the Selection of the Leader of the Conservative Party’, 10 December 1974).
- 3.
It is interesting to note the different recollections that Thatcher and Heath have of her, informing him of her decision to stand against him for the leadership of the Conservative Party. In his memoirs Heath claims that he thanked her for telling him in advance of her intentions (Heath 1998: 530), whilst Thatcher recalls how ‘he looked at me coldly, turned his back, shrugged his shoulders and said “if you must”’ (Thatcher 1995: 267).
- 4.
Fowler would recall how the initial reaction amongst parliamentary colleagues to the prospect of Thatcher winning was one of incredulity.
- 5.
- 6.
Crines et al. (Crines et al. 2016: 23) would argue that it was during these parliamentary exchanges that Thatcher delivered ‘one of her best ever parliamentary rejoinders’, as she said of Healey, who had been ridiculing her: ‘some Chancellors are macro-economic. Other Chancellors are fiscal. This one is just plain cheap’ (HC Deb, Vol. 884, Col. 1553-4, 22 January 1975).
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Stacey, E. (2021). The Conservative Party Leadership Election of 1975. In: Roe-Crines, A.S., Heppell, T. (eds) Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_16
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