‘The best prime minister we have’, 1955–7

Abstract

‘It is fortunate for Britain that there exists to succeed Sir Winston a leader who is a world statesman in his own right’, wrote the Yorkshire Post in April 1955. Sir Anthony Eden’s greatest asset, it was said, was his ability to ‘command respect in the Cabinet room, in the House and in the country’. Few prime ministers had arrived at Downing Street with such glowing tributes ringing in their ears. The conventional wisdom was that Eden had everything going for him: film-star good looks and an impeccable ministerial record made him ideally suited to lead a confident party anticipating electoral victory. He had been closely associated with the spirit if not the detail of a ‘property-owning democracy’, and he ambitiously championed a genuine ‘partnership in industry’ instead of outdated class warfare. In short, he ‘incarnates as well as any man the new Conservatism’ of the 1950s.²