Harold Wilson

FSS
Wilson in 1962
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 4 March 1974 – 5 April 1976
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
In office 16 October 1964 – 19 June 1970
Monarch	Elizabeth II
First Secretary	George Brown Michael Stewart Barbara Castle
Preceded by	Alec Douglas-Home
Succeeded by	Edward Heath
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 14 February 1963 – 5 April 1976
Deputy	George Brown Roy Jenkins Edward Short
Preceded by	Hugh Gaitskell
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
Leader of the Opposition
In office 19 June 1970 – 4 March 1974
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Edward Heath
Succeeded by	Edward Heath
In office 14 February 1963 – 16 October 1964
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	George Brown
Succeeded by	Alec Douglas-Home
Ministerial offices Reginald Manningham-Buller Succeeded by Evan Durbin
Shadow cabinet offices Shadow Foreign Secretary In office 2 November 1961 – 14 February 1963 Leader Hugh Gaitskell George Brown Preceded by Denis Healey Succeeded by Patrick Gordon Walker Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 14 December 1955 – 2 November 1961 Leader Hugh Gaitskell Preceded by Hugh Gaitskell Succeeded by James Callaghan
Parliamentary offices Lord Temporal Life peerage 16 September 1983 – 24 May 1995 Member of Parliament for Huyton In office 23 February 1950 – 13 May 1983 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Constituency abolished Member of Parliament for Ormskirk In office 5 July 1945 – 3 February 1950 Preceded by Stephen King-Hall Succeeded by Ronald Cross
Personal details
Born	James Harold Wilson (1916-03-11)11 March 1916 Huddersfield, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	24 May 1995(1995-05-24) (aged 79) London, England
Resting place	St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Mary Baldwin ​ (m. 1940)​
Children	2, including Robin
Alma mater	Jesus College, Oxford
Occupation	Politician author lecturer
Profession	Civil servant
Signature

This article is part of a series about Harold Wilson
Labour Party MP for Huyton Pre-Prime Minister 1960 leadership election 1963 leadership election 1964 general election Prime Minister of the United Kingdom First term Cabinet Circular 10/65 Capital gains tax Abolition of death penalty Decimalisation announcement 1966 general election Second term Cabinet Decriminalisation of homosexuality Abortion Act 1967 Race Relations Act 1968 Open University Divorce Reform Act 1969 Operation Banner 1970 general election Third and fourth terms February 1974 general election Cabinet 1973–1975 recession October 1974 general election 1976 sterling crisis
v t e

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx,

In March 1976 he suddenly announced his resignation as prime minister. Wilson remained in the House of Commons until retiring in 1983, when he was elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Wilson of Rievaulx. While seen by admirers as leading the Labour Party through difficult political issues with considerable skill, Wilson's reputation was low when he left office and is still disputed in historiography. Some scholars praise his unprecedented electoral success for a Labour prime minister and holistic approach to governance ^[1] while others criticise his political style and handling of economic issues.^[2] Several key issues which he faced while prime minister included the role of public ownership, whether Britain should seek the membership of the European Communities, and British involvement in the Vietnam War.^[3] His stated ambitions of substantially improving Britain's long-term economic performance, applying technology more democratically, and reducing inequality were to some extent unfulfilled.^[4]

Early life

Wilson was born at Warneford Road, Cowlersley, in the western suburbs of the mill town of Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on 11 March 1916. He came from a political family: his father James Herbert Wilson was a works chemist who had been active in the Liberal Party, serving as Winston Churchill's deputy election agent in a 1908 by-election, but later joined the Labour Party. His mother Ethel (née Seddon) was a schoolteacher before her marriage; in 1901 her brother Harold Seddon settled in Western Australia and became a local political leader. When Wilson was eight, he visited London and a much-reproduced photograph was taken of him standing on the doorstep of 10 Downing Street. At the age of ten, he went with his family to Australia, where he became fascinated with the pomp and glamour of politics. On the way home, he told his mother, "I am going to be prime minister."^[5]

Education

Wilson won a scholarship to attend

Wilson did well at school and, although he missed getting a scholarship, he obtained an

Academically his results put him among prime ministers in the category of

Asquith, and no one else. But...he lacked originality. What he was superb at was the quick assimilation of knowledge, combined with an ability to keep it ordered in his mind and to present it lucidly in a form welcome to his examiners.^[9]

As the war drew to an end, he searched for a seat to contest at the impending general election. He was selected for the constituency of Ormskirk, then held by Stephen King-Hall. Wilson agreed to be adopted as the candidate immediately rather than delay until the election was called, and was therefore compelled to resign from his position in the Civil Service. He served as Praelector in Economics at University College between his resignation and his election to the House of Commons. He also used this time to write A New Deal for Coal, which used his wartime experience to argue for the nationalisation of the coal mines on the grounds of the improved efficiency he predicted would ensue.

In the

The boundaries of his Ormskirk constituency were significantly altered before the general election of 1950. He stood instead for the new seat of Huyton near Liverpool, and was narrowly elected; he served there for 33 years until 1983.^[12]

Cabinet minister, 1947–1951

Bonfire of controls

Wilson was appointed

In November 1948 Wilson announced his Board of Trade had removed the need for over 200,000 licenses and permits. By March 1949 he promised to remove the need for another 900,000, although meat remained in short supply and was still rationed, as was petrol.[16] Henry Irvine argues that Wilson's success with the bonfire controls established his reputation as a modernizing specialist, with both the general public and the political elite. Irving also argues that the selection timing and especially the publicity Wilson devoted to the bonfire represented the emerging skills of a brilliant young politician. While each major bonfire was justified in terms of technical economic advantages, it was selected and publicized widely to reach the largest possible audience so that everybody could understand that their bread and jam became free again.^[17]

Three ambitious young men

In mid-1949, with Chancellor of the Exchequer

Wilson was becoming known in the Labour Party as a left-winger, and joined Aneurin Bevan and John Freeman in resigning from the government in April 1951 in protest at the introduction of National Health Service (NHS) medical charges to meet the financial demands imposed by the Korean War. At this time, Wilson was not yet regarded as a heavyweight politician: Hugh Dalton referred to him scornfully as "Nye [Bevan]'s dog".^[21]

After Labour lost the

Gaitskell died in January 1963, just as the Labour Party had begun to unite and appeared to have a very good chance of winning the next election, with the Macmillan Government running into trouble. Timothy Heppell has explored how Wilson won the Labour Party leadership election. Wilson had alienated the right wing of the party by his angry attempts to defeat Gaitskell in 1960 for the leadership, and George Brown in 1962 for the deputy leadership. These misadventures gave Wilson a reputation for disloyalty and divisiveness. Heppell identifies three factors whereby Wilson overcame these disadvantages. Firstly, he had united the party's left wing behind him and they showed no willingness to compromise. Secondly, the right wing, although more numerous, was deeply split between Brown and James Callaghan. Wilson took the lead on the first ballot and gained momentum on the second. Finally, Brown proved a poor campaigner, emphasizing divisive factors rather than his own credentials, allowing Wilson to emerge, surprisingly, as the unity candidate, thus becoming the Leader of the Labour Party and the Leader of the Opposition.^[28]

At the party's 1963 annual conference, Wilson made his best-remembered speech, on the implications of scientific and technological change. He argued that "the Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated measures on either side of industry". This speech did much to set Wilson's reputation as a technocrat not tied to the prevailing class system.^[29]

Labour's

Labour won the

The 1964–1970 Labour government carried out a broad range of reforms during its time in office, in such areas as social security,[33] civil liberties,^[34] housing,^[35] health,^[36] education,^[37] and worker's rights.^[38]

It is perhaps best remembered for the liberal social reforms introduced or supported by

Wilson's government put faith in economic planning as a way to solve Britain's economic problems. The government's strategy involved setting up a Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) which would draw up a National Plan which was intended to promote growth and investment. Wilson believed that scientific progress was the key to economic and social advancement, as such he famously referred to the "white heat of technology", in reference to the modernisation of British industry. This was to be achieved through a new Ministry of Technology (shortened to "Mintech") which would coordinate research and development and support the swift adoption of new technology by industry, aided by government-funded infrastructure improvements.^[39]

In practice, however, events derailed much of the initial optimism. Upon coming to power, the government was informed that they had inherited an exceptionally large deficit of £800 million on Britain's balance of trade. This partly reflected the preceding government's expansive fiscal policy in the run-up to the 1964 election. Immediately the pound came under enormous pressure, and many economists advocated devaluation of the pound in response, but Wilson resisted, reportedly in part out of concern that Labour, which had previously devalued sterling in 1949, would become tagged as "the party of devaluation". Wilson also believed that a devaluation would disproportionately harm low-income Britons with savings and poorer Commonwealth of Nations countries in the sterling area. The government instead opted to deal with the problem by imposing a temporary surcharge on imports, and a series of deflationary measures designed to reduce demand and therefore the inflow of imports.^[40] In the latter half of 1967, an attempt was made to prevent the recession in activity from going too far in the form of a stimulus to consumer durable spending through an easing of credit, which in turn prevented a rise in unemployment.^[41]

After a costly battle, market pressures forced the government to devalue the pound by 14% from $2.80 to $2.40 in November 1967.^[39] Wilson was much criticised for a broadcast soon after in which he assured listeners that the "pound in your pocket" had not lost its value.^[42] Economic performance did show some improvement after the devaluation, as economists had predicted. The devaluation, with accompanying austerity measures which ensured resources went into exports rather than domestic consumption, successfully restored the trade balance to surplus by 1969. In retrospect Wilson has been widely criticised for not devaluing earlier, however, he believed there were strong arguments against it, including the fear that it would set off a round of competitive devaluations, and concern about the impact price rises following a devaluation would have on people on low incomes.^[39]

The government's decision over its first three years to defend sterling's parity with traditional deflationary measures ran counter to hopes for an expansionist push for growth. The National Plan produced by the DEA in 1965 targeted an annual growth rate of 3.8%, however, under the restrained circumstances the actual average rate of growth between 1964 and 1970 was a far more modest 2.2%. The DEA itself was wound up in 1969. The government's other main initiative Mintech did have some success at switching research and development spending from military to civilian purposes, and of achieving increases in industrial productivity, although persuading industry to adopt new technology proved more difficult than had been hoped.^[39] Faith in indicative planning as a pathway to growth,^[43] embodied in the DEA and Mintech, was at the time by no means confined to the Labour Party. Wilson built on foundations that had been laid by his Conservative predecessors, in the shape, for example, of the National Economic Development Council (known as "Neddy") and its regional counterparts (the "little Neddies").^[39] Government intervention in industry was greatly enhanced, with the National Economic Development Office greatly strengthened and the number of "little Neddies" was increased, from eight in 1964 to twenty-one in 1970. The government's policy of selective economic intervention was later characterised by the establishment of a new super-ministry of technology, a connexion not always publicly grasped, under Tony Benn.^[44]

The continued relevance of industrial

One innovation of the Wilson government was the creation in 1968 of the Girobank, a publicly owned bank which operated via the General Post Office network: As most working-class people in the 1960s did not have bank accounts, this was designed to serve their needs, as such it was billed as the "people's bank".^[45] Girobank was a long-term success, surviving until 2003.^[46]

Wilson's government presided over a rate of unemployment which was low by historic (and later) standards but did rise during his period in office. Between 1964 and 1966 the average rate of unemployment was 1.6%, while between 1966 and 1970 the average stood at 2.5%.^[39] He had entered power at a time when unemployment stood at around 400,000. It still stood at 371,000 by early 1966 after a steady fall during 1965, but by March 1967 it stood at 631,000. It fell again towards the end of the decade, standing at 582,000 by the time of the general election in June 1970.^[47]

Despite the economic difficulties faced by Wilson's government, it was able to achieve important advances in several domestic policy areas. As reflected by Wilson in 1971:

It was a government which faced disappointment after disappointment and none greater than the economic restraints in our ability to carry through the social revolution to which we were committed at the speed we would have wished. Yet, despite those restraints and the need to transfer resources from domestic expenditure, private and public, to the needs of our export markets, we carried through an expansion in the social services, health, welfare and housing, unparalleled in our history.^[48]

Social issues

Several liberalising social reforms were passed through parliament during Wilson's first period in government. These dealt with the death penalty, homosexual acts, abortion, censorship and the voting age. There were new restrictions on immigration.^[49] Wilson personally, coming culturally from a provincial non-conformist background, showed no particular enthusiasm for much of this agenda.^[50]

Education

Wilson promoted the concept of an

Labour pressed local authorities to convert grammar schools into comprehensives. Conversion continued on a large scale during the subsequent Conservative Heath administration, although the Secretary of State, Margaret Thatcher, ended the compulsion of local governments to convert.

A major controversy that arose during Wilson's first government was the decision that the government could not fulfil its long-held promise to raise the school leaving age to 16, because of the investment required in infrastructure, such as extra classrooms and teachers.

Overall, public expenditure on education rose as a proportion of GNP from 4.8% in 1964 to 5.9% in 1968, and the number of teachers in training increased by more than a third between 1964 and 1967.^[54] The percentage of students staying on at school after the age of sixteen increased similarly, and the student population increased by over 10% each year. Pupil-teacher ratios were also steadily reduced. As a result of the first Wilson government's educational policies, opportunities for working-class children were improved, while overall access to education in 1970 was broader than in 1964.^[55] As summarised by Brian Lapping,

"The years 1964–70 were largely taken up with creating extra places in universities, polytechnics, technical colleges, colleges of education: preparing for the day when a new Act would make it the right of a student, on leaving school, to have a place in an institution of further education."^[44]

In 1966, Wilson was created the first Chancellor of the newly created University of Bradford, a position he held until 1985.

Housing

Housing was a major policy area under the first Wilson government. During Wilson's time in office from 1964 to 1970, more new houses were built than in the last six years of the previous Conservative government. The proportion of council housing rose from 42% to 50% of the total,^[56] while the number of council homes built increased steadily, from 119,000 in 1964 to 133,000 in 1965 and 142,000 in 1966. Allowing for demolitions, 1.3 million new homes were built between 1965 and 1970,^[52] To encourage homeownership, the government introduced the Option Mortgage Scheme (1968), which made low-income housebuyers eligible for subsidies (equivalent to tax relief on mortgage interest payments).^[57] This scheme had the effect of reducing housing costs for buyers on low incomes^[58] and enabling more people to become owner-occupiers.^[59] In addition, house owners were exempted from capital gains tax. Together with the Option Mortgage Scheme, this measure stimulated the private housing market.^[60] Wilson in a 1967 speech said: ''..the grime and muddle and decay of our Victorian heritage is being replaced. The new city centres with their university precincts, their light, clean and well-spaced civic buildings, will not merely brighten the physical environment of our people, they will change the very quality of urban life in Britain.''^[61]

Significant emphasis was also placed on town planning, with new conservation areas introduced and a new generation of new towns built, notably

Many subsidies were allocated to local authorities faced with acute areas of

According to Tony Atkinson, social security received much more attention from the first Wilson government than it did during the previous thirteen years of Conservative government.^[41] Following its victory in the 1964 general election, Wilson's government began to increase social benefits. Prescription charges for medicines were abolished immediately,^[a] while pensions were raised to a record 21% of average male industrial wages. In 1966, the system of National Assistance (a social assistance scheme for the poor) was overhauled and renamed Supplementary Benefit. Before the 1966 election, the widow's pension was tripled. Due to austerity measures following an economic crisis, prescription charges were re-introduced in 1968 as an alternative to cutting the hospital building programme, although those sections of the population who were most in need (including supplementary benefit claimants, the long-term sick, children, and pensioners) were exempted from charges.^[65]

The widow's earning rule was also abolished,^[52] while a range of new social benefits was introduced. An Act was passed which replaced National Assistance with Supplementary Benefits. The new Act laid down that people who satisfied its conditions were entitled to these noncontributory benefits. The means test was replaced with a statement of income, and benefit rates for pensioners (the great majority of claimants) were increased, granting them a real gain in income. Unlike the National Assistance scheme, which operated on a discretionary basis, the new Supplementary Benefits scheme was a right of every citizen who found himself or herself in severe difficulties. Those persons over the retirement age with no means who were considered to be unable to live on the basic pension (which provided less than what the government deemed as necessary for subsistence) became entitled to a "long-term" allowance of an extra few shillings a week. Some simplification of the procedure for claiming benefits was also introduced.^[44] From 1966, an exceptionally severe disablement allowance was added, "for those claimants receiving constant attendance allowance which was paid to those with the higher or intermediate rates of constant attendance allowance and who were exceptionally severely disabled."^[66] Redundancy payments were introduced in 1965 to lessen the impact of unemployment, and earnings-related benefits for maternity,^[67] unemployment, sickness, industrial injuries and widowhood were introduced in 1966, followed by the replacement of flat-rate family allowances with an earnings-related scheme in 1968.^[63] From July 1966 onwards, the temporary allowance for widows of severely disabled pensioners was extended from 13 to 26 weeks.^[68]

Increases were made in pensions and other benefits during Wilson's first year in office that were the largest ever real term increases carried out up until that point.^[69] Social security benefits were markedly increased during Wilson's first two years in office, as characterised by a budget passed in the final quarter of 1964 which raised the standard benefit rates for old age, sickness and invalidity by 18.5%.^[70] In 1965, the government increased the national assistance rate to a higher level relative to earnings, and via annual adjustments, broadly maintained the rate at between 19% and 20% of gross industrial earnings until the start of 1970.^[41] In the five years from 1964 up until the last increases made by the First Wilson Government, pensions went up by 23% in real terms, supplementary benefits by 26% in real terms, and sickness and unemployment benefits by 153% in real terms (largely as a result of the introduction of earnings-related benefits in 1967).^[71]

Agriculture

Under the First Wilson Government, subsidies for farmers were increased.^[72][73] Farmers who wished to leave the land or retire became eligible for grants or annuities if their holdings were sold for approved amalgamations, and could receive those benefits whether they wished to remain in their farmhouses or not. A Small Farmers Scheme was also extended, and from 1 December 1965, forty thousand more farmers became eligible for the maximum £1,000 grant. New grants to agriculture also encouraged the voluntary pooling of smallholdings, and in cases where their land was purchased for non-commercial purposes, tenant-farmers could now receive double the previous "disturbance compensation."^[74] A Hill Land Improvement Scheme, introduced by the Agriculture Act 1967, provided 50% grants for a wide range of land improvements, along with a supplementary 10% grant on drainage works benefitting hill land.^[75] The Agriculture Act 1967 also provided grants to promote farm amalgamation and to compensate outgoers.^[76]

Health

The proportion of GNP spent on the National Health Service rose from 4.2% in 1964 to about 5% in 1969. This additional expenditure provided for an energetic revival of a policy of building health centres for general practitioners, extra pay for doctors who served in areas particularly short of them, significant growth in hospital staffing, and a significant increase in a hospital building programme. Far more money was spent each year on the NHS than under the 1951–64 Conservative governments, while much more effort was put into modernising and reorganising the health service.^[44] Stronger central and regional organisations were established for bulk purchase of hospital supplies, while some efforts were made to reduce inequalities in standards of care. In addition, the government increased the intake to medical schools.^[41]

The

The

The First Wilson Government also encouraged married women to return to teaching and improved Assistance Board Concessionary conditions for those teaching part-time, "by enabling them to qualify for pension rights and by formulating a uniform scale of payment throughout the country." Soon after coming into office, midwives and nurses were given an 11% pay increase,[74] and according to one MP, nurses also benefited from the largest pay rise they had received in a generation.^[82] In May 1966, Wilson announced 30% pay rises for doctors and dentists—a move which did not prove popular with unions, as the national pay policy at the time was for rises of between 3% and 3.5%.^[83]

Much needed improvements were made in junior hospital doctors' salaries. From 1959 to 1970, while the earnings of manual workers increased by 75%, the salaries of registrars more than doubled while those of house officers more than trebled. Most of these improvements, such as for nurses, came in the pay settlements of 1970. On a limited scale, reports by the National Board for Prices and Incomes encouraged incentive payments schemes to be developed in local government and elsewhere. In February 1969, the government accepted an "above the ceiling" increase for farmworkers, a low-paid group. Some groups of professional workers, such as nurses, teachers, and doctors, gained substantial awards.^[41]

Transport

The Travel Concessions Act 1964, one of the first Acts passed by the First Wilson Government, provided concessions to all pensioners travelling on buses operated by municipal transport authorities.

Encouragement of regional development was given increased attention under the First Wilson Government, to narrow economic disparities between the various regions. A policy was introduced in 1965 whereby any new government organisation should be established outside London and in 1967 the government decided to give preference to development areas. A few government departments were also moved out of London, with the Royal Mint moved to South Wales, the Giro and Inland Revenue to Bootle, and the Motor Tax Office to Swansea.^[86] A new Special Development Status was also introduced in 1967 to provide even higher levels of assistance.^[52] In 1966, five development areas (covering half the population in the UK) were established, while subsidies were provided for employers recruiting new employees in the Development Areas.^[39] A Highlands and Islands Development Board was also set up to "re-invigorate" the north of Scotland.^[74]

The Industrial Development Act 1966 changed the name of Development Districts (parts of the country with higher levels of unemployment than the national average and which governments sought to encourage greater investment in) to Development Areas and increased the percentage of the workforce covered by development schemes from 15% to 20%, which mainly affected rural areas in Scotland and Wales. Tax allowances were replaced by grants to extend coverage to include firms which were not making a profit, and in 1967 a Regional Employment Premium was introduced. Whereas the existing schemes tended to favour capital-intensive projects, this aimed for the first time at increasing employment in depressed areas. Set at 30s per employee per week and guaranteed for seven years, the Regional Employment Premium subsidised all manufacturing industry (though not services) in Development Areas, amounting to an average subsidy of 7% of labour costs.^[52][87]

Regional unemployment differentials were narrowed, and spending on regional infrastructure was significantly increased. Between 1965–66 and 1969–70, yearly expenditure on new construction (including power stations, roads, schools, hospitals and housing) rose by 41% in the United Kingdom as a whole. Subsidies were also provided for various industries (such as

Funds allocated to regional assistance more than doubled, from £40 million in 1964/65 to £82 million in 1969/70, and from 1964 to 1970, the number of factories completed was 50% higher than from 1960 to 1964, which helped to reduce unemployment in development areas. In 1970, the unemployment rate in development areas was 1.67 times the national average, compared to 2.21 times in 1964. Although national rates of unemployment were higher in 1970 than in the early 1960s, unemployment rates in the development areas were lower and had not increased for three years.[52] Altogether, the impact of the first Wilson government's regional development policies was such that, according to one historian, the period 1963 to 1970 represented "the most prolonged, most intensive, and most successful attack ever launched on regional problems in Britain."^[39]

International development

A new

Various changes were also made to the tax system which benefited workers on low and middle incomes. Married couples with low incomes benefited from the increases in the single personal allowance and marriage allowance. In 1965, the regressive allowance for national insurance contributions was abolished and the single personal allowance, marriage allowance and wife's earned income relief were increased. These allowances were further increased in the tax years 1969–70 and 1970–71. Increases in the age exemption and dependant relative's income limits benefited the low-income elderly.[41] In 1967, new tax concessions were introduced for widows.^[92]

Increases were made in some of the minor allowances in the 1969 Finance Act, notably the additional personal allowance, the age exemption and age relief and the dependent relative limit. Apart from the age relief, further adjustments in these concessions were implemented in 1970.^[41]

1968 saw the introduction of aggregation of the investment income of unmarried minors with the income of their parents. According to Michael Meacher, this change put an end to a previous inequity whereby two families, in otherwise identical circumstances, paid differing amounts of tax "simply because in one case the child possessed property transferred to it by a grandparent, while in the other case the grandparent's identical property was inherited by the parent."^[41]

In the 1969 budget, income tax was abolished for about 1 million of the lowest-paid and reduced for a further 600,000 people,^[73] while in the government's last budget (introduced in 1970), two million small taxpayers were exempted from paying any income tax altogether.^[93]

Liberal reforms

A wide range of liberal measures were introduced during Wilson's time in office. The

With public frustration over strikes mounting, Wilson's government in 1969 proposed a series of changes to the legal basis for industrial relations (labour law), which were outlined in a White Paper "In Place of Strife" put forward by the Employment Secretary Barbara Castle. Following a confrontation with the Trades Union Congress, which strongly opposed the proposals, and internal dissent from Home Secretary James Callaghan, the government substantially backed-down from its intentions. The Heath government (1970–1974) introduced the Industrial Relations Act 1971 with many of the same ideas, but this was largely repealed by the post-1974 Labour government. Some elements of these changes were subsequently to be enacted (in modified form) during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher.^[39]

Record on income distribution

Despite the economic difficulties faced by the first Wilson government, it succeeded in maintaining low levels of unemployment and inflation during its time in office. Unemployment was kept below 2.7%, and inflation for much of the 1960s remained below 4%. Living standards generally improved, while public spending on housing, social security, transport, research, education and health went up by an average of more than 6% between 1964 and 1970.^[99] The average household grew steadily richer, with the number of cars in the United Kingdom rising from one to every 6.4 persons to one for every five persons in 1968, representing a net increase of three million cars on the road. The rise in the standard of living was also characterised by increased ownership of various consumer durables from 1964 to 1969, as demonstrated by television sets (from 88% to 90%), refrigerators (from 39% to 59%), and washing machines (from 54% to 64%).^[44]

By 1970, income in Britain was more equally distributed than in 1964, mainly because of increases in cash benefits, including family allowances.^[100]

According to the historian, Dominic Sandbrook:

In its commitment to social services and public welfare, the Wilson government put together a record unmatched by any subsequent administration, and the mid-sixties are justifiably seen as the 'golden age' of the welfare state.^[99]

As noted by

Between 1964 and 1968, benefits in kind were significantly progressive, in that over the period those in the lower half of the income scale benefited more than those in the upper half. On average those receiving state benefits benefited more in terms of increases in real disposable income than the average manual worker or salaried employee between 1964 and 1969.[86] From 1964 to 1969, low-wage earners did substantially better than other sections of the population. In 1969, a married couple with two children were 11.5% per cent richer in real terms, while for a couple with three children, the corresponding increase was 14.5%, and for a family with four children, 16.5%.^[107] From 1965 to 1968, the income of single pensioner households as a percentage of other one adult households rose from 48.9% to 52.5%. For two pensioner households, the equivalent increase was from 46.8% to 48.2%.^[41] In addition, mainly as a result of big increases in cash benefits, unemployed persons and large families gained more in terms of real disposable income than the rest of the population during Wilson's time in office.^[55]

As noted by Paul Whiteley, pensions, sickness, unemployment, and supplementary benefits went up more in real terms under the First Wilson Government than under the preceding Conservative administration:

"To compare the Conservative period of office with the Labour period, we can use the changes in benefits per year as a rough estimate of comparative performance. For the Conservatives and Labour respectively increases in supplementary benefits per year were 3.5 and 5.2 percentage points, for sickness and unemployment benefits 5.8 and 30.6 percentage points, for pensions 3.8 and 4.6, and for family allowances −1.2 and −2.6. Thus the poor, the retired, the sick and the unemployed did better in real terms under Labour than they did under Conservatives, and families did worse."^[71]

Between 1964 and 1968, cash benefits rose as a percentage of income for all households but more so for poorer than for wealthier households. As noted by the economist Michael Stewart,

"it seems indisputable that the high priority the Labour Government gave to expenditure on education and the health service had a favourable effect on income distribution."^[86]

For a family with two children in the income range £676 to £816 per annum, cash benefits rose from 4% of income in 1964 to 22% in 1968, compared with a change from 1% to 2% for a similar family in the income range £2,122 to £2,566 over the same period. For benefits in kind the changes over the same period for similar families were from 21% to 29% for lower-income families and from 9% to 10% for higher-income families. When taking into account all benefits, taxes and Government expenditures on social services, the first Wilson government succeeded in bringing about a reduction in income inequality. As noted by the historian Kenneth O. Morgan,

"In the long term, therefore, fortified by increases in supplementary and other benefits under the Crossman regime in 1968–70, the welfare state had made some impact, almost by inadvertence, on social inequality and the maldistribution of real income".^[108]

Public expenditure as a percentage of GDP rose significantly under the 1964–1970 Labour government, from 34% in 1964–65 to nearly 38% of GDP by 1969–70, whilst expenditure on social services rose from 16% of national income in 1964 to 23% by 1970.^[52] These measures had a major impact on the living standards of low-income Britons, with disposable incomes rising faster for low-income groups than for high-income groups during the 1960s. When measuring disposable income after taxation but including benefits, the total disposable income of those on the highest incomes fell by 33%, whilst the total disposable income of those on the lowest incomes rose by 104%.^[52] As noted by one historian, "the net effect of Labour's financial policies was indeed to make the rich poorer and the poor richer".^[109]

Foreign affairs

United States

Wilson believed in a strong "

Among the more challenging political dilemmas Wilson faced was the issue of British membership of the European Community, the forerunner of the present European Union. An entry attempt was vetoed in 1963 by French President Charles de Gaulle. The Labour Party in Opposition had been divided on the issue, with Hugh Gaitskell having come out in 1962 in opposition to Britain joining the European Community.^[114] After initial hesitation, Wilson's Government in May 1967 lodged the UK's second application to join the European Community. It was vetoed by de Gaulle in November 1967.^[115] After De Gaulle lost power, Conservative prime minister Edward Heath negotiated Britain's admission to the EC in 1973.

Wilson in opposition showed political ingenuity in devising a position that both sides of the party could agree on, opposing the terms negotiated by Heath but not membership in principle. Labour's 1974 manifesto included a pledge to renegotiate terms for Britain's membership and then hold a referendum on whether to stay in the EC on the new terms. This was a constitutional procedure without precedent in British history.

Following Wilson's return to power, the renegotiations with Britain's fellow EC members were carried out by Wilson himself in tandem with Foreign Secretary James Callaghan, and they toured the capital cities of Europe meeting their European counterparts. The discussions focused primarily on Britain's net budgetary contribution to the EC. As a small agricultural producer heavily dependent on imports, Britain suffered doubly from the dominance of:

(i) agricultural spending in the EC budget,

(ii) agricultural

import taxes as a source of EC revenues

.

During the renegotiations, other EEC members conceded, as a partial offset, the establishment of a significant European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), from which it was agreed that Britain would be a major net beneficiary.^[116]

In the subsequent referendum campaign, rather than the normal British tradition of "collective responsibility", under which the government takes a policy position which all cabinet members are required to support publicly, members of the Government were free to present their views on either side of the question. The electorate voted on 5 June 1975 to continue membership, by a substantial majority.^[117]

Asia

American military involvement in Vietnam escalated continuously from 1964 to 1968 and President Lyndon B. Johnson brought pressure to bear for at least a token involvement of British military units. Wilson consistently avoided any commitment of British forces, giving as reasons British military commitments to the Malayan Emergency and British co-chairmanship of the 1954 Geneva Conference.^[118]

His government offered some rhetorical support for the US position (most prominently in the defence offered by the Foreign Secretary

By 1969, the Labour Party was suffering serious electoral reverses, and by the turn of 1970 had lost a total of 16 seats in by-elections since the previous general election.[126]

By 1970, the economy was showing signs of improvement, and by May that year, Labour had overtaken the Conservatives in the opinion polls.^[127] Wilson responded to this apparent recovery in his government's popularity by calling a general election, but, to the surprise of most observers, was defeated at the polls by the Conservatives under Heath. Most opinion polls had predicted a Labour win, with a poll six days before the election showing a 12.4% Labour lead. Writing in the aftermath of the election, The Times journalist George Clark wrote that the 1970 contest would be "remembered as the occasion when the people of the United Kingdom hurled the findings of the opinion polls back into the faces of the pollsters and at the voting booths proved them wrong—most of them badly wrong".^[128] Heath and the Conservatives had attacked Wilson over the economy. Towards the end of the campaign, bad trade figures for May added weight to Heath's campaign and he claimed that a Labour victory would result in a further devaluation. Wilson considered Heath's claims "irresponsible" and "damaging to the nation".^[129] Ultimately, however, the election saw Labour's vote share fall to its lowest since 1935.^[130] Several prominent Labour figures lost their seats, notably George Brown who was still Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.^[131]

Return to opposition (1970–1974)

Following the elections and Labour’s subsequent defeat, Wilson survived as leader of the Labour Party in opposition. In August 1973, holidaying on the Isles of Scilly, he tried to board a motorboat from a dinghy and stepped into the sea. He was unable to get into the boat and was left in the cold water for more than half an hour, hanging on to the fenders of the motorboat. He was close to death before he was saved by Paul Wolff, the father of novelist Isabel Wolff. When word of the incident became public the following month, Wilson downplayed its severity; it was taken up by the press and resulted in some embarrassment. His press secretary, Joe Haines, tried to deflect some of the comment by blaming Wilson's dog Paddy for the problem.^[132]

Early in 1974, Wilson became the victim of a

Economic conditions during the 1970s were becoming more difficult for Britain and many other western economies as a result of the Nixon shock and the 1973 oil crisis, and the Heath government in its turn was buffeted by economic adversity and industrial unrest (notably including confrontation with the coalminers which led to the Three-Day Week) towards the end of 1973, and on 7 February 1974 (with the crisis still ongoing) Heath called a snap election for 28 February.^[135]

Prime minister (1974–1976)

Labour won more seats (though fewer votes) than the Conservative Party in the general election in February 1974, which resulted in a hung parliament. As Heath was unable to persuade the Liberals to form a coalition, Wilson returned to 10 Downing Street on 4 March 1974 as prime minister of a minority Labour Government. He gained a three-seat majority in another election later that year, on 10 October 1974.

1975 European referendum

One of the key issues addressed during his second period in office was the referendum on British membership of the European Community (EC) which took place in June 1975: Labour had pledged in its February 1974 manifesto to renegotiate the terms of British accession to the EC, and then to consult the public in a referendum on whether Britain should stay in on the new terms. Although the government recommended a vote in favour of continued membership, the cabinet was split on the issue, and Ministers were allowed to campaign on different sides of the question. The referendum resulted in a near two-to-one majority in favour of Britain remaining in the EC.^[136]

Domestic economic affairs

The Second Wilson Government made a major commitment to the expansion of the

Despite its achievements in social policy, Wilson's government came under scrutiny in 1975 for the rise in the unemployment rate, with the total number of Britons out of work passing one million by that April.[137]

Wilson's second government came into office at a troubled time for the British economy, due to a global recession and stagflation, in large part this was due to the 1973 oil crisis, and also the preceding government's inflationary attempts to boost growth.^[138] In order to deal with inflation (which peaked at 26% in 1975) the government negotiated a 'social contract' with the Trades Union Congress to implement a voluntary incomes policy, in which pay rises were held down to limits set by the government. This policy operated with reasonable success for the next few years, and inflation fell to single figures by 1978.^[136] By 1976 the recession had ended and economic recovery began,^[138] by 1978/79 living standards recovered to the level they had been in 1973/74.^[139] The Labour governments of the 1970s did, however, manage to protect the living standards of many people from the worst effects of the recession and high inflation, with pensions increasing by 20% in real terms between 1974 and 1979, while measures such as rent and price controls and food and transport subsidies mitigated the adverse impact on the living standards of many more people.^[140]

The government's

Wilson's earlier government had witnessed the outbreak of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. In response to a request from the Government of Northern Ireland, Wilson agreed to deploy the British Army in August 1969 to restore the peace.

While out of office in late 1971, Wilson had formulated a 16-point, 15-year programme that was designed to pave the way for the unification of Ireland. The proposal was not adopted by the then Heath government.^[142]

In May 1974, when back in office as leader of a minority government, Wilson condemned the

On 11 September 2008, BBC Radio 4's Document programme claimed to have unearthed a secret plan—codenamed Doomsday—which proposed to cut all of the United Kingdom's constitutional ties with Northern Ireland and transform the province into an independent dominion. Document went on to claim that the Doomsday plan was devised mainly by Wilson and was kept a closely guarded secret. The plan then allegedly lost momentum, due in part, it was claimed, to warnings made by both the then Foreign Secretary, James Callaghan, and the then Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Garret FitzGerald who admitted the 12,000-strong Irish Army would be unable to deal with the ensuing civil war.^[143] Later, Callaghan himself spoke and wrote despondently about the prospect for a British-derived solution to the Northern Ireland issue, supporting a similar plan to push Northern Ireland towards independent status.^[144]

In 1975, Wilson secretly offered Libya's dictator Muammar Gaddafi £14 million to stop arming the Provisional Irish Republican Army, but Gaddafi demanded a far greater sum of money.^[145][146] This offer did not become publicly known until 2009.

Resignation

When Wilson entered office for the second time, he had privately admitted that he had lost his enthusiasm for the role, telling a close adviser in 1974 that "I have been around this racetrack so often that I cannot generate any more enthusiasm for jumping any more hurdles."

The Labour Party held an election to replace Wilson as leader of the Party (and therefore prime minister). Six candidates stood in the first ballot; in order of votes they were: Michael Foot, James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins, Tony Benn, Denis Healey and Anthony Crosland. In the third ballot, on 5 April, Callaghan defeated Foot in a parliamentary vote of 176 to 137, thus becoming Wilson's successor as prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, and he continued to serve as prime minister until May 1979.

As Wilson wished to remain an MP after leaving office, he was not immediately given the

He was appointed in 1976 to chair the Committee to Review the Functioning of Financial Institutions (the Wilson Committee) which reported in June 1980.^[151]

Shortly after resigning as prime minister, Wilson was signed by David Frost to host a series of interview/chat show programmes. The pilot episode proved to be a flop as Wilson appeared uncomfortable with the informality of the format. Wilson also hosted two editions of the BBC chat show Friday Night, Saturday Morning. He famously floundered in the role, and in 2000, Channel 4 chose one of his appearances as one of the 100 Moments of TV Hell.

A lifelong Gilbert and Sullivan fan, in 1975, Wilson joined the Board of Trustees of the D'Oyly Carte Trust at the invitation of Sir Hugh Wontner, who was then the Lord Mayor of London.^[152] At Christmas 1978, Wilson appeared on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. Eric Morecambe's habit of appearing not to recognise the guest stars was repaid by Wilson, who referred to him throughout as 'Morry-camby' (the mispronunciation of Morecambe's name made by Ed Sullivan when the pair appeared on his famous American television show). Wilson appeared on the show again in 1980.

Wilson was not especially active in the

Wilson continued regularly attending the House of Lords until just over a year before his death; the last sitting he attended was on 27 April 1994. He had a picture taken with other Labour Lords on 15 June 1994, just under a year before his death.

Wilson's memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey on 13 July 1995. It was attended by Charles, Prince of Wales, former prime ministers Edward Heath, James Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher, incumbent Prime Minister John Major and Tony Blair, then Leader of the Opposition and later prime minister. Wilson was buried at St Mary's Old Church, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, on 6 June.^[14] His epitaph is Tempus Imperator Rerum (Time the Commander of Things).^[159]

Personal life

On New Year's Day 1940, in the chapel of Mansfield College, Oxford, he married Mary Baldwin, who remained his wife until his death. Mary Wilson became a published poet, and outlived Harold by 23 years, dying in 2018 at the age of 102. They had two sons, Robin and Giles (named after Giles Alington); Robin became a professor of Mathematics, and Giles became a teacher and later a train driver.^[160] In their twenties, his sons were under a kidnap threat from the IRA because of their father's prominence.^[161]

In April 2024 Joe Haines, who had served as Wilson's press secretary during his time as Prime Minister, revealed that Wilson had had an affair with Haines' deputy Janet Hewlett-Davies during his final two years in office. Hewlett-Davies died aged 85 in October 2023.^[162][163] Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Wilson's former adviser Bernard Donoughue said the affair had provided "a little sunshine at sunset" for Wilson, who was becoming "increasingly paranoid about the security services", was dealing with political difficulties, and was possibly in the early stages of dementia.^[164]

Legacy

Political style

Wilson regarded himself as a "man of the people" and did much to promote this image, contrasting himself with the stereotypical aristocratic conservatives and other statesmen who had preceded him, as an example of social mobility. He largely retained his

In 1967, Wilson had a different interaction with a musical ensemble. He sued the pop group the Move for libel after the band's manager Tony Secunda published a promotional postcard for the single "Flowers in the Rain", featuring a caricature depicting Wilson in bed with his female assistant, Marcia Williams. Gossip had hinted at an improper relationship, though these rumours were never substantiated. Wilson won the case, and all royalties from the song (composed by Move leader Roy Wood) were assigned in perpetuity to a charity of Wilson's choosing.^[169]

Wilson coined the term '

Despite his successes, Wilson's reputation took a long time to start a recovery from the low ebb reached immediately following his second premiership. The reinvention of the Labour Party would take the better part of two decades at the hands of Neil Kinnock, John Smith and, electorally and most conclusively, Tony Blair. Disillusion with Britain's weak economic performance and troubled industrial relations, combined with active spadework by figures such as Sir Keith Joseph, had helped to make a radical market programme politically feasible for Margaret Thatcher (which was, in turn, to influence the subsequent Labour leadership, especially under Blair). An opinion poll in September 2011 found that Wilson came in third place when respondents were asked to name the best post-war Labour Party leader. He was beaten only by John Smith and Tony Blair.^[173]

According to Glen O'Hara in 2006:^[174]

Much of the disillusionment with Harold Wilson as Labour's leader and prime minister was due to his perceived failure on the economic front. He pledged not to devalue sterling, but did exactly that in 1967; he promised to keep unemployment low, but had by 1970 accepted a higher rate of joblessness than the Conservatives had managed. Some of the elements in Labour's programme – the emphasis on steadier growth, for instance – were probably misguided. These problems and defeats have, however, obscured some of the real achievements of the period. Science and education spending grew very quickly; industrial investment rose; government was increasingly well informed and better advised about the performance of the economy. In an increasingly unstable and rapidly changing economic environment, this government's economic record is here shown to be, if not hugely impressive, then at least relatively creditable.

Possible plots and conspiracy theories

In 1963, Soviet defector

The characterisation of Harold Wilson as paranoid does not take account of the political context of the time, which was characterised by a paranoid political style generally which applied to both left and right (including MI5 itself). The suspicion of Wilson and others towards the unlawful activities of the security services and other right-wing figures resulted from concrete domestic and international developments discussed in more detail below. Andrew is correct to be sceptical, and there remains limited evidence of a 'plot' if a plot is defined as a tightly organised high-level conspiracy with a detailed plan. However, there is evidence of a conspiracy: a loosely connected series of unlawful manoeuvres against an elected government by a group of like-minded figures.[181]

The Director-General of the Security Service assured Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and she told the House of Commons on 6 May 1987:

He has found no evidence of any truth in the allegations. He has given me his personal assurance that the stories are false. In particular, he has advised me that all the Security Service officers who have been interviewed have categorically denied that they were involved in, or were aware of, any activities or plans to undermine or discredit Lord Wilson and his Government when he was prime minister.^[182][183]

In 2009, The Defence of the Realm held that while MI5 kept a file on Wilson from 1945 when he became an MP—because communist civil servants claimed that he had similar political sympathies—there was no bugging of his home or office, and no conspiracy against him.^[184] In 2010 newspaper reports made detailed allegations that the Cabinet Office had required that the section on bugging of 10 Downing Street be omitted from the history for "wider public interest reasons". In 1963, on Macmillan's orders following the Profumo affair, MI5 bugged the Cabinet room, the waiting room, and the prime minister's study until the devices were removed in 1977 on Callaghan's orders. From the records, it is unclear if Wilson or Heath knew of the bugging, and no recorded conversations were retained by MI5 so possibly the bugs were never activated.^[185] Professor Andrew had previously recorded in the preface of the history that "One significant excision as a result of these [Cabinet Office] requirements (in the chapter on The Wilson Plot) is, I believe, hard to justify", giving credence to these new allegations.^[186]

As a result of his concerns about the danger to British parliamentary democracy, Wilson issued instructions that no agency should ever bug the telephones of any members of Parliament, a policy (still in place) which came to be known as the Wilson Doctrine.

Honours

• Wilson was elected a
  Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1969 under Statute 12 of the Society's regulations, which covers people who have rendered conspicuous service to the cause of science or are such that their election would be of signal benefit to the Society.^[187]
• In 2013, the Government of Bangladesh awarded Wilson with the Friends of Liberation War Honour for highlighting the plight of the people of Bangladesh during the Bangladesh Liberation War.^[188]

Statues and other tributes

A portrait of Harold Wilson, painted by the Scottish portrait artist Cowan Dobson, hangs today at University College, Oxford.^[189] Two statues of Harold Wilson stand in prominent places. The first, unveiled by the then prime minister Tony Blair in July 1999, stands outside Huddersfield railway station in St George's Square, Huddersfield. Costing £70,000, the statue, designed by sculptor Ian Walters, is based on photographs taken in 1964 and depicts Wilson in walking pose at the start of his first term as prime minister. His widow, Mary requested that the eight-foot-tall monument not show Wilson holding his famous pipe as she feared it would make the representation a caricature.^[190]

A block of high-rise flats in Huddersfield is named after Wilson.

In September 2006, Tony Blair unveiled a second bronze statue of Wilson in the latter's former constituency of Huyton, near Liverpool. The statue was created by Liverpool sculptor, Tom Murphy, and Blair paid tribute to Wilson's legacy at the unveiling, including the Open University. He added: "He also brought in a whole new culture, a whole new country. He made the country very, very different".^[191]

Also in 2006, a street on a new housing development in Tividale, West Midlands, was named Wilson Drive in honour of Wilson. Along with neighbouring new development Callaghan Drive (named after James Callaghan), it formed part of a large housing estate developed since the 1960s where all streets were named after former prime ministers or senior parliamentary figures.^{[citation needed]}

Arms

Coat of arms of Harold Wilson

Coronet A Baron's Coronet Crest In front of a mount of rock thereon a lighthouse a spade in bend proper debruised by a quill pen in bend sinister Argent. Escutcheon Argent an ancient galley proper pennons flying to the dexter Gules, on a chief Gules a stag's head cabossed Or between two water bougets Argent. Supporters Dexter: a winged lion Purpure charged on the wing with three roses Argent barbed Or seeded Vert; Sinister: a griffin Or charged on the wing with three roses Gules barbed Or. Motto TEMPUS RERUM IMPERATOR

Scholastic honours

Chancellor, visitor, governor, and fellowships

Location	Date	School	Position
England	1977	University of Huddersfield	Honorary Fellow[192]
England	1966–1985	University of Bradford	Chancellor[193]

Honorary degrees

Location	Date	School	Degree
England	1964	Lancaster University	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[194][195][196]
England	1965	University of Liverpool	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[197]
England	1966	University of Sussex	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[198]
England	1966	University of Nottingham	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[199]
England	1967	University of Essex	Doctorate[200]
England	18 May 1974	Open University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[201][202]
Israel	1976	Bar-Ilan University	Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D)[203]

Cultural depictions

See also

• History of the Labour Party (UK)
• Lord Goodman

References