Harold Wilson

I

Introduction

Harold Wilson (1916-1995), Labour politician and British Prime Minister (1964-1970, 1974-1976). He was born on March 11, 1916, in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, and educated at Royd Hall Grammar School, Huddersfield, and at Jesus College, Oxford University. Wilson briefly held a lectureship in economics at New College, Oxford University, in 1938 and a junior research fellowship at University College, Oxford from 1938 to 1940, before holding a succession of civil service posts during World War II.

II

Rise to Power

Wilson was elected to Parliament in 1945 as Labour Party member for Ormskirk, Lancashire. In the governments of Clement Attlee (1945-1951) he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Works (1945-1947) and Secretary for Overseas Trade (1947) before being promoted at the age of 31 to the Cabinet as President of the Board of Trade. He resigned from the government with Aneurin Bevan, primarily over the defence budget and secondly over the breach of the principle of a free health service. However, he was soon Labour’s shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (1955-1961) and then Shadow Foreign Secretary (1961-1963) before succeeding Hugh Gaitskell as leader of the Labour Party (1963-1976). As leader of the opposition, Wilson effectively contrasted images of a modernizing, efficient Labour Party with a moribund, elitist Conservative government.

III

Labour in Power

In the 1964 general election Wilson took office with a majority of four seats in the House of Commons. In 1966 he was re-elected with a majority of 97. For much of the government’s life Wilson had to contend with serious balance of payments problems, which led to the devaluation of sterling in 1967. The pound was devalued by 15 per cent against the dollar, though Wilson made a bad political miscalculation in a television broadcast when he gave the reassurance that “the pound here in Britain in your pocket or purse or bank” remained unaffected.

Wilson’s government antagonized many of its own supporters with two sets of policies: prices and incomes as well as proposed industrial relations law. The government set targets for prices and incomes from the beginning, but this was voluntary policy until the economic crisis of July 1966. Then until 1969, in the face of strong trade union opposition, it operated a statutory incomes policy. It also published proposals to reform industrial relations, entitled In Place of Strife (1969). These proposals were withdrawn in the face of trade union hostility and a pledge by the Trades Union Congress to try to prevent some kinds of disputes from occurring. In backtracking on the stated policy Wilson lost much political credibility.

Wilson’s government ended Britain’s major role east of the Suez Canal, but failed in its efforts to mediate an end to the Vietnam War or to end the illegal declaration of independence of the white-minority regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). British troops were sent to Northern Ireland in 1969, partly to help the beleaguered local police, and partly to offer protection to the Catholic communities. Wilson lost the 1970 election to the Conservatives.

IV

Return to Power

In the February 1974 general election Labour was the biggest party, though a minority, and Wilson again became prime minister. In a second general election in October 1974, Labour won a majority of three seats. Wilson secured an end to the miners’ strike and his government successfully reduced the annual rate of inflation from over 25 per cent. He also dealt with unrest in Northern Ireland. In March 1976 he retired as prime minister, but retained his seat in Parliament. In April 1976 he was succeeded as prime minister by James Callaghan. In mid-1976 Wilson was knighted, and in 1983, when he retired as a Member of Parliament, he was made a life peer and honoured with the Order of the Garter. His books include The Labour Government, 1964-1970 (1971), Final Term (1979), and Memoirs 1916-64: The Making of a Prime Minister (1986). He died on May 24, 1995.