Harold Wilson's Leadership

Question 1

Wilson’s Public Image

Answer 1

• Presented the public with an image of being a modest working-class man
• Humble Yorkshire background
• Renowned for smoking a pipe and enjoying meat pies with HP sauce
• First PM to be educated in a state school, rather than a private school
• Seemed relaxed and natural on television
• Emphasised on modernising Britain, made him seem like a modern man

Question 2

Diminished Labour Party Divisions

Answer 2

• After the deaths of Bevan and Gaitskell, Wilson managed to unite Labour in 1963
• Wilson’s concentration on the ‘white heat of tech’ and tech modernisation united left/right-wing

Question 3

Conservatives in Opposition

Answer 3

• From 1965 onwards, Edward Heath would lead the Conservative Party
• Wilson and Heath had a political and personal hatred towards one another
• 1965-1975: personal dual between both for leadership of the country

Question 4

Wilson’s Kitchen Cabinet

Answer 4

• Wilson relied heavily on a personal team of trusted advisers from outside the government/civil service
• Led by Marcia Williams, personal political secretary
• Others took part, discussions in the kitchen of 10 Downing Street
• ‘Inner circle’
• Many felt that this ‘kitchen cabinet’ reinforced his suspicions of party rivalries
• Prevented cabinet ministers from having access to him

Question 5

Wilson’s Paranoia

Answer 5

• Wilson was anxious and insecure about his leadership in private
• Conscious of balancing out his potential rivals so that they couldn’t challenge him for leadership of Labour
• Wilson always feared that he might face a leadership challenge from Brown, Callaghan or Jenkins
• Brown was hugely resentful that he had lost leadership election to Wilson, further disappointed when he didn’t get Foreign Secretary
• 1966 Seamen’s Strikes: caused a Sterling crisis, Jenkins tried to get cabinet to support devaluation
• Wilson interpreted this as a plot to replace himself and Brown with Callaghan and Jenkins