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What if the Tories won the 1964 General Election?

What if the Tories won the 1964 General Election? The Labour Party led by Harold Wilson ended the 13-year reign of the Tories by clinching a narrow 4 seat majority by winning 317 seats (out of a total of 630). The Conservatives led by outgoing Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home won 304 seats, leaving the remaining 9 seats to the Liberals.   Background In October 1963, the Conservative Government then led by Harold Macmillan was in dire straits following the Profumo scandal as well as the party seeming out-of-touch and patrician in an age where the technology boom was in the ascendency. The election of Harold Wilson as the new Labour Leader and Leader of the Opposition found tremendous traction among the public with the party leading by around 15-20% points. The hospitalization of Macmillan paved the way for a dignified exit. However, the succession for the Tory leadership was extremely corrosive. Macmillan not only opposed the candidature of his deputy, Rab Butler , but
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Will Keir Starmer be the fourth wheel of Labour?

Will Keir Starmer chart history for Labour and the UK? Nearly half a century has passed since 'old' Labour last won a general election under the leadership of its dexterous leader, Harold Wilson. Ever since then, only the Tories or 'new' Labour branded in the image of Tony Blair have had success at the ballot box. Ever since the great economic meltdown occurred during Liz Truss' brief watch at the top, the polls have swung firmly in favour of Labour. However, there is doubt whether this lead will be consolidated or will evaporate once the election season commences. Starmer lacks the popularity which Blair, Wilson and Clement Attlee (the only leaders to lead Labour to victory) had enjoyed during their tenure as the Leader of the Opposition, in the leadup to an election. Starmer is considerably less charismatic than Wilson and Blair and does not possess any ministerial experience, unlike Attlee and Wilson. Furthermore, Starmer has had to rebuild Labour, with the party
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The lessons Keir Starmer can learn from 1951

The 1951 UK General Election stands out to be one of the most unfortunate ones in its history. The incumbent Labour Party led by Prime Minister Clement Attlee was forced to relinquish office in favour of the Conservative Party led by Leader of the Opposition and war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The irony being that Labour was ousted from office despite securing 48.8% of the votes compared to the 48% secured by the Tories. This is contrary to the general perception propagated by the media that the Labour government had suffered a loss in credibility due to austerity and rationing measures in addition to the deflation crisis of 1947. The only caveat to this was that Conservatives clawed back lost support such that they were neck-to-neck in the opinion polls leading upto the general election. In the 1950 general election, the Labour party lost over 70 seats to the Conservatives, despite its vote share just suffering a marginal decline from 47 to 46%. It was that the vote share
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Why did Jim Callaghan not stay on as Labour leader and Leader of Opposition in 1980? What about the repercussions?

Why did Jim Callaghan not stay on as Labour leader and Leader of Opposition in 1980? What about the repercussions? This is question that not many political commentators have seemed to ponder over, unlike the surprise resignation of his predecessor, Harold Wilson in 1976. It should have been considerably more noteworthy, considering that Wilson had continued as Labour leader following the surprise defeat to the Tories in 1970. Wilson returned to power in 1974, despite an economic crisis, possibly due to his experience as a former Prime Minister who could steady the ship and provide a reassuring hand to the country. Callaghan and Labour were leading in the opinion polls in 1980 as well as having made significant gains in the local elections held that year, with Margaret Thatcher seen to be floundering and not managing the economy well at the time. Reasons which might have triggered his resignation 1.        Following the disillusioning defeat in 1979, a change in rules with regar
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