23 February: Enoch Powell announced that he would vote Labour
28 February: General election: no single party won a majority; Labour won the largest number of seats
1–3 March: Heath attempted to form a coalition with the Liberals
4 March: Heath resigned following Liberal rejection of his proposals; Wilson became Prime Minister, leading a minority Labour Government
11 March: Heath formed his Shadow Cabinet, giving MT responsibility for the Environment
May: Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) founded
22 June: Keith Joseph’s speech at Upminster
28 August: MT announced Conservative pledge to abolish domestic rates and hold down mortgage interest rates to maximum of 9½ per cent
5 September: Keith Joseph’s speech at Preston
10 October: General election: Labour majority of three
14 October: 1922 Committee executive urged Heath to call a leadership election
19 October: Keith Joseph’s speech at Edgbaston
7 November: Heath reshuffled Shadow Cabinet; MT became Robert Carr’s assistant spokesman on Treasury questions
14 November: Heath told 1922 that he would set up a committee to review leadership election procedure
21 November: Keith Joseph told MT that he would not stand for the leadership against Heath; MT told him she would
November-December: ‘Hoarding’ story run against MT in the press
17 December: Leadership election review reported
1975
15 January: Airey Neave took over the organization of MT’s leadership campaign, Edward du Cann having decided not to stand
4 February: Leadership election first ballot: MT 130, Heath 119, Hugh Fraser 16; Heath resigned as leader
11 February: Leadership election second ballot: MT elected leader
12 February: MT called on Heath at Wilton Street; Heath refused to serve in the Shadow Cabinet
18 February: Shadow Cabinet complete: Maudling, Foreign Affairs; Howe, Treasury; Joseph, Policy and Research; Thorneycroft, Chairman
5 June: EEC referendum
July: £6 a week quasi-statutory pay policy introduced; unemployment passed one million
1976
2 March: Sterling fell below $2
16 March: Wilson announced his resignation; Callaghan elected Labour Leader on 5 April
7 Apriclass="underline" Government lost its majority
3 May: Stage 2 of pay policy agreed between Government and TUC
10 May: Thorpe resigned as Liberal Leader over the Scott affair; Grimond interim Leader; Steel elected on 7 July
7 June: Sterling under pressure — $5,300 million standby credit made available to UK for three months
28 September: Healey forced to turn back from the airport as sterling fell to $1.63; spoke at the Labour Conference on 30 September
4 October: The Right Approach published
1 November: IMF team arrived in UK
19 November: MT reshuffled Shadow Cabinet, dismissing Maudling and replacing him with John Davies
1 December: Shadow Cabinet decision to oppose the Scotland and Wales Bill; Buchanan-Smith and Rifkind resigned
15 December: Healey’s mini-Budget and IMF Letter of Intent
1977
22 February: Government defeated on Scotland and Wales Bill guillotine — Bill effectively lost; prospect that Government would fall
23 March: ‘Lib-Lab Pact’ saved the Government
16 June: Government defeated over Rooker-Wise-Lawson amendments — tax allowances linked to RPI
24 June: Grunwick dispute: mass picketing began
18 September: MT interviewed by Brian Walden suggested referendum if a future Conservative Government met the kind of trade union challenge Heath faced in 1974
8 October: The Right Approach to the Economy published
16 November: Scotland Bill and Wales Bill successfully guillotined
1978
25 January: Scotland Bill Committee — ‘Cunningham amendment’: 40 per cent hurdle for devolution in referendum
30 January: MT on television referred to people’s fears that they would be ‘rather swamped’ by immigration
3 March: Rhodesia: ‘internal settlement’ — Muzorewa and others to join Ian Smith’s government
25 May: Steel announced end of Lib-Lab Pact after current parliamentary session
21 July: Incomes policy White Paper: Stage 3–5 per cent guideline for wage increases
Summer: ‘Labour Isn’t Working’ — Saatchi & Saatchi’s first campaign for the Conservative Party
7 September: Callaghan announced there would be no autumn election
21 September: Ford strike (ended 2 November): breached 5 per cent pay norm
11 October: Heath spoke in favour of Stage 3 at the Conservative Party Conference
8 November: 114 Conservatives rebelled against leadership decision to abstain on motion to renew Rhodesian sanctions
1979
3 January: Lorry drivers strike for 25 per cent pay claim: ‘Winter of Discontent’ reaching its height
7 January: MT interviewed on Weekend World; suggested possible union reforms
14 January: MT offered to cooperate in legislation on secondary picketing and no-strike agreements for essential services; Government made no direct reply but eased its pay guidelines and lorry-drivers’ strike settled locally over the following three weeks
1 March: Scotland and Wales devolution referenda
28 March: Government defeated on Motion of Confidence 311–310, forcing general election
30 March: Airey Neave murdered by INLA bomb
3 May: General election
4 May: MT became Prime Minister
APPENDIX III
Shadow Cabinet 1975–79
February 1975
MT Leader
WHITELAW Deputy Leader and Devolution
JOSEPH Policy and Research PYM Agriculture
OPPENHEIM Consumer Affairs and Prices
YOUNGER Defence
GILMOUR Home Affairs
PEYTON House of Commons
ST JOHN-STEVAS Education and Arts
PRIOR Employment
JENKIN Energy
RAISON Environment
MAUDLING Foreign and Commonwealth
HESELTINE Industry
NEAVE Northern Ireland
BUCHANAN-SMITH Scotland
FOWLER Social Services
HOWE Treasury
EDWARDS Wales
CARRINGTON House of Lords
HAILSHAM Without portfolio
THORNEYCROFT Party Chairman
MAUDE Deputy Chairman and CRD Chairman
ATKINS Chief Whip (ex officio)