Who was James Callaghan?
Callaghan's story starts in Portsmouth, where he was born in 1912 into a poor family. He could not afford university, so he took a job in the tax service and became a union official. After navy service in the war, he was elected for Cardiff South in 1945. His later posts were Chancellor, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, three of the four great offices of state. He quit as Chancellor in 1967 after the pound was devalued. When Harold Wilson stood down in 1976, Callaghan became Labour leader and Prime Minister. His government had no safe majority and leaned on smaller parties. Strikes in 1978-1979 weakened him further. He then lost a confidence vote by a single vote, 311 to 310, and Labour lost the election that followed. He died in 2005, having entered the Lords in 1987.
Political views
- In 1976 he asked the IMF for a loan. The terms meant cuts in public spending, though he talked the lenders down from the larger cuts they first wanted.Source: gov.uk
- In 1969 he led cabinet resistance to the In Place of Strife plan to change trade union law.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- As Home Secretary in 1969 he decided to send British troops onto the streets of Northern Ireland.Source: en.wikipedia.org
- His 1976 speech at Ruskin College began a national argument about school standards and the case for a core curriculum.Source: education-uk.org
- He tried to keep inflation down by capping pay in the public sector. That led to the strikes of the Winter of Discontent.Source: gov.uk
- His government passed the Race Relations Act 1976. It also passed a law that made councils responsible for housing homeless people.Source: gov.uk
Legacy
Admirers describe a calm, well-liked leader who kept a divided cabinet together during the IMF crisis and led a minority government for its three years in power. Critics on the left argue that the IMF cuts, and the speech he gave at the 1976 conference, abandoned the goal of full employment. Critics on the right hold him responsible for high inflation and for letting the unions grow too strong. His role in the 1968 immigration law is still disputed. The Winter of Discontent has stuck in the national memory and helped Thatcher into power.
In their own words
“I am concerned on my journeys to find complaints from industry that new recruits from the schools sometimes do not have the basic tools to do the job that is required.”