Night of The Long Knives (1962) - Background

Background

The Conservatives won a convincing majority at the 1959 general election, increasing their lead over their nearest rivals, Labour. The Labour party were further weakened by internal disputes, but the Conservatives' economic policies unveiled in the 1960 Budget proved damaging. The tax cuts of 1959 were reversed, decreasing the government's popularity while the Liberals began a revival. The Conservatives were forced into third place in several by-elections, culminating in the loss of the previously safe seat of Orpington in a March 1962 by-election victory for the Liberal candidate, Eric Lubbock. The by-election result, announced on 14 March, came one day after the Blackpool North by-election, another former Conservative safe seat; though the Conservative candidate Norman Miscampbell succeeded in holding the Blackpool North seat, the previous majority of 15,587 was reduced to just 973 by the Liberal candidate, Harry Hague. The Conservatives were struggling with deep unpopularity over their economic policies. A pay-pause and rising prices, together with discontent at high taxation that was demonstrably inequitable, drove voters to protest against government policies by switching their votes to the Liberals, or by abstaining from voting Conservative.

Macmillan saw in the by-election results evidence that former Labour voters would abandon their candidates in support of the Liberals, who were well placed in Conservative safe seats. In instances where the Liberals had no candidate standing, such as the Labour safe seat of Pontefract, the Conservatives maintained their share of the vote. When a Liberal candidate was fielded, such as at the Stockton-on-Tees by-election in April, the Conservatives saw large numbers of voters desert them for the Liberals. Later by-elections confirmed the trend. By July the Chairman of the Conservative Party Iain Macleod warned that a government reshuffle was necessary to revitalise flagging support, a view confirmed by Martin Redmayne, the Conservative Chief Whip. Macmillan met with Rab Butler on 21 June. With Conservative unpopularity stemming from economic issues, they discussed replacing Selwyn Lloyd as Chancellor of the Exchequer with Reginald Maudling. Lloyd and Macmillan had already clashed over economic policy: Lloyd was opposed to an incomes policy and reflation, and his austerity measures were causing discontent.

The Cabinet was also relatively elderly, and with younger political leaders on the scene, like American President John F. Kennedy, at a time of dramatic social changes, Macmillan resolved to bring some younger men into important posts. The seven ministers earmarked for replacement averaged 59 years of age. The incoming seven would have an average age of 50. Butler was in favour of the move, and together with Macleod, they worked out an orderly reshuffle of several Cabinet posts, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer. In all, seven ministers were to be replaced, amounting to one third of the total Cabinet of twenty-one.