Rab Butler - The Succession To Macmillan

The Succession To Macmillan

In the "Night of the Long Knives" reshuffle in 1962, Butler at last received the formal titles of Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State. However, Macmillan used the occasion to promote younger men such as Reginald Maudling (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Edward Heath (in charge of the EEC entry negotiations), from amongst whom he hoped to groom his successor. The following year, Macmillan was taken ill on the eve of the Conservative Party Conference and resigned as Prime Minister, asking the party bigwigs to "take soundings" of Cabinet Ministers and MPs to select a consensus candidate as the leader through the "customary processes".

In the confusion of the next few days, Butler found himself sidelined after delivering a poor Conference speech. Lord Hailsham was rejected after using the Conference to campaign openly for the job in a manner considered vulgar at the time. Support gathered around outside candidate Lord Home. Much ink has been spilled on how badly the consultation process was rigged, but in the end, Macmillan recommended Home for the premiership.

Many were outraged over the way that Butler had been passed over yet again. Hailsham and Maudling were dissatisfied by the choice but agreed to serve under Home. Enoch Powell and Iain Macleod (who later claimed in print that the leadership had been stitched up by a "Magic Circle" of old Etonians) both refused to serve under Home and sought to persuade Butler to do the same in the belief that this would make a Home premiership impossible and result in Butler taking office. However, Butler refused to join Powell and Macleod; he even alleged in a letter to The Times that to have done so might have led to a Labour government (this suggestion was later dismissed as absurd by Harold Wilson, then Opposition leader).

Some have attributed Butler's actions to his university study of Conservatives, and to his resultant fear of splitting the Tory party. Powell, a former brigadier, observed that they had given Butler a loaded revolver which he had refused to use on the grounds that it might make a noise, a metaphor which speaks volumes about how Butler's lack of military experience affected his colleagues' image of him.

It is worth observing that despite Butler's immense experience, he was not an overwhelming choice as leader. In leadership elections a generation later, it has often been the case that the initial frontrunner (David Davis in 2005) or the "obvious" and publicly popular candidate (Michael Heseltine in 1990 or Kenneth Clarke in 1997 and in 2001) loses at the final hurdle to a "second-best" candidate who enjoys a wider consensus of support in his own party. Anyway, there is no doubt that the episode of Home's elevation was a public relations disaster for the Conservatives, who had to elect their next leader (Edward Heath in 1965) by a transparent ballot of MPs.

Home appointed Butler as Foreign Secretary, and it was in this post he served until his party narrowly lost office at the 1964 general election. Many believed that the Conservatives would have won under Butler's leadership, but during the election campaign, he had shown his lack of stomach for the fight by remarking to a journalist that the campaign was "slipping away". Harold Wilson said that Butler would have won the 1964 General Election.