Editing Edward Heath (section)

{{short description|Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974}}
{{Redirect|Ted Heath||Edward Heath (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name                = Sir Edward Heath
| honorific-suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KG|MBE}}
| image               = Edward Heath 4 Allan Warren.jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Allan Warren]], 1987
| office              = [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]]
| term_start          = 19 June 1970
| term_end            = 4 March 1974
| monarch             = [[Elizabeth II]]
| predecessor         = [[Harold Wilson]]
| successor           = Harold Wilson
| office1             = [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]]
| term_start1         = 4 March 1974
| term_end1           = 11 February 1975
| monarch1            = Elizabeth II
| primeminister1      = Harold Wilson
| predecessor1        = Harold Wilson
| successor1          = [[Margaret Thatcher]]
| term_start2         = 28 July 1965
| term_end2           = 19 June 1970
| monarch2            = Elizabeth II
| primeminister2      = Harold Wilson
 | deputy2          = [[Reginald Maudling]]
| predecessor2        = [[Alec Douglas-Home]]
| successor2          = Harold Wilson
| office3             = [[Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|Leader of the Conservative Party]]
| term_start3         = 28 July 1965
| term_end3           = 11 February 1975
 | deputy3          = Reginald Maudling (1965–1972)
| predecessor3        = Alec Douglas-Home
| successor3          = Margaret Thatcher
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|last = yes|Ministerial offices
| titlestyle       = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed            = yes
| office1          = [[President of the Board of Trade]]
| term_start1      = 20 October 1963
| term_end1        = 16 October 1964
| primeminister1   = Alec Douglas-Home
| predecessor1     = [[Frederick Erroll, 1st Baron Erroll of Hale|Fred Erroll]]
| successor1       = [[Douglas Jay]]
| office2          = [[Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development]]
| term_start2      = 20 October 1963
| term_end2        = 16 October 1964
| primeminister2   = Alec Douglas-Home
| predecessor2     = ''Office established''
| successor2       = ''Office abolished''
| office3          = [[Lord Privy Seal|Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal]]
| term_start3      = 14 February 1960
| term_end3        = 20 October 1963
| primeminister3   = [[Harold Macmillan]]
| predecessor3     = [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|The Viscount Hailsham]]
| successor3       = [[Selwyn Lloyd]]
| office4          = [[Minister of Labour (United Kingdom)|Minister of Labour]]
| term_start4      = 14 October 1959
| term_end4        = 27 July 1960
| primeminister4   = Harold Macmillan
| predecessor4     = [[Iain Macleod]]
| successor4       = [[John Hare, 1st Viscount Blakenham|John Hare]]
| office5          = {{ubl|[[Government Chief Whip in the House of Commons]]|[[Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury]]}}
| term_start5      = 30 December 1955
| term_end5        = 14 October 1959
 | deputy5          = [[Martin Redmayne]]
| primeminister5   = {{ubl|[[Anthony Eden]]|Harold Macmillan}}
| predecessor5     = [[Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes|Patrick Buchan-Hepburn]]
| successor5       = [[Martin Redmayne]]
| office6          = [[Conservative Chief Whip|Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House of Commons]]
| term_start6      = 28 May 1952
| term_end6        = 30 December 1955
| primeminister6   = {{ubl|[[Winston Churchill]]|[[Anthony Eden]]}}
| predecessor6     = [[Harry Mackeson]]
| successor6       = [[Martin Redmayne]]
| office7          = [[Lord Commissioner of the Treasury]]
| term_start7      = 7 November 1951
| term_end7        = 30 December 1955
| primeminister7   = {{ubl|[[Winston Churchill]]|Anthony Eden}}
| predecessor7     = [[William Wilkins (British politician)|William Wilkins]]
| successor7       = [[Sir Edward Wakefield, 1st Baronet|Edward Wakefield]]
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont = y |[[Shadow cabinet]] offices
| titlestyle       = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed            = yes
| office1          = [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]]
| term_start1      = 16 February 1965
| term_end1        = 28 July 1965
| leader1          = [[Alec Douglas-Home]]
| predecessor1     = [[Reginald Maudling]]
| successor1       = [[Iain Macleod]]
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
{{collapsed infobox section begin |cont = y |Parliamentary offices
| titlestyle       = border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder
| embed            = yes
| office1          = [[Father of the House (United Kingdom)|Father of the House of Commons]]
| term_start1      = 9 April 1992
| term_end1        = 14 May 2001
| predecessor1     = [[Bernard Braine]]
| successor1       = [[Tam Dalyell]]
| parliament2      = United Kingdom
| constituency_MP2 = [[Old Bexley and Sidcup]]
| term_start2      = 9 June 1983
| term_end2        = 14 May 2001
| predecessor2     = ''Constituency established''
| successor2       = [[Derek Conway]]
| constituency_MP3 = [[Sidcup (UK Parliament constituency)|Sidcup]]
| term_start3      = 28 February 1974
| term_end3        = 13 May 1983
| predecessor3     = ''Constituency established''
| successor3       = ''Constituency abolished''
| constituency_MP4 = [[Bexley (UK Parliament constituency)|Bexley]]
| term_start4      = 23 February 1950
| term_end4        = 8 February 1974
| predecessor4     = [[Ashley Bramall]]
| successor4       = ''Constituency abolished''
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
| birth_name          = Edward Richard George Heath
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|df=yes|1916|7|9}}
| birth_place         = [[Broadstairs]], Kent, England
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2005|7|17|1916|7|9|df=yes}}
| death_place         = [[Salisbury]], Wiltshire, England
| resting_place       = [[Salisbury Cathedral]]
| alma_mater          = [[Balliol College, Oxford]]
| occupation          = {{Hlist|[[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|Civil servant]]|musician|politician|yachtsman}}
| party               = [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]
| signature           = Signature of Edward Heath.png
<!--Military service-->| branch              = [[British Army]]
| unit                = {{ubl|[[Royal Artillery]]|[[Honourable Artillery Company|Honourable Artillery Co.]]}}
| rank                = [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|Lieutenant colonel]]
| military_blank1     = Service number
| military_data1      = 179215
| battles             = [[Second World War]]
| awards              = {{ubl|[[Order of the Garter]]|[[<!-- Member of the --> Order of the British Empire]]|[[Mentioned in dispatches]]}}
}}

'''Sir Edward Richard George Heath''' (9 July 1916 – 17 July 2005) was a British politician who served as [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom]] from 1970 to 1974 and [[Leader of the Conservative Party (UK)|Leader of the Conservative Party]] from 1965 to 1975. Heath also served for 51 years as a [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] from 1950 to 2001. Outside politics, Heath was a [[Yachting|yachtsman]], a musician, and an author.

Born in [[Broadstairs, Kent]], Heath was the son of a chambermaid and carpenter. He attended [[Chatham House Grammar School]] in Ramsgate, Kent, and became a leader within student politics while studying at [[Balliol College]] at the [[University of Oxford]]. During [[World War II]], Heath served as an officer in the [[Royal Artillery]]. He worked briefly in the [[Civil Service (United Kingdom)|Civil Service]], but resigned in order to stand for Parliament, and was elected for [[Bexley (UK Parliament constituency)|Bexley]] at the [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 election]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-33772016 |title=Edward Heath: A profile of the former UK Prime Minister |date=4 August 2015 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=2 April 2017}}</ref> He was promoted to become [[Chief Whip of the Conservative Party|Chief Whip]] by [[Anthony Eden]] in 1955, and in 1959 was appointed to the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]] by [[Harold Macmillan]] as [[Minister of Labour (United Kingdom)|Minister of Labour]]. He later held the role of [[Lord Privy Seal]] and in 1963, was made [[President of the Board of Trade]] by [[Alec Douglas-Home]]. After the Conservatives were defeated at the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 election]], Heath [[1965 Conservative Party leadership election|was elected]] as Leader of the Conservative Party in 1965, becoming [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]]. Although he led the Conservatives to a landslide defeat at the [[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966 election]], he remained in the leadership, and at the [[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970 election]] led his party to an unexpected victory.

During his time as prime minister, Heath oversaw the [[Decimal Day|decimalisation of British coinage]] in 1971, and in 1972 he led the reformation of [[Local Government Act 1972|local government]], significantly reducing the number of local authorities and creating several new metropolitan counties, much of which remains to this day. A strong supporter of British membership of the [[European Economic Community]] (EEC), Heath's "[[This was their finest hour|finest hour]]" came in 1973, when he led the United Kingdom into membership of what would later become the [[European Union]].<ref>{{cite web |title=European Communities (Hansard, 28 October 1971) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1971/oct/28/european-communities |website=api.parliament.uk |access-date=3 June 2020}}</ref><ref>John Campbell, ''Edward Heath'' (1993) pp. 404–405.</ref> However, his premiership also coincided with the height of [[the Troubles]] in Northern Ireland, with his approval of [[Operation Demetrius|internment without trial]] and subsequent suspension of the [[Stormont Parliament]] seeing the imposition of [[Direct rule (Northern Ireland)|direct British rule]]. Unofficial talks with [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] delegates were unsuccessful, as was the [[Sunningdale Agreement]] of 1973, which led the MPs of the [[Ulster Unionist Party]] to withdraw from the Conservative whip. Heath also tried to reform British trade unionism with the [[Industrial Relations Act]], and hoped to deregulate the economy and make a transfer from [[Direct tax|direct]] to [[indirect tax]]ation, such as with the introduction of [[Value-added tax in the United Kingdom|value-added tax]] in 1973. However, a [[Three-Day Week|miners' strike]] at the start of 1974 severely damaged the Government, causing the implementation of the [[Three-Day Week]] to conserve energy. Attempting to resolve the situation, Heath called an [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|election]] for February 1974, attempting to obtain a mandate to face down the miners' wage demands, but this instead resulted in a [[hung parliament]], with the Conservatives losing their majority. Despite gaining fewer votes, the Labour Party won four more seats, and Heath resigned as Prime Minister on 4 March after talks with the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] to form a coalition government were unsuccessful.

After losing a [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|second successive election]] in October 1974, Heath's leadership was challenged by [[Margaret Thatcher]] and, on 4 February, she narrowly outpolled him in the [[1975 Conservative Party leadership election|first round]]. Heath chose to resign the leadership rather than contest the second round, returning to the backbenches, where he would remain until 2001. In 1975, he played a major role in the [[1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum|referendum]] on British membership of the EEC, campaigning for the eventually successful "remain" vote. Heath would later become an embittered critic of Thatcher during her time as prime minister, speaking and writing against the policies of [[Thatcherism]]. Following the [[1992 United Kingdom general election|1992 election]], he became [[Father of the House (United Kingdom)|Father of the House]], until his retirement from the Commons in 2001. He died in 2005, aged 89. Heath has been described by the BBC as "the first working-class meritocrat" to become Conservative leader in "the party's modern history" and "a [[One Nation Tory]] in the [[Disraeli]] tradition who rejected the [[laissez-faire#Capitalism|''laissez-faire'' capitalism]] that Thatcher would enthusiastically endorse."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33958116 |title=Sir Edward Heath: One Nation Tory's political legacy |work=BBC News |first=Julia |last=Langdon |date=1 October 2015 |access-date=18 December 2019}}</ref>