Editing Jeremy Thorpe (section)

==Early career==

===Parliamentary candidate===
Having been accepted as a potential Liberal parliamentary candidate, Thorpe looked for a constituency. The general elections of 1950 and 1951 had seen the party's MPs fall, first to nine, then six;{{sfn|Dutton|2004|p=330}} some commentators saw little future except "further attrition and further losses to the two major parties".<ref>{{cite news|title= The Change|newspaper= The Manchester Guardian|date= 27 October 1951|page= 6}}</ref>{{#tag:ref| In 1951, the incoming prime minister [[Winston Churchill]] sought to boost his slender majority by inviting the six Liberals into a formal coalition. This offer was refused by the Liberal leader [[Clement Davies]]. The party's historian David Dutton believes that had the offer been accepted, the Liberal Party might have ceased its independent existence.{{sfn|Dutton|2004|p=177}}|group="n"|name="coalition"}} The journalist [[Julian Glover (journalist)|Julian Glover]] writes that Thorpe's determination to stay with the party, despite its woes, showed a more principled commitment to Liberalism than many critics have acknowledged; his prospects of reaching parliament would have been considerably greater within either the Conservative or Labour parties.{{sfn|Glover|2015}}
[[File:Barnstaple Long Bridge and surrounding buildings - geograph.org.uk - 1754403.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|left|[[Barnstaple]], at the heart of the North Devon constituency]]
Initially the young would-be candidate was offered the opportunity of succeeding the party leader, [[Clement Davies]], in the Welsh seat of [[Montgomeryshire (UK Parliament constituency)|Montgomeryshire]], when Davies decided to retire. There being no immediate prospect of that, Thorpe looked elsewhere, in particular to Devon and Cornwall, where the party had long-standing traditions and had polled respectably in 1950 and 1951.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=96–97}} In these elections Thorpe had assisted the Liberal candidate for [[North Cornwall (UK Parliament constituency)|North Cornwall]], [[Dingle Foot]], whose agent recommended him to the neighbouring [[North Devon (UK Parliament constituency)|North Devon]] constituency. The [[Torrington (UK Parliament constituency)|Torrington]] local party was also anxious to adopt Thorpe as their candidate, while Foot saw him as a possible successor in North Cornwall.{{sfn|Thorpe|1999|pp=89–90}} Thorpe chose to fight North Devon, a seat once held by the Liberals although, in 1951, the party had finished in third place behind Conservative and Labour, with less than 20% of the vote.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=98}}

Thorpe was adopted as North Devon's Liberal candidate in April 1952.{{sfn|Thorpe|1999|pp=89–90}} His political stance matched that of other young activists, who believed that the party should offer a radical non-socialist alternative to the Conservative government. He and others founded the [[Radical Reform Group]], to drive the party in that direction.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=103, 117}} He spent much of his spare time cultivating the voters in North Devon; at rallies and on the doorstep he mixed local concerns with conspicuously liberal views on larger, international issues such as [[colonialism]] and [[apartheid]].{{sfn|Glover|2015}} When [[Anthony Eden]], who had succeeded [[Winston Churchill]] as prime minister, called a snap general election in April 1955, Thorpe fought an energetic local campaign. He succeeded in halving the Conservative majority in the constituency, and restoring the Liberals to second place.{{sfn|Glover|2015}}{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=109–10}}

===Barrister-at-law and television journalist===
In need of a paid occupation Thorpe opted for the law, and in February 1954 was [[called to the bar]] in the [[Inner Temple]].{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=104–08}} Initially he found it difficult to earn a living from his fees; he needed another source of income, and found it in television journalism. Thorpe was employed by [[Associated-Rediffusion]], at first as chairman of a science discussion programme, ''The Scientist Replies'', and later as an interviewer on the station's major current affairs vehicle ''[[This Week&nbsp;(1956 TV programme)|This Week]]''.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=112–14}} Among various assignments for ''This Week'', he travelled to Ghana in 1957 to cover the country's independence celebrations,{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=115}} and in 1958 he reported from Jordan on a plot to assassinate [[King Hussein]].{{sfn|Thorpe|1999|pp=42–43}} Thorpe was a skilled broadcaster, and in addition to his television work he became a regular guest on the BBC radio programme ''[[Any Questions?]]''{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=116}} In 1959 he was offered the post of chief commentator by Associated Rediffusion, but as the condition was that he gave up his parliamentary candidature, he declined.{{sfn|Thorpe|1999|p=45}}

Through the later 1950s Thorpe juggled his legal and television work with his political duties in North Devon, where he worked tirelessly to build up support.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=116, 127}} From September 1956 the Liberal Party was led by [[Jo Grimond]], a more up-to-date figure than his elderly predecessor Davies, and more in tune with the ideas of Thorpe and the Radical Reform Group. After an uncertain beginning—the Liberals lost one of their six seats to Labour in a February 1957 by-election{{#tag:ref| The seat was [[Carmarthen (UK Parliament constituency)|Carmarthen]], and the victorious candidate was Megan Lloyd George, who had transferred her allegiance to the Labour Party.{{sfn|Cook|1998|pp=137–39}} |group="n"|name="carmarthen"}}—Grimond's leadership began to produce results. The party polled well in a series of by-elections during 1957 and 1958, culminating in a [[1958 Torrington by-election|victory at Torrington in March 1958]]—a seat which the party had not contested in the 1955 general election.{{sfn|Cook|1998|pp=137–39}} Thorpe, who had figured prominently in the Torrington campaign,{{sfn|Glover|2015}} saw this victory in an adjoining Devon constituency as a harbinger of his own future success.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=123}}

Thorpe's television and radio work had brought him a measure of celebrity, and his colourful and individualistic campaigning style was widely admired. The journalist [[Christopher Booker]] recalled: "He had an extraordinary ability both to cheer up his followers and send up his opponents".{{sfn|Bloch|2014|p=121}} Throughout the 1950s Thorpe was leading a secret homosexual life, at a time when all such activity was illegal in the United Kingdom, and subject to heavy penalties; exposure would have ended his political prospects instantly.{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=131–32}} This sexual orientation, concealed from the wider public, was known and tolerated in North Devon,{{sfn|Bloch|2014|pp=142–43}} and was at least suspected by many in the wider Liberal Party.{{sfn|Sandbrook|2013|p=442}}