Edward Heath

Sir Edward Heath was the Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974.

Heath's electoral victory in 1970 was something of a surprise, as the incumbent Labour Party was comfortably ahead in the polls. Some have attributed the sudden souring of public opinion to England's defeat in the soccer World Cup the week before, or, perhaps more plausibly, to some bad economic figures that emerged during the election campaign.

Heath's most lasting achievement was to lead the UK into the EEC (later the EU) in 1973. His tenure, however, was blighted by industrial unrest, including a devastating miners' strike. This resulted in the famous 'three-day-week', in which commercial consumption of electricity was limited to three days per week, with the exception of essential services.

In early 1974, Health called an election on the slogan "Who rules Britain?", the subtext being "Who rules Britain: the elected government or the miners' unions?". This election, held in February, produced a "hung Parliament", in which no single party held a majority. Minor parties such as the Ulster Unionist Party and the Liberal Party refused to form a coalition with the Conservatives, and Heath accordingly resigned. Labour's Harold Wilson returned as Prime Minister, and won a small overall majority in a further election in October 1974.

Heath was challenged for the Conservative leadership by Margaret Thatcher in 1975. To the surprise of many, Thatcher emerged victorious from the leadership contest, and Heath remained on bad personal and political terms with Thatcher for many years afterwards. When she was forced to resign as Prime Minister in 1990, Heath called his office and, using a phrase made famous by Thatcher in the Falklands War, said: "Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice!".

Heath remained an MP until 2001, and was generally perceived as being firmly on the left of the Conservative Party. (The maverick Labour politician Tony Benn claims that Heath once told him that he, Heath, was politically to the left of Labour's Tony Blair.) He died in 2005.