Conservative's fall from power

Question 1

1st reason: PM after Macmillan

Answer 1

-Douglas-Home
-was part of the establishment and seen as out of date
-wasn’t elected to be leader, therefore the party seemed old fashioned

Question 2

2nd reason: economy

Answer 2

-Amory budget (chancellor)
-too generous
-Amory forced to introduce a standstill budget - bad as there was no spending or investing
-Macmillan picked Selwyn Lloyd as new chancellor after Amory - mistake as he had little interest or experience in economics
-Lloyd admits gov. has been running a trade deficit for 2 years
-pay pause introduced in July 1961
-this was essentially a confession that macmillan’s economic policy had failed

Question 3

3rd reason: spy scandals

Answer 3

-George Blake scandal 1961 - part of MI6 but was convicted of being a Soviet double agent
-John Vassal scandal 1962 - civil servant who was blackmailed on grounds of homosexuality to pass info to soviet union
-created distrust
-the point when the press began to turn against PM
-the Times openly called for a new PM!
-Kim Philby scandal 1962 - senior official at the foreign office had been passing info to the soviet union
-this was bad news for Macmillan as it was a time of national paranoia over conflict with USSR

Question 4

4th reason: other scandals

Answer 4

-Argyll divorce 1963
-Duke of Argyll sued his wide doe divorce over adultery
-in court 88 names of who she had allegedly slept with was revealed
-rumoured some were gov. ministers
-highlighted corruption and immorality within aristocracy
-the beginning of a loss of respect of the establishment
-Profumo affair 1963
-Profumo = Macmillan’s secretary of state
-he had an affair with Christine Keeler which was a security risk as she was linked to the russian embassy
-he denied the affair in HoC
-final straw for the party

Question 5

5th reason: NOLLK

Answer 5

-night of the long knives
-july 1962
-macmillan radically sacked 1/3rd of his own cabinet
-did it to revamp gov, but actually weakened it
-big blow to macmillan’s public image
-52% of public dissatisfied with macmillan after this incident

Question 6

6th reason: EEC

Answer 6

-in 1961 macmillan applies for entry to EEC
-Charles DeGaulle (french president) vetoed their application in january 1963
-shows foreign powers don’t have trust in macmillan

Question 7

overall, what were the six main reasons that conservatives fell from power in 1964?

Answer 7

1. Douglas-Home becoming PM (out of touch party)
2. economic issues/failures
3. spy scandals (blake, vassal and philby)
4. other scandals (Argyll divorce and Profumo affair
5. night of the long knives
6. rejection from EEC