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Portrait of Edward Heath

Prime Ministers · 20th century

Edward Heath

1916–2005 · British

Conservative

In office: 1970–1974

Sir Edward Heath won a surprise victory in 1970 and took the United Kingdom into the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973. His government was dominated by industrial conflict, culminating in the miners' strike and the three-day week, and he lost power after calling a February 1974 election on the question "Who governs Britain?". Ousted as party leader by Margaret Thatcher in 1975, he stayed in the Commons until 2001.

How to spot them

  • ▸Took Britain into the EEC in 1973
  • ▸The three-day week and 'Who governs Britain?'
  • ▸Yachtsman whose boats were called Morning Cloud; also an orchestral conductor
  • ▸A lifelong bachelor; the long feud with Thatcher ('the incredible sulk')

In office

Taking the UK into the European Economic Community (1973)

The European Communities Act 1972 took effect on 1 January 1973

The three-day week (1974)

Commercial electricity use rationed to three days a week to save coal during the miners' dispute

The 'Who governs Britain?' election (1974)

February 1974 snap election that produced a hung parliament and a Labour minority government

'The unpleasant and unacceptable face of capitalism' (1973)

His Commons description of the Lonrho affair

Imposition of direct rule in Northern Ireland (1972)

Stormont suspended after Bloody Sunday; followed by the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973

Industrial Relations Act 1971 (1971)

Attempt to bring trade unions within a legal framework, bitterly opposed by the unions

Key ideas

  • His government's 1972 'U-turn' towards intervention and incomes policy was later rejected by Thatcherites
  • A committed pro-European to the end of his life

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born in Broadstairs, Kent, son of a carpenter; educated at Chatham House Grammar School, Ramsgate, and Balliol College, Oxford (organ scholar)
  • •Decimal Day, 15 February 1971, fell during his government
  • •Skippered Morning Cloud to victory in the 1969 Sydney–Hobart yacht race and captained Britain's winning Admiral's Cup team in 1971
  • •Conducted the London Symphony Orchestra
  • •Father of the House of Commons 1992–2001
  • •Made a Knight of the Garter in 1992; his Salisbury home, Arundells, is open to the public
  • •Lost the 1975 Conservative leadership contest to Margaret Thatcher

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources