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Portrait of James Callaghan

Prime Ministers · 20th century

James Callaghan

1912–2005 · British

Labour

In office: 1976–1979

James Callaghan succeeded Harold Wilson in 1976 and remains the only person to have held all four Great Offices of State: Chancellor, Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister. His government took an IMF loan, relied on the Lib–Lab pact and was undone by the strikes of the Winter of Discontent. It fell in March 1979 when it lost a confidence vote by a single vote, and Margaret Thatcher won the ensuing election.

How to spot them

  • ▸'Sunny Jim'; the only person to hold all four Great Offices of State
  • ▸The Winter of Discontent, 1978–79
  • ▸'Crisis? What crisis?' (a Sun headline, not his words)
  • ▸Lost a confidence vote by 311 to 310 in 1979

In office

The Winter of Discontent (1978–1979)

Widespread public-sector strikes against pay limits, with uncollected rubbish and unburied dead

'Crisis? What crisis?' headline (1979)

The Sun's paraphrase of his remarks on returning tanned from the Guadeloupe summit

The 1976 IMF loan (1976)

Britain borrowed about $3.9 billion from the International Monetary Fund in return for spending cuts

The Ruskin College speech launching the 'Great Debate' on education (1976)

Oxford speech questioning standards and the purpose of state education

The Lib–Lab pact (1977–1978)

Agreement with David Steel's Liberals to keep a minority Labour government in power

Losing a no-confidence vote by one vote (1979)

Defeated 311–310 on 28 March 1979, forcing the election Thatcher won

Key ideas

  • His 1976 conference speech rejected the idea that governments could simply spend their way out of recession
  • The failed 1979 devolution referendums in Scotland and Wales preceded his government's fall

Quick-fire facts

  • •Born in Portsmouth; left school at 16 and never went to university
  • •Served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War
  • •As Chancellor he devalued the pound in 1967, then moved to the Home Office
  • •MP for Cardiff constituencies 1945–1987; Father of the House 1983–1987
  • •Created Baron Callaghan of Cardiff and a Knight of the Garter in 1987
  • •Died in 2005, one day before his 93rd birthday and 11 days after his wife Audrey; at his death he was the longest-lived British prime minister

Drill it — 7 cards

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Sources