Brian Reading

How a cow won the 1970 election

The conspiracy theory of history is rarely right; the bungle theory is rarely wrong. So it was at the 1970 British general election. I bungled. The polls gave Labour a 3 percent lead; instead the Tories won. Historians disagree on why this was so. Some blame the margin of error in opinion polls. Others say there was a late swing. If so, I was to blame.

It was the Sunday before the Thursday polling. We were panicking. Our Tory backroom boys gathered together three or four future cabinet ministers. I asked how were we to deal with inflation – more important in those days than the budget deficit. We agreed that I would write a speech for Edward Heath saying that selective employment tax would be abolished, cutting the rise in prices ‘at a stroke’ – rather like reducing value added tax.

I presented my draft speech to Heath at an early morning meeting before his daily press conference. He asked whether his shadow chancellor, Iain Macleod, had approved it. He had not but did that day. So on Tuesday, I presented it again for his morning press conference. That was when things unravelled. He said “I won’t say this, but to keep you happy Brian you can put it out as background briefing.”

In those days, 40 years ago, there were no photocopiers. Central Office had stencils cut for Roneo machines and I gave the go ahead to hand it out but failed to say it was a background briefing. It was distributed at the end of the press conference as ‘Speech by the Rt. Hon Edward Heath, leader of the opposition’. It was the most famous speech Heath never made.

Like Gordon Brown, Harold Wilson wanted a doctor’s mandate.

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