Michael Foot as PM: How likely and what would've been done if he was?

[Jophiel]

Question as in the title. What would've it have taken to get Michael Foot as Prime Minister, and what policies would he have implemented as a result of his election as Labour leader?

Time probably from 1945-1990.

 

[Time Enough]

Question as in the title. What would've it have taken to get Michael Foot as Prime Minister, and what policies would he have implemented as a result of his election as Labour leader?

Time probably from 1945-1990.

Foot is quite unlikely to be Prime Minister since he was a Bevanite who were essentially the Left Wing fringe of the Labour Party from 1945 onwards to about 1975-80ish where it got replaced by folks like Militant.

Now if he were Prime Minister well the policies implemented would depend of the year. Throughout the 70s and early 80s he was rather Anti-EEC being a constant voice of it, until the late 80s where he changes his tune and became more in favour of the EEC.

The best point for a Michael Foot PMship could be the late 70s in which he somehow wins the Labour leadership in the aftermath of Harold Wilson's resignation. But the policies implemented under his rain would be hard to tell.

 

[Mumby]

Foot is quite unlikely to be Prime Minister since he was a Bevanite who were essentially the Left Wing fringe of the Labour Party from 1945 onwards to about 1975-80ish where it got replaced by folks like Militant.

Now if he were Prime Minister well the policies implemented would depend of the year. Throughout the 70s and early 80s he was rather Anti-EEC being a constant voice of it, until the late 80s where he changes his tune and became more in favour of the EEC.

The best point for a Michael Foot PMship could be the late 70s in which he somehow wins the Labour leadership in the aftermath of Harold Wilson's resignation. But the policies implemented under his rain would be hard to tell.

I've always found the idea of a 60s Foot premiership interesting, if you get him elected in 1945 and keep him there it hardly seems an unlikely prospect.

 

[Gary Oswald]

Foot is quite unlikely to be Prime Minister since he was a Bevanite who were essentially the Left Wing fringe of the Labour Party from 1945 onwards to about 1975-80ish where it got replaced by folks like Militant.

Now if he were Prime Minister well the policies implemented would depend of the year. Throughout the 70s and early 80s he was rather Anti-EEC being a constant voice of it, until the late 80s where he changes his tune and became more in favour of the EEC.

The best point for a Michael Foot PMship could be the late 70s in which he somehow wins the Labour leadership in the aftermath of Harold Wilson's resignation. But the policies implemented under his rain would be hard to tell.

I mean it's a cliché and over simplification but Foot winning in 1983 cos the Falklands War went to shit and the tories were blamed isn't entirely out of question.

 

[Gary Oswald]

1981 is perhaps more likely.

List of polls 1979-1983

After 1981, Labour's rating nosedived. The Falklands Factor largely took from the Liberal/SDP, but one can see that pretty much as soon as Foot was elected leader, Labour went from around 50% to around 30%.

My memory of the period is that this ties in.

If you swing the Falklands around, my guess would be that the Conservatives and Labour would both settle at around 30%, with the Liberal/SDP at around 35%. I can't see Foot gaining much from a Falklands Fiasco; he'd backed himself into a corner by strong support of the actions taken.

I think there's an argument that a stronger Alliance vote hurts the Tories a lot more than Labour. As that's where the Alliance were primarily getting votes from.

If the Tories are to blame for a disaster in the South Atlantic, the idea is that enough of their natural supporters will go over to the SDP to split the vote and allow Foot to come in the back door.