Leaders of the Conservative Party
1945-1949:
Winston Churchill [1]
1949-1960:
Rab Butler [2]
1960-1962:
Lord Boothby [3]
1962-1968:
Enoch Powell [4]
1968-1975:
John Profumo [5]
1975-1978:
Ted Heath [6]
1978-1986:
1986-1987:
1987-1997:
1997-2000:
L
[1] As peace settled across Europe it was time for the long delayed General election to take place. Churchill was confident that his status as Britain's wartime leader would be enough to see the Conservatives returned with a comfortable majority. However some key aides were more cautious, noting the growing consensus within the country for change and that the the Labour manifesto was well developed to feed into that.
A more vigorous campaign strategy was deployed, giving concrete proposals for new welfare provisions, comprehensive health insurance and some retention of a state role in industry and the economy but not to the extent of Labour. Churchill memorably quipped it was "Toryism with a Human Face", an informal slogan which stuck.
Churchill himself was kept on a tight as leash as possible, difficult though that could be with Winston. He was at least talked out of describing Labour as requiring a "Gestapo" to implement it's policies, something that was seen as a step too far with the horrors of the Third Reich still fresh.
The Conservatives were content with the campaign and as the results began to pour in where upbeat that they would win a comfortable majority. It soon became clear that the election had not gone entirely to plan, they had retained a majority alright, a majority of 3. Labour had come within a whisker of taking the election (indeed they would narrowly win the populate vote) while the Liberals and National Liberals had been decimated. While a victory it was not one which would make implementing a new vision for Britain easy.
There were rumblings from within the party that the result was primarily down to Churchill, who was not seen as a man who would "win the peace". However making a move against the Bulldog with the war not fully won and the Potsdam Conference ongoing there was little appetite to depose him.
His near defeat shook Churchill and he showed a remarkable lack of energy following the election, his private papers would detail a severe occurrence of the "Black Dog" which hampered him severely. Party stalwarts such as Leo Amery and Anthony Eden did a great deal of the spade work in forcing through the new Conservative agenda, often in conjunction with the National Liberals with whom they had arranged a de facto confidence and supply are arrangement.
The Conservative government shuffled along for the next few years with the public becoming more and more disenchanted with a party that seemed to be unable or unwilling to make the country fit for heroes that had been promised. But fittingly it was a foreign affair that was to finally finish off Churchill, when the Communists managed to win the Greek Civil War. This was achieved through covert Soviet aid as they had decided to ignore an informal agreement on spheres of influence due to Churchill's weak position and lack of energy. Labour made much hay with the Tories weaknesses both at home and abroad attacks which were sticking and with an election due within the year the Conservatives finally blinked.
The knife was quickly wielded by the men in grey suits and Churchill was unceremoniously dumped. A sad end for the man who led Britain through the 2nd World War but not one who had the skills or ability to rebuild it in peacetime.
EDIT: For the love of God snip that essay out of the next reply!
[2]. The aftermath of the ensuing clusterfuck that was the 1949 Conservative Leadership contest lead to Rab Butler just getting in as leader as Anthony Eden licked his wounds and prepared to try again. No sooner had Butler got in there was an election to try and win. Even with his one nation credentials and his manifesto that promised change, Rab and the Tories lost hard with Labour enjoying a 60 seat majority. Rab managed to keep his leadership due to the party agreeing he had been dropped in the deep end.
The next few years of his leadership would mainly be putting out fires as he tried to wrestle with Anthony Eden with dominance of the Conservative Party throughout the early 50s as Labour would implement a welfare state. As 1955 loomed and another election would be called and Rab hoped he would get somewhere with the party now behind him, but the painful death of his wife Sydney would take the wind out of him and his period of grief and a revived Liberal Party under Jo Grimond would mean that Tories would only gain 30 more seats.
The knifes were out yet again but Rab would manage to win another leadership contest again as Eden was suffering from infections and his successor Macmillan was convinced to stand down in return for a job on the front bench. Rab’s leadership would limp on for another few years, his aim mainly to revive the party under a new One Nation message. In 1960, Gaitskell would call an election and Butler believed his efforts may finally have paid off...they didn’t. Butler watched in horror as Labour won a third term with a majority of fifteen. Depressed Butler would resign as leader seen as a failed attempt to revive the Conservative efforts in the fifties.
[3] The Conservative Party electing an actual Lord as their leader in the new decade was hay for political satirists, but Boothby had been an early anti-appeaser and had an admirable service record, he was anti-Butler but not tied to the rump Edenites, he was pro-European - he was the candidate for the messy reconstruction, the best available everyone could agree on. He'd also been part of the Tory advocates for legalising homosexuality (which was done in 19580 and so could claim to be 'modern'. The fact he was himself gay, an increasingly open secret, upset some traditional Conservative figures but not enough to stop his rise.
Then he abruptly resigned in 1962 and retired to the Lords backbenches, claiming he had achieved what he'd set out to do. Several months later, the party was appalled and furious to find the Daily Mirror printing photos of Boothby at a 'party' with one of the notorious Kray Brothers, and he had to leave even Lords in disgrace. (Many years later it would turn out MI5 had caught wind of Boothby's involvement with the Krays and various Conservative grandees had forced the man to resign before it could come out.)
[4] Handed the leadership to add fresh blood and ideas, Enoch Powell's leadership is now considered one that tacked all the way back to the Duke of Wellington. Initially starting off well, Powell cut a decent figure in the Commons, easily out pacing Hugh Gaitskell as his health began to fail and then again George Brown's slurring. The snap election of 1964 saw the Conservative's return to power with the slenderest of majorities, from which things gradually began to go down hill.
A sudden down turn in the economy saw Powell's monetarist plans for the economy put on hold as he inflicted mild austerity on the nation, which caused an immediate fight with the unions that he didn't need. Meanwhile, abroad Powell made enemies in all the wrong places. Refusing President Kennedy's request for help in the escalating war in Vietnam, Powell looked as though he was trying to reverse the efforts of de-colonisation in Africa: first extending the British 'mandate' in South Rhodesia to fight a bush war in defence of white settlers in the region, then forcing a regime change in Kenya (under the pretence of rescuing the country's Asian minority, but in reality hoping to prevent their mass immigration to the UK). These costly interventions pushed the Exchequer even further, and American displeasure was repaid by tightening pressure on Trans-Atlantic trade, which didn't help as Powell refused to budge on his Labour derived, anti-EEC policy.
As this all went on, a small cadre of MPs still loyal to Boothby gradually began to wear on Powell's nerves for their internal dissent which Powell repaid by having the Whips come down hard. The result was a leak from the Home Office on tightening the governments already controversial immigration controls, which blew apart the Powell's fragile relations with Commonwealth immigrants and their mother country's. Summer of '68 saw London, Leeds, Bradford and Manchester engulfed by race riots and Powell's government finally lost its majority in his Midland heartland. Feeling he could win a snap election on the basis of Law & Order, Powell called one only to have the Conservative campaign breakdown into "Us vs Them" Race baiting, often endorsed by certain corners of Party HQ. Disgusted, the general public delivered a resolute 'No' to Powell, who the morning after made his resignation speech under bombardment by students with eggs. The most generous assessment of Powell's tenure is that it peaked too early, but these are few at best.
[5] Considered by many the man who should have been the leader over the past ten years having existed in nearly every single shadow cabinet and having an impeccable war record, John Profumo was handed a Conservative Party in the middle of a crisis. The Conservatives had lost another election, the radical Greenwood government was experiencing a popular mandate and Powell and his Powellite MPs were battling the remains of the Butler/Boothby regimes. Profumo decided that he was going to radically alter the Conservative Party under his 'Common Sense' leadership, whilst still pushing a message of positive patriotism and a One Nation rhetoric he also called for a closer relationships with America and the EEC as a way to combat the Soviet Union, to end Britain's empire and to not act in a reactionary manner. These were radical messages to many Conservatives but given how Powell had just sunk there first government in nearly twenty years they towed the line.
Under Profumo the Tories would increase there number of female MPs and attempts to heal the relationship between Conservative party and Britain's burgeoning ethnic minority population. The pinnacle of this would be in 1971 when the failed former leader Enoch Powell and five of his closest colleagues would be expelled from the Conservative party. Profumo would also democratise the party, with constituency's now being able to vote for there own parliamentary candidate for the first time and he would aim to win over the Thorpe led Liberal Party which he was able to do with the promise of Alternative Voting.
In 1972 the Conservative Party would manage to gain a majority of 12 and Profumo would prove to be right in his plans, having a majority he didn't have to placate the Liberal's and would implement his plans to finally finish off decolonisation, become closer with America, continue the One Nation consensus and would join the EEC in 1974. Profumo's passionate and intelligent reign would abruptly end when Profumo stated he was stepping down. For many years questions were asked about why this occurred until it was found out in 1990 that Profumo had been having an numerous affairs throughout the 60s which various tabloids had found out and the Conservative Party higher ups had told him to jump before he was pushed.
[6] Heath was one of the leading Profumites, serving as the man's Foreign Secretary during the EEC negotiations. With Profumo's government popular and his achievements working, Heath's job was just to keep everything ticking over. The economy slowly grew, North Sea oil was explored, and Britain was becoming a key part of the pan-European future; unlike America, punk remained a minority interest and disco ("britdisco") sailed on. All seemed calm on the keen yachtsman's ship of state.
The problem was that Heath was not a very charismatic or forceful man, certainly no Profumo, and so the growing monetarist wing of the Tories found it easier to get recruits. Why should the Conservatives be shackled to a plan by a man long gone? They had power, why weren't they going further? Heath found he was being briefed against in parts of the press as a man following someone else's plan (unfairly, as it was his too) and of being too complacent against David Steel's revamped Labour & the Liberals, who were starting to come after the Tory gains in Scotland. It's believed this perception of Heath was weak is what caused the Ulster Strike in '77, when the DUP tried to bring down the SDLP-led Northern Irish parliament for "going too far"; the biggest political challenge of Heath's time, forcing constant negotiations with multiple factions and the Irish government. This continued during the election, in which the Tory majority fell to 3, and briefing escalated - why, a more dynamic leader could have increased the majority!
So in retrospect, it's no surprise Heath resigned to take the top job at the EEC instead. There, he could (and did) make his mark and not deal with three years of being undercut.