The Effects of a Minority Labour Government in the Mid 60s?

[Time Enough]

So I’ve seen this pondered occasionally but I want to ask?

Given the incredibly slim nature of the majority under Harold Wilson, it’s incredibly possible that he or another potential Labour leader from the period could have gained at best a minority government reliant on Liberal support.

In the case of such a scenario, what would likely to occur?

Jo Grimond was hopeful of a ‘Progressive Alliance’ emerging but I get the sense that would be unlikely in such a scenario. Labour is as always wary of coalition governments, so it’s probably a Confidence & Supply deal at best.

The Conservatives would probably want a different leader sooner, which probably helps someone like Iain MacLeod or Reginald Maudling, there’s probably a push to topple the Lab - Lib agreement etc.

 

[Makemakean]

So I’ve seen this pondered occasionally but I want to ask?

Given the incredibly slim nature of the majority under Harold Wilson, it’s incredibly possible that he or another potential Labour leader from the period could have gained at best a minority government reliant on Liberal support.

In the case of such a scenario, what would likely to occur?

Jo Grimond was hopeful of a ‘Progressive Alliance’ emerging but I get the sense that would be unlikely in such a scenario. Labour is as always wary of coalition governments, so it’s probably a Confidence & Supply deal at best.

The Conservatives would probably want a different leader sooner, which probably helps someone like Iain MacLeod or Reginald Maudling, there’s probably a push to topple the Lab - Lib agreement etc.

I feel that in these prime ministers' list, sometimes too much emphasis is given to the whole confidence and supply thing. I mean, it's not like the British Constitution works like the German Constitution where the Chancellor has to be actively elected by a majority of the MdB's. The Queen just appoints the Prime Minister, and then, well, they see where it goes from there. Canada, which has a political system far closer to that of Britain, has frequently had minority governments carrying along without any official or unofficial confidence and supply agreements with any of the opposition parties.

I think that what would have happened in 1964 if, for the sake of it, a few hundred votes in Birmingham go differently so that the Tories keep the Yardley and All Saint seats, in King's Lynn, less than a hundred votes go differently, and in Brighton Kemptown, where the margin of difference was a mere 7, a dozen votes go differently, so that in the end Labour merely has 313 seats and the Tories have 308, and you have the Liberals with their 9 seats, I think the Queen is just going to appoint Harold Wilson PM, regardless of whether or not he has called up Jo Grimond first.