Conservatives 1964 to 1970

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Conservative Party from 1964 to 1970

Edward Heath was democratically elected the new leader in 1965, showing the Conservative Party was modernising just like the Labour Party had.

In 1968, Enoch Powell made his speech on the 'River's of Blood'.

The Conservative Party developed their 'Selsdon Man' manifesto, and surprisingly won the 1970 election 

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Why were there divisions in the Labour Party?

During this period, there were personal rivalries between Wilson and his most powerful cabinet colleagues. Wilson always feared that he might face a leadership challenge from Brown or Callaghan or Jenkins. In fact, Wilson did not face any obvious challenger, and therefore it it possible to criticise Wilson as in some ways it appears that too much of his energy and attention was devoted to trying to keep the party united and in stopping any of his colleagues from being able to threaten his position. 

The only slight opposition Wilson faced was from the left-wing party members in the unions, local government and young people, who were frustrated by his government and this made it likely that there would be party divisions re-emerging in the 1970s. These divisions, along with the confusion of party line due to conflicts between individuals, caused labour to appear to have no party line, which could have been one of the reasons labour lost in the 1970 general election. 

On the contrary, it must be remembered these divisions were not as pronounced compared to those between 1951 and 1964, and labour did win in 1966, despite evidence of conflicts between individuals when George Brown was appointed head of the DEA. 

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Harold Wilson and George Brown

George Brown was hugely resentful that he had lost the leadership election to Harold Wilson and was further disappointed that he was not made foreign secretary in 1964. 

Wilson was rumoured to have undermined Brown's reputation by keeping a record of any embarrassing incidents when Brown was eventually moved to the foreign office in 1967. 

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Harold Wilson, Roy Jenkins, and James Callaghan

Harold Wilson was suspicious of Roy Jenkins, who was a Gaitskellite. He did not really support Jenkin's liberalising legislation when he was home secretary. 

When devaluation was proposed, Jenkins tried to get the cabinet to support devaluation. Wilson interpreted this as a plot to replace himself and George Brown with James Callaghan and Jenkins. This highlights Wilsons paranoia as it was highly unlikely that Callaghan and Jenkins would work together. Callaghan did not approve of Jenkin's pro-European stance nor of his liberalising legislation, and Jenkins was critical of the failure to devalue when Callaghan was chancellor as Callaghan did not want to, and he was a supporter of the trade union legislation ('In Place of Strife') that Callaghan helped to block. 

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