Edward Heath

With another general election approaching in 1970 a Conservative policy document emerged from the Selsdon Park Hotel that offered free-market–oriented policies as solutions to the country's unemployment and inflation problems.[40] Heath stated that the Selsdon weekend only reaffirmed policies that had actually been evolving since he became leader of the Conservative Party. The Labour prime minister, Harold Wilson, thought the document a vote-loser and dubbed it the product of Selsdon Man – after the supposedly prehistoric Piltdown Man[41] – to portray it as reactionary. Heath's Conservative Party won the general election of 1970 with 330 seats to Labour's 287. The new cabinet included the future prime minister Margaret Thatcher (Education and Science), William Whitelaw (Leader of the House of Commons) and the former prime minister Alec Douglas-Home (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs).[42]

During Heath's first year in office, higher charges were introduced for benefits of the welfare state such as school meals, spectacles, dentistry, and prescriptions. Entitlement to State Sickness Benefit was also changed so that it would only be paid after the first three days of sickness.[43] In 1971 a series of measures was introduced designed to limit the availability of supplementary benefit. In particular, as noted by one study, "tax rebates and strike pay were treated as resources, subject to a £4 disregard."[44] From April 1972 a man returning from work after being on strike had to pay back any supplementary benefit received to tide him over during the first 15 days at work before he got his pay. In February 1973, the rules about help in urgent cases were made more stringent.[45] As a result of the squeeze in the education budget, the provision of free school milk was ended for 8- to 11-year-olds (it had already been ended for older children by Harold Wilson); the tabloid press christened Margaret Thatcher, the then Education Secretary as "Margaret Thatcher: Milk Snatcher".[46] Despite these measures, the Heath government encouraged a significant increase in welfare spending, and Thatcher blocked Macleod's other posthumous education policy: the abolition of the Open University, which had recently been founded by the preceding Labour government.[47] In addition, despite the end of cheap milk provision however, 700,000 school children remained entitled to free milk. The Legal Advice and Assistance Act 1972 provided for better facilities for advice and assistance at an early stage in a dispute.[48] The Social Needs (Grants) Act 9NI) 1970 "made provision for the authorisation of the payment of grants towards expenditure incurred due to special social need in urban areas."[49] In January 1973, the Criminal Justice Act 1972 came into effect in England and Wales. It extended the court's power "to order an offender to pay compensation for personal injury, loss, or damage."[50] In June 1973 a new lower rate of attendance allowance was introduced for those aged 16 to 64, while lower rates "for the aged under 15 and those over 65 were introduced on 1 October and 3 December respectively."[51] Another change allowed for small claims of less than £75 to be dealt with in a less formal manner within the County Court system. Rules of evidence and requirements of legal representation were relaxed to make it viable to claim such small sums under the County Court Act 1959 as amended by the Administration of Justice Act (E&W) 1973.[52]

Provision was made under the National Insurance (Old Persons' and Widows' Pensions and Attendances Allowances) Act 1970 for pensions to be paid to old people who had been excluded from the pre-1948 pension schemes and were accordingly excluded from the comprehensive scheme that was introduced in 1948. About 100,000 people were affected by this change, half of whom were receiving Supplementary Benefit under the social security scheme. The Act also made improvements to the Widow's Pension scheme by introducing a scale that started at 30 shillings a week for women widowed at the age of 40 and rose to the full rate of £5 at the age of 50.[53]

Considerable support was provided for nursery school building, and a long-term capital investment programme in school building was launched. A Family Fund was set up to assist families with children who had congenital conditions,[54] while new benefits were introduced benefiting hundreds of thousands of disabled persons whose disabilities had been caused neither by war nor by industrial injury. An Attendance Allowance was introduced for those needing care at home, together with Invalidity Benefit for the long-term sick, while a higher Child Allowance was made available where invalidity allowance was paid. Widow's Benefits were introduced for those aged between forty and fifty years of age, improved subsidies for slum clearance were made available, while Rent Allowances were introduced for private tenants.[43] In April 1971, the right to education was given to all children with Down's syndrome for the first time.[55]

The school leaving age was raised to 16,[56] while Family Income Supplement was introduced to boost the incomes of low-income earners.[57] Families who received this benefit were exempted from NHS charges while the children in such families were eligible for free school meals. Non-contributory pensions were also introduced for all persons aged eighty and above,[58] while the Social Security Act 1973 was passed which introduced benefit indexation in the United Kingdom for the first time by index-linking benefits to prices to maintain their real value.[59] An amendment to the Social Security Act of 1973 required the secretary of state to publicize benefits for the disabled.[60] The National Insurance Act of 1971 introduced a special addition with no means test for all pensioners over 80, while in 1972 a £10 Christmas bonus was introduced.[61] Annual upratings for all pensioners was also introduced.[62] From October 1973 onwards a higher ' long – term rate ' of supplementary benefit "was paid to those who had received supplementary benefit for a continuous period."[63] That same year, a basic short-term rates were introduced for everyone else; the short-term sick and unemployed in the main.[64] From 1972 onwards, "while there is no statutory commitment to this effect, the same cash increases have been made in the leading supplementary benefit scale rates as in their national insurance counterparts." In 1973, a statutory commitment to uprate national insurance benefits in line with prices was introduced in 1973.[65] The Industrial Relations Act of 1971 gave employees "the right, depending on a minimum qualifying period, to appeal to an industrial tribunal, where compensation for unfair dismissal could be awarded based on length of service,"[66] and in 1972 preservation of accrued pension benefits after 5 or more years' service was introduced.[67] The Legal Advice and Assistance Act 1972 set up a Green Form scheme under which advice of up to two hours, free of charge to the poorest or at reduced rates to those of modest means, became available.[68] The Housing Finance Act 1972 "introduced a national formula for rent increases in the public sector and a mandatory system of local rent and rate rebates that survived subsequent legislation."[69] The Supplementary Benefit (Determination of Requirements) Regulations 1972 increased the rent addition for non-householders and removed the present age qualification.[70] The Students' Dependents' Allowances Regulations 1973 enabled the Secretary of State "to pay allowances to students attending first degree university etc. courses and courses for the training of teachers."[71] A social security amendment of 1973 provided for allowing the Supplementary Benefits Commission "to make payments to cover funeral expenses without having regard to the powers of local authorities, so that the commission will not be inhibited by the fact that local authorities have certain powers concerning the disposal of bodies."[72] Subsequently, the Commission "revised its policy on payments towards funeral expenses . Claimants are no longer advised to ask the Local Authority to make funeral arrangements, and the Commission will consider paying towards the costs of a private funeral under its powers to meet exceptional needs."[73]

The Redundant Mineworkers and Concessionary Coal (Payments Schemes) Order 1973 provided for three new types of benefits, including "lump sums based on length of service for men redundant between age 35 and 55, and for men over 55 who due to lack of service in the industry do not qualify for basic benefit; a new benefit equivalent to the current rate of unemployment benefit to be paid to men when they have exhausted their 156 weeks of basic benefit until they reach age 65; and concessionary coal benefits for men made redundant between age 55 and 60, and certain men redundant over age 60. (Most men redundant over age 60 already receive concessionary coal under existing arrangements.) In addition, "The amount of benefit which a beneficiary may retain if he obtains other employment has also been increased."[74] The Employment and Training Act 1973 included various provisions. For instance, as specified in the text of the Act, "The Secretary of State may— pay to any person appointed in pursuance of the preceding paragraph such subsistence and travelling allowances and such compensation for loss of remunerative time as the Secretary of State may determine with the approval of the Minister for the Civil Service." In addition, "An industrial training board may— pay maintenance and travelling allowances to persons attending courses provided or approved by the board ; make grants or loans to persons providing courses or other facilities approved by the board, to persons who make studies for the purpose of providing such courses or facilities and to persons who maintain arrangements to provide such courses or facilities which are not for the time being in use ; pay fees to persons providing further education in respect of persons who receive it in association with their training in courses provided or approved by the board; make payments to persons in connection with arrangements under which they or employees of theirs make use of courses or other facilities provided or approved by the board."[75]

The Redundant Mineworkers (Payments Scheme) Order 1972 was intended to be make available for 3 years "to any miner who is made redundant after he has reached 55 to help him to adjust to the new situation and to the difficulties which confront him." It included a number of provisions for miners and their dependents including the addition of cost of living increments, a basic scheme benefit, an increase from £3 to £6 a week to the benefit "which can be kept if a redundant mineworker finds a new job and enters new employment, because if he did he would probably incur income tax, perhaps National Insurance contributions, travelling expenses and other expenses which might well have exceeded the £3 which he would have been able to draw if he had continued to draw that from the redundant mineworkers payment scheme." The rent allowance which is payable to a redundant mineworker was made transferable to a new house if he were to move his home, the rules regarding the offsetting of State and other coal industry benefits against the total of the mineworkers' redundancy payment benefit were eased, and the scheme was changed "so that in the event of a second redundancy—if a miner is made redundant a second time—his earnings are computed on the wages paid in the year immediately before the second redundancy as opposed to his previous level of earnings." Also, "these last three concessions will apply to men who are in the existing scheme, not only to miners who might be made redundant in future, but to all those who are part of the existing scheme at the present time." The scheme also provided that the general increases in benefits, such as the special hardship allowance and workmen's compensation supplementation would not be offset as at present, and also provided for increases in benefits paid to men on workmen's compensation as a result of becoming total or major incapacity cases, award of special hardship allowance in respect of an accident or disease sustained after redundancies. In addition, "any general increase in unemployment benefit between 6th April, 1972, and 6th April, 1973, will be offset against the benefit of men made redundant after 6th April, 1973." Also, "the maximum amount of benefit that can be kept by those who get a job is increased from £3 to £6" weekly, and "the table of basic benefit appropriate to the various ranges of pre-redundancy earnings set out in Appendix 4 has been recalculated so that the basic benefit, plus the 1971 rate of unemployment benefit for a man and one adult dependant, equals, after tax and on average over the three years, 90 per cent. of previous take-home pay." Other provisions included service in the coal industry "before nationalisation can now count towards the 10 qualifying years" and that women "who are not paying the full National Insurance stamp will be able to get some benefit despite not being eligible for unemployment benefit." In addition, "days of absence from home which disqualify a person from unemployment benefit, and also from 72 scheme benefit, will be counted as days rather than one day in a week resulting in a whole week's disqualification as at present." Also, "a man made redundant within the terms of the scheme and reemployed in the coal industry for more than a year and then made redundant a second time can choose on which of the two pre-redundancy earnings he wishes his benefit to be calculated." In addition, "the requirement that in order to continue getting the rent allowance a person must continue to live in the same house in which he was living when he was made redundant, and that this house must continue to be owned by the board, is removed." Also, "the relevant tax year on which pre-redundancy earnings are based will now be the previous tax year for everybody, instead of being two years ago for those made redundant during April."[76] Also, as noted by one MP, "Following the introduction of the first redundant mineworkers payments scheme in 1968, which provided benefits for men aged 55 or over on redundancy who otherwise satisfied the requirements of the scheme, there was pressure to enhance the terms available to enable such men to receive concessionary coal as though they had reached normal retirement age. The Government responded to this pressure in the Coal Industry Act 1973, amending the power to make schemes benefiting redundant mineworkers in the 1967 Act." Also in 1973, the first concessionary coal payments scheme was introduced by order, which provided for reimbursement to the National Coal Board "of the full cost of concessionary coal to men aged 55 to 59 who qualified for benefits under the redundant mineworkers payments scheme from 14 December 1969, and half the cost of providing concessionary coal to such men age 60 to 65."[77]

A number of new superannuation provisions were introduced for various categories of workers. For those in the NHS, this included years and days used in benefit calculations instead of years and half years, the introduction of practitioner dynamising introduced i.e. 1.4% pensions, best of the last 3 years Total Superannuable Remuneration introduced instead of average of last 3 years, 3 x lump sum introduced for post 24 March 1972 service (married men), the introduction of a half rate widow's pension (was previously 1/3), a new rate of Child Allowance, a reduction in the qualifying period for pensions from 10 years to 5 years, the abolition of the qualifying period for Death Gratuities (DG), the introduction of double incapacity build up for service between 5 years and 9 years 364 days (or to age 65 if less), the introduction of 3 months initial widows pension, the introduction of widows limited pension (for 3, 4.5 or 6 months) for those widows who do not have title to continuing widows pensions, the introduction of a Limited Child Allowance, the introduction of automatic payment of benefits at age 70, the introduction of Added Years purchase, "Pensions Increase Supplement may apply" from January 1973 to October 1975, the extension of service to take account of untaken annual leave introduced for ancillary staff, and "Part time service may be superannuable provided half or more of the w/t basic is worked."[78] The Pensions (Increase) Act of 1971 provided for regular increases in public service pensions by statutory instrument. The Act was later amended in 1972 and 1974 "to lower the minimum qualifying age for pensions increase from 60 to 55 and to provide for all pensions paid to widows of scheme members to be increased."[79]

The Superannuation Act of 1972 provided for new arrangements for premature retirement on grounds of limited efficiency,[80] granted civil servants rights to their pensions[81] and established the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme, the Civil Service Additional Voluntary Contribution Scheme (CSAVCS), the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) and the Civil Service Injury Benefits Scheme (CSIBS).[82] The Local Government (Retirement of Chief Officers) Regulations 1973 provided "for persons identified as chief officers and deputy chief officers of local authorities, and certain other persons affected by local government reorganisation, to elect for early retirement on enhanced pension terms and thereby forgo any right to claim compensation which might otherwise have been exercised under section 259 of the Local Government Act 1972."[83] Section 27 of the Water Act 1973 empowered water authorities to establish and administer pension schemes and funds.[84] The Social Security Act of 1973 made further provisions "for occupational pensions, established the Occupational Pensions Board and the contributory reserve pension scheme under a Reserve Pension Board for not recognised pensionable employment."[85]

Scottish nationalism grew as a political force, while the decimalisation of British coinage, begun under the previous Labour government, was completed eight months after Heath came to power. The Central Policy Review Staff was established by Heath in February 1971,[86] while the Local Government Act 1972 changed the boundaries of the counties of England and Wales and created Metropolitan Counties around the major cities (e.g. Merseyside around Liverpool): this caused significant public anger. Heath did not divide England into regions, choosing instead to await the report of the Crowther Commission on the constitution; the 10 Government Office Regions were eventually set up by the Major government in 1994.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Iain Macleod died and was replaced on 20 July 1970 by Anthony Barber. Heath's planned economic policy changes (including a significant shift from direct to indirect taxation) remained largely unimplemented: the Selsdon policy document was more or less abandoned as unemployment increased considerably by 1972. By January that year, the number of unemployed reached a million, the highest level for more than two decades. Opposed to unemployment on moral grounds, Heath encouraged a famous "U-Turn" in economic policy that precipitated what became known as the "Barber Boom". This was a two-range process involving the budgets of 1972 and 1973, the former of which pumped £2.5 billion into the economy in increased pensions and benefits and tax reductions. By early 1974, as a result of this Keynesian economic strategy, unemployment had fallen to under 550,000. The economic boom did not last, and the Heath government implemented various cuts that led to the abandonment of policy goals such as a planned expansion of nursery education.[43]

Much of the government's attention, as well as the media and public opinion, focused on deteriorating labour relations, as the government sought to weaken the economic power of the trade unions, which had grown steadily since 1945. The Industrial Relations Act 1971 set up a special court under the judge Lord Donaldson. Its imprisonment of striking dockworkers was a public relations disaster and became an object lesson for the Thatcher government of the 1980s. Thatcher relied instead on confiscating the assets of unions that courts found to have violated anti-strike laws.

The trade unions responded with a full-scale counterattack on a government hobbled by inflation and high unemployment. Especially damaging to the government's credibility were the two miners' strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which resulted in much of the country's industry working a Three-Day Week in an attempt to conserve energy. The National Union of Mineworkers won its case but the energy shortages and the resulting breakdown of domestic consensus contributed to the eventual downfall of his government.

There was a steep rise in unemployment for the first two years of the Heath ministry, but it was then reversed. Labour in 1964 had inherited an unemployment count of around 400,000 but saw unemployment peak at 631,000 in early 1967. At election time in June 1970, the unemployment numbers were still high at 582,000. Heath and the Conservatives were pledged to "full employment" but within a year it became clear that they were losing that battle, as the official unemployment count crept towards 1,000,000 and some newspapers suggested that it was even higher. In January 1972 it was officially confirmed that unemployment had risen above 1,000,000 – a level not seen for more than 30 years.[87] Various other reports around this time suggested that unemployment was higher still, with The Times newspaper claiming that "nearly 3,000,000" people were jobless by March of that year.[88]

Heath and the Queen with the visiting US president Richard Nixon and first lady Pat Nixon in 1970

Heath with German CDU politician Uwe Barschel in 1972

Upon entering office in June 1970, Heath immediately set about trying to reverse Wilson's policy of ending Britain's military presence East of Suez.[89] Heath took the United Kingdom into Europe on 1 January 1973, following passage in Parliament of the European Communities Act 1972 in October.[90] He publicly supported the massive U.S. bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong in December 1972.[91][92]

His government quickly recognised the military regime of Augusto Pinochet in Chile and maintained good relations with it, despite the illegal nature of the Pinochet regime's coup d'état.[93][94]

In October 1973 he placed a British arms embargo on all combatants in the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War, which mostly affected the Israelis by preventing them obtaining spares for their Centurion tanks. Heath refused to allow US intelligence gathering from British bases in Cyprus, resulting in a temporary halt in the US signals intelligence tap.[95] He also refused permission for the US to use any British bases for resupply.[96]

He favoured links with the People's Republic of China, visiting Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1974 and 1975 and remaining an honoured guest in China on frequent visits thereafter and forming a close relationship with Mao's successor Deng Xiaoping. Heath realised that to become closer to Europe he needed to be further from the United States, so he downplayed the Special Relationship that had long knitted the two nations together. The two nations differed on such major crises as Britain's EC membership, the Nixon economic "shocks" of 1971, the Bangladesh Liberation War, détente with Soviet Union, Kissinger's Year of Europe and the Middle East crisis of 1973.[97]

Heath governed during a bloody period in the history of the Northern Ireland Troubles. On Bloody Sunday in 1972, 14 men and youths were shot dead by British soldiers during an anti-internment march in Derry City. In early 1971 Heath sent in a Secret Intelligence Service officer, Frank Steele, to talk to the IRA and find out what common ground there was for negotiations. Steele had carried out secret talks with Jomo Kenyatta ahead of the British withdrawal from Kenya.[98] In July 1972, Heath permitted his Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, William Whitelaw, to hold unofficial talks in London with an IRA delegation by Seán Mac Stíofáin. In the aftermath of these unsuccessful talks, the Heath government pushed for a peaceful settlement with the political parties exclusively committed to non-violence.[99]

The 1973 Sunningdale Agreement, which proposed a power-sharing deal, was strongly repudiated by many Unionists and the Ulster Unionist Party who withdrew its MPs at Westminster from the Conservative whip. The proposal was finally brought down by the Loyalist Ulster Workers' Council strike in 1974, by which time Heath was no longer in office.[100]

Heath was targeted by the IRA for introducing internment in Northern Ireland. In December 1974, the Balcombe Street ASU threw a bomb onto the first-floor balcony of his home in Wilton Street, Belgravia where it exploded. Heath had been conducting a Christmas carol concert at Broadstairs and arrived home 10 minutes after the bomb exploded. No one was injured in the attack, but a landscape painted by Winston Churchill – given to Heath as a present – was damaged.[101]

In January 2003, Heath gave evidence to the Saville Inquiry and stated that he had never sanctioned unlawful lethal force in Northern Ireland.[102]

Heath tried to bolster his government by calling a general election for 28 February 1974, using the election slogan "Who governs Britain?". The result of the election was inconclusive with no party gaining an overall majority in the House of Commons; the Conservatives had the most votes but Labour had slightly more seats. Heath began negotiations with Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party but, when these failed, he resigned as prime minister on 4 March 1974, and was replaced by Wilson's minority Labour government, eventually confirmed, though with a tiny majority, in a second election in October.[103] To date, Heath is the last British Prime Minister to have both assumed and lost their term of office by means of a General Election.

Heath came to be seen as a liability by many Conservative MPs, party activists and newspaper editors. His personality was considered cold and aloof, annoying even to his friends. Alan Watkins observed in 1991 that his "brusqueness, his gaucherie, his lack of small or indeed any talk, his sheer bad manners" were among the factors costing him the support of Conservative backbenchers in the subsequent Conservative leadership election.[104]

He resolved to remain Conservative leader, even after losing the October 1974 general election, and at first it appeared that by calling on the loyalty of his front-bench colleagues he might prevail. In the weeks following the second election defeat, Heath came under tremendous pressure to concede a review of the rules and agreed to establish a commission to propose changes and to seek re-election. There was no clear challenger after Enoch Powell had left the party and Keith Joseph had ruled himself out after controversial statements implying that the working classes should be encouraged to use more birth control. Joseph's close friend and ally Margaret Thatcher, who believed that an adherent to the philosophy of the Centre for Policy Studies should stand, joined the leadership contest in his place alongside the outsider Hugh Fraser. Aided by Airey Neave's campaigning among backbench MPs — whose earlier approach to William Whitelaw had been rebuffed, out of loyalty to Heath — she emerged as the only serious challenger.[105]

The new rules permitted new candidates to enter the ballot in a second round of voting should the first be inconclusive, so Thatcher's challenge was considered by some to be that of a stalking horse. Neave deliberately understated Thatcher's support to attract wavering votes from MPs who were keen to see Heath replaced even though they did not necessarily want Thatcher to replace him.[106][107]

On 4 February 1975, Thatcher defeated Heath in the first ballot by 130 votes to 119, with Fraser coming in a distant third with 16 votes. This was not a big enough margin to give Thatcher the 15% majority necessary to win on the first ballot, but having finished in second place Heath immediately resigned and did not contest the next ballot. His favoured candidate, William Whitelaw, lost to Thatcher in the second vote one week later (Thatcher 146, Whitelaw 79, Howe 19, Prior 19, Peyton 11).[108] The vote polarised along right-left lines, with in addition the region, experience and education of the MP having their effects. Heath and Whitelaw were stronger on the left, among Oxbridge and public school graduates, and in MPs from Northern England or Scotland.[109]

Thatcher had promised Heath a seat in the Shadow Cabinet and planned to offer him whatever post he wanted. His advisors agreed he should wait at least six months, so he declined. He never relented and his refusal was called "the incredible sulk".[110] Thatcher visited Heath at his home shortly after her election as leader and had to stay for coffee with his PPS Timothy Kitson so the waiting press would not realise how brief the visit had been. Heath claimed that he had simply declined her request for advice about how to handle the press, whilst Thatcher claimed that she offered him any Shadow Cabinet position he wanted and asked him to lead the Conservative campaign in the imminent EEC referendum, only to be rudely rebuffed.[111]

Heath in his Salisbury home, 1987

Blue plaque located on the boundary wall of Arundells

In the 1960s, Heath had lived in the Albany, off Piccadilly; at the unexpected end of his premiership, the French couple living there refused his demand that they move out so that he could have his flat back ("So much for European Unity!" Heath later wrote in his memoirs). For four months, Heath took the flat of Conservative MP Timothy Kitson; Kitson declined his offer to pay rent but later recalled an occasion when his own watch broke, and Heath in response invited him to take one of a large collection that he had been given on his travels. In July 1974, the Duke of Westminster, a major London landowner and ardent Europhile, allowed Heath to rent a property in Wilton Street, Belgravia, for an annual rent of £1,250 (just under £10,000 at 2014 prices), a tenth of the market value. The house had three storeys and a basement flat for Heath's housekeeper, and he continued to use it as his London home until old age prevented him from climbing the stairs.[122][123]

In February 1985, Heath acquired a Wiltshire home, Arundells, in the Cathedral close at Salisbury, where he resided until his death twenty years later. In January 2006, it was announced that Heath had placed his house and contents, valued at £5 million in his will, in a charitable foundation, the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, to conserve the house as a museum to his career.[124] The house is open to the public for guided tours from March to October; displayed therein is a large collection of personal effects as well as Heath's personal library, photo collections, and paintings by Winston Churchill.[125]

In his will, Heath, who had no descendants, left only two legacies: £20,000 to his brother's widow, and £2,500 to his housekeeper.[126]

Heath was a keen yachtsman. He bought his first yacht Morning Cloud in 1969 and won the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that year. He captained Britain's winning team for the Admiral's Cup in 1971[127] – while prime minister – and also captained the team in the 1979 Fastnet race. He was a member of the Broadstairs Sailing Club, where he learnt to sail on a Snipe and a Fireball before moving on to success in larger boats.[128]

Heath maintained an interest in classical music as a pianist, organist and orchestral conductor, famously installing a Steinway grand in 10 Downing Street – bought with his £450 Charlemagne Prize money, awarded for his unsuccessful efforts to bring Britain into the EEC in 1963, and chosen on the advice of his friend, the pianist Moura Lympany – and conducting Christmas carol concerts in Broadstairs every year from his teens until old age.

Heath conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, notably at a gala concert at the Royal Festival Hall in November 1971, at which he conducted Sir Edward Elgar's overture Cockaigne (In London Town). He also conducted the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Germany and the United States. During his premiership, Heath invited musician friends, such as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Clifford Curzon and the Amadeus Quartet, to perform either at Chequers or 10 Downing Street. Heath was the founding President of the European Community Youth Orchestra (in 1976), now the European Union Youth Orchestra.

In 1988, Heath recorded Beethoven's Triple Concerto, Op. 56 (with members of the Trio Zingara as soloists) and Boccherini's Cello Concerto in G major, G480.[129]

Heath was a supporter of the Lancashire football club Burnley, and just after the end of his term as prime minister in 1974 he opened the £450,000 Bob Lord Stand at the club's Turf Moor stadium.[130]

Heath book-signing in 1977

Heath wrote several books in the second half of the 1970s: Sailing, Music, and Travels. He also compiled a collection of carols called The Joy of Christmas, published in 1978 by Oxford University Press, which contained the music and lyrics to a wide variety of Christmas carols, each accompanied by a reproduction of a piece of religious art and a short introduction by Heath.

Heath's autobiography, The Course of My Life, appeared in 1998. According to his obituary in The Daily Telegraph, this "had involved dozens of researchers and writers (some of whom he never paid) over many years".[131]

In 1964, despite substantial opposition from many Conservative MPs and independent grocers and shopkeepers, Heath led a successful fight to abolish resale price maintenance.[132]

Private Eye, a satirical current affairs magazine, thereupon persistently ridiculed him as "Grocer Heath".[133] The magazine also parodied him as the managing director of a struggling small company, "Heathco".[134][135]

Heath never married. He had been expected to marry childhood friend Kay Raven, who was reportedly tired of waiting and married an RAF officer whom she met on holiday in 1950. In a four-sentence paragraph of his memoirs, Heath claimed that he had been too busy establishing a career after the war and had "perhaps ... taken too much for granted". In a 1998 TV interview with Michael Cockerell, Heath said that he had kept her photograph in his flat for many years afterwards.[136]

His interest in music kept him on friendly terms with female musicians, including pianist Moura Lympany. When Heath was prime minister she was approached by the Conservative MP Tufton Beamish, who said: "Moura, Ted must get married. Will you marry him?" She said she would have done but was in love with someone else.[137] She later said the most intimate thing Heath had done was to put his arm around her shoulder.[138]

Bernard Levin wrote at the time in The Observer that the UK had to wait until the emergence of the permissive society for a prime minister who was a virgin.[31] In later life, according to his official biographer Philip Ziegler, at dinner parties Heath was "apt to relapse into morose silence or completely ignore the woman next to him and talk across her to the nearest man";[31] others at the time claimed Heath was just not talkative at parties.[139]

There were many innuendos in Private Eye about it and chants insinuating he was homosexual could be heard outside Downing Street during protests by trade unionists against his Industrial Relations Bill.[140]

John Campbell, who published a biography of Heath in 1993,[141] devoted four pages to a discussion of the evidence concerning Heath's sexuality. While acknowledging that Heath was often assumed by the public to be gay, not least because it is "nowadays ... whispered of any bachelor", he found "no positive evidence" that this was so "except for the faintest unsubstantiated rumour" (the footnote refers to a mention of a "disturbing incident" at the beginning of the Second World War in a 1972 biography by Andrew Roth). Campbell ultimately concluded that the most significant aspect of Heath's sexuality was his complete repression of it.[142]

Brian Coleman, the Conservative Party London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, claimed in 2007 that Heath, to protect his career, had stopped cottaging in the 1950s. Coleman said it was "common knowledge" among Conservatives that Heath had been given a stern warning by police when he underwent background checks for the post of privy councillor.[143] Heath's biographer Philip Ziegler wrote in 2010 that Coleman was able to provide "little or no information" to back up this statement, that no man had ever claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Heath, nor was any trace of homosexuality to be found in his papers, and that "those who knew him well" insist that he had no such inclination. He believes Heath to have been asexual,[144] although he does mention a letter from one "Freddy", who seems hurt that "Teddie" had spurned his advances (Chapter 2 of his book).

Lord Armstrong of Ilminster, who was Heath's friend and former private secretary, stated his belief that Heath was asexual, saying that he "never detected a whiff of sexuality in relation to men, women or children."[145] Another friend and confidant, Sara Morrison, former vice-chairman of the Conservative Party, said Heath had "effectively" told her "that he was sexless".[146] Charles Moore, in his authorised biography of Margaret Thatcher, said that Bill Deedes believed that Thatcher "seem[ed] convinced" Heath was gay, whilst Moore believed it is "possible" that Thatcher's reference, in interview in 1974, to Heath not having a family, was a deliberate hint that he was gay, in order to discredit him.[147][148] Thatcher certainly seems to have disliked Heath. "When I look at him and he looks at me," she once remarked, according to Ziegler (Chapter 4), "it doesn't feel like a man looking at a woman, more like a woman looking at another woman."

When he moved to Arundells in 1985, Heath hired Derek Frost, life partner of Jeremy Norman, to modernise and redecorate the house in Salisbury. He became friends with the couple, though never close. When they asked Heath why he had not supported homosexual law reform (he was either absent from the debates in the 1960s or voted against Lord Arran's first Bill in May 1965), he replied that he had always been in favour but that "the rank and file of the party would never have stood for it." Norman's view is that Heath was "a deeply closeted gay man" who "decided early in life to sublimate his sexuality to his political ambitions."[149][150] In later life, Heath voted for the lowering of the age of same-sex consent to eighteen and then sixteen.

Similarly, Michael McManus, who was Heath's private secretary in the 1990s and helped with his memoirs, writes in his book on gay conservative politicians that he "was left in no doubt whatsoever that Heath was a gay man who had sacrificed his personal life to his political career, exercising iron self-control and living a celibate existence as he climbed the 'greasy pole' of preferment."[151]

In April 2015, a rape claim against Heath was investigated by the Metropolitan Police but was dropped.[152] In August 2015, several police forces were investigating allegations of child sexual abuse by Heath.[153] Hampshire, Jersey, Kent, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire and Thames Valley constabularies and London's Metropolitan Police investigated such claims.[154][155] It was reported that a man had claimed that at the age of 12 years he had been raped by Heath in a Mayfair flat in 1961, after he had run away from home.[156][157] Allegations about Heath were investigated as part of Operation Midland, the Metropolitan Police inquiry into claims of historic child abuse and related homicides.[158] A witness called "Nick" was introduced to the police by the former Exaro website, who had asked him about alleged child sexual abuse by prominent figures at the Dolphin Square apartment complex in Pimlico, London; Heath was reported to be one of the figures.[159] In 2018 "Nick", whose real name is Carl Beech, was arrested and charged over child pornography offences[160] and in January 2019 he pleaded guilty.[161] Beech, who had fabricated allegations against Heath and other prominent politicians and civil servants, was sentenced in July 2019 to eighteen years in prison.[162]

Also in August 2015, Sky News reported that Jersey police were investigating allegations against Heath as part of Operation Whistle,[153] and a similar investigation, Operation Conifer, was launched by Wiltshire Police at the same time.[163] The Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, which operates the museum at Arundells, his home in Salisbury, said it welcomed the investigation.[164] In November 2016, criminologist Richard Hoskins said that the evidence used against Heath in Operation Conifer, including discredited allegations of satanic ritual abuse, was "preposterous", "fantastical" and gained through the "controversial" practice of recovered-memory therapy.[165] Operation Conifer was closed in March 2017, having cost a reported £1.5 million over two years, as no corroborating evidence had been found in any of the 42 allegations by 40 individuals (including three different names used by one person).[166][167]

In September 2017, it was announced that the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse would review the police investigation into Heath.[168] Police said that if Heath were still alive they would have interviewed him under caution in relation to seven out of the 42 allegations,[166] but nothing should be inferred about his guilt or innocence.[169][170] In his summary report, Chief Constable Mike Veale confirmed that "no further corroborative evidence was found" to support the satanic abuse claims.[166]

Heath was awarded many honorary degrees for his Service to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. These include:

Country	Date	School	Degree
England	1971	University of Oxford
England	19 July 1985	University of Kent	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[179]
Canada	7 June 1991	University of Calgary	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[180][181]
England	1994	Goldsmiths, University of London	Honorary Fellowship[182]
England	21 June 1997	Open University	Doctor of the University (D.Univ)[183]
Wales	1998	University of Wales	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[184]
England	18 July 2001	University of Greenwich	Doctor of Laws (LL.D)[185]
England	—	Royal College of Music	Doctor of Music (D.Mus.)
England	—	Royal College of Organists	Doctor of Music (D.Mus.)

• Bangladesh Liberation War Honour (Bangladesh Muktijuddho Sanmanona)[186]