Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on Tribune and the Evening Standard. He co-wrote the 1940 polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym.
Foot was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1955 and 1960 to 1992. A passionate orator, and associated with the left wing of the Labour Party for most of his career, Foot was an ardent supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and of British withdrawal from the European Economic Community (EEC). He was appointed to Harold Wilson's Cabinet as Employment Secretary in 1974, and he later was Leader of the House of Commons from 1976 to 1979 under James Callaghan. He was also Deputy Leader of the Labour Party under Callaghan from 1976 to 1980.
Elected as a compromise candidate, Foot served as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Not particularly telegenic, he was nicknamed "Worzel Gummidge" for his rumpled appearance. A faction of the party broke away in 1981 to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Foot led Labour into the 1983 general election, when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote in 65 years and the fewest parliamentary seats since 1935, which remained the case until Labour's defeat at the 2019 general election. He resigned the party leadership following the election, and was succeeded as party leader by Neil Kinnock.
Upon graduating with a second-class degree in 1934, he took a job as a shipping clerk in Birkenhead. Foot was profoundly influenced by the poverty and unemployment that he witnessed in Liverpool, which was on a different scale from anything he had seen in Plymouth. A Liberal up to this time, Foot was converted to socialism by Oxford University Labour Club president David Lewis, a Canadian Rhodes scholar, and others: "I knew him at when I was a Liberal and played a part in converting me to socialism." Foot in an interview with the author in 1985.
Foot joined the Labour Party and first stood for parliament, aged 22, at the 1935 general election, where he contested Monmouth. During the election, Foot criticised the Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, for seeking rearmament. In his election address, Foot contended that "the armaments race in Europe must be stopped now". Foot also supported unilateral disarmament, after multilateral disarmament talks at Geneva had broken down in 1933.Jones, p. 30.
Foot became a journalist, working briefly on the New Statesman, before joining the left-wing weekly Tribune when it was set up in early 1937 to support the Unity Campaign, an attempt to secure an anti-fascist united front between Labour and other left-wing parties. The campaign's members were Stafford Cripps's (Labour-affiliated) Socialist League, the Independent Labour Party and the Communist Party of Great Britain (CP). Foot resigned in 1938 after the paper's first editor, William Mellor, was sacked for refusing to adopt a new CP policy of backing a Popular Front, including non-socialist parties, against fascism and appeasement. In a 1955 interview, Foot ideologically identified as a libertarian socialist. "Labour's Old Romantic: A Film Portrait of Michael Foot", (1997). BBC TV. ftvdb.bfi.org.uk Alison Cahn (Producer). Anne Tyerman (Series editor). Michael Cockerell (Reporter). Retrieved 5 December 2010.
He was an avid anti-imperialist and was heavily involved in the India League. As an Oxford graduate, he was influenced by the founder of the India League, Krishna Menon. The India League was the premier UK-based organisation that fought for the 'Liberation of India'. After Indian independence in 1947, Foot's interest in India continued, and he became Chairperson of the India League.
In 1940, under the pen-name "Cato" he and two other Beaverbrook journalists (Frank Owen, editor of the Standard, and Peter Howard of the Daily Express) published Guilty Men, which attacked the appeasement policy and slow pace of British re-armament under the National Governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, and Neville Chamberlain; it became a runaway bestseller. (In so doing, Foot reversed his position of the 1935 election – when he had attacked the Conservatives as militaristic and demanded disarmament in the face of Nazi Germany.) Beaverbrook made Foot editor of the Evening Standard in 1942, when he was aged 28. During the war, Foot made a speech that was later featured in the documentary TV series The World at War broadcast in February 1974. Foot was speaking in defence of the Daily Mirror, which had criticised the conduct of the war by the Churchill government. He mocked the notion that the Government would make appeasement of other newspapers if they allowed the Mirror to be censored.
Foot left the Standard in 1945 to join the Daily Herald as a columnist. The Daily Herald was jointly owned by the Trades Union Congress and Odhams Press, and was effectively an official Labour Party paper. He rejoined Tribune as editor from 1948 to 1952, and was again the paper's editor from 1955 to 1960. Throughout his political career he railed against the increasing corporate domination of the press.
Before the Cold War began in the late 1940s, Foot favoured a 'third way' foreign policy for Europe (he was joint author with Richard Crossman and Ian Mikardo of the pamphlet Keep Left in 1947), but in the wake of the communist seizure of power in Hungary and Czechoslovakia he and Tribune took a strongly anti-communist position, eventually embracing NATO.
Foot was, however, a critic of the Western culture's handling of the Korean War, an opponent of West German rearmament in the early 1950s and a founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1957. Under his editorship, Tribune opposed both the British government's Suez Crisis campaign and the Soviet crushing of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. During this period, he made regular television appearances on the current-affairs programmes In The News (BBC Television) and subsequently Free Speech (ITV). "There was certainly nothing wrong with his television technique in those days," reflected Anthony Howard shortly after Foot's death. Foot joined the Who Killed Kennedy Committee? set up by Bertrand Russell in 1964.
Foot returned to parliament at a by-election in Ebbw Vale, Monmouthshire, in 1960, the seat having been left vacant by Bevan's death. He had the Labour whip withdrawn in March 1961 after rebelling against the Labour leadership over Royal Air Force estimates. He only returned to the Parliamentary Labour Group in 1963, when Harold Wilson became Leader of the Labour Party after the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell.
Harold Wilson — the subject of an enthusiastic campaign biography by Foot published by Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press in 1964 – offered Foot a place in his first government, but Foot turned it down, instead becoming the leader of Labour's left opposition from the back benches. He opposed the government's moves to restrict immigration, join the European Communities (or "Common Market" as they were referred to) and reform the trade unions, was against the Vietnam War and Rhodesia's unilateral declaration of independence, and denounced the Soviet suppression of "Prague Spring" in Czechoslovakia in 1968. He also famously allied with the Tory right-winger Enoch Powell to scupper the government's plan to abolish the voting rights of and create a House of Lords comprising only – a "seraglio of eunuchs" as Foot put it. PARLIAMENT (No. 2) BILL , HC Deb 3 February 1969 vol 777 cc43-171
Foot challenged James Callaghan for the post of Treasurer of the Labour Party in 1967, but failed.
When, in 1974, Labour returned to office under Wilson, Foot became Secretary of State for Employment. According to Ben Pimlott, his appointment was intended to please the left of the party and the Trade Unions. In this role, he played the major part in the government's efforts to maintain the trade unions' support. He was also responsible for the Health and Safety at Work Act, as well as the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act that repealed the Heath ministry's trade union reforms, and the Employment Protection Act, which introduced legal protections against being sacked for becoming pregnant and legislated for maternity pay. His time as Employment Secretary also saw Acas adopt its current name and modern form as a body with independence from government.
Foot was one of the mainstays of the "no" campaign in the 1975 referendum on British membership of the European Communities. When Wilson retired in 1976, Foot contested the party leadership and led in the first ballot, but was ultimately defeated by James Callaghan. Later that year Foot was elected Deputy Leader, and during the Callaghan government Foot took a seat in Cabinet as Leader of the House of Commons, which gave him the unenviable task of trying to maintain the survival of the Callaghan government as its majority evaporated. However, he was able to steer numerous government proposals through the Commons, often by very narrow majorities, including increases in pension and benefit rates, the creation of the Police Complaints Board, the expansion of comprehensive schools, the establishment of a statutory responsibility to provide housing for the homeless, universal Child Benefit, the nationalisation of shipbuilding, abolishing pay beds in Hospital trust, and housing security for agricultural workers, before the government fell in a vote of no confidence by a single vote. Whilst Leader of the Commons, Foot simultaneously held the post of Lord President of the Council.
In 1975, Foot, along with Jennie Lee and others, courted controversy when they supported Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, after she prompted the declaration of a state of emergency. In December 1975, The Times ran an editorial titled 'Is Mr Foot a Fascist?' — their answer was that he was — after Norman Tebbit accused him of 'undiluted fascism' when Foot said that the Ferrybridge Six deserved dismissal for defying a closed shop.
The Bennites called for MPs who had acquiesced in Callaghan's policies to be replaced by left-wingers who would support unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Communities, and widespread nationalisation. Benn did not stand for the leadership; apart from Foot and Healey, the other candidates (both eliminated in the first round) were John Silkin, a Tribunite like Foot, and Peter Shore, a Eurosceptic.
In 1980, Healey was widely expected by the media and many political figures to be the next Labour leader.
When he became leader, Foot was already 67 years old and frail. Following the 1979 energy crisis, Britain went into recession in 1980, which was blamed on the Conservative government's controversial monetarist policy against inflation, which had the effect of increasing unemployment. As a result, Labour had moved ahead of the Conservatives in the opinion polls. Following Foot's election as leader, opinion polls showed a double-digit lead for Labour, boosting his hopes of becoming prime minister at the next general election, which had to be held by May 1984.
When Foot became leader, the Conservative politician Kenneth Baker commented: "Labour was led by Dixon of Dock Green under Jim Callaghan. Now it is led by Worzel Gummidge." Daily Telegraph , Michael Foot – The best British political insults and putdowns Foot's nickname in the press gradually became "Worzel Gummidge", or "Worzel". The Independent, 11 April 1994, Book Review / How Worzel came to save the Labour Party: 'Michael Foot' – Mervyn Jones: Victor Gollancz, 20 pounds, by John Torode. This became particularly common after Remembrance Day 1981, when he attended the Cenotaph observance wearing a coat that some said resembled a donkey jacket. BBC News , 3 March 2010, Michael Foot reflects on his infamous jacket After his tenure as leader, Foot would be "depicted as a scarecrow on ITV's satirical puppet show Spitting Image."
Almost immediately following his election as leader, he was faced with a serious crisis. On 25 January 1981, four senior politicians on the right-wing of the Labour Party (Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and William Rodgers, the so-called "Gang of Four") left Labour and formed the Social Democratic Party, which was launched on 26 March 1981. This was largely seen as the consequence of the Labour Party's swing to the left, polarising divisions in an already divided party.
The SDP won the support of large sections of the British media. For most of 1981 and early 1982, its opinion poll ratings suggested that the SDP could at least overtake Labour and possibly win a general election. The Conservatives were then unpopular because of the economic policies of Margaret Thatcher, which had seen unemployment reach a postwar high.
The Labour left was still strong. In 1981, Benn decided to challenge Healey for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party, a contest Healey won, albeit narrowly. Foot struggled to make an impact, and was widely criticised for his ineffectiveness. He was criticised by some on the left for supporting Thatcher's immediate resort to military action during the Falklands War. The conflict further undermined his position as he at first demanded an effective government response to the Argentinian aggression, but then emphasised the need to work for a peace settlement with the military junta led by General Galtieri. The right-wing newspapers lambasted him consistently for what they saw as his bohemian eccentricity, attacking him for wearing what they described as a "donkey jacket" (actually he wore a type of duffel coat) at the wreath-laying ceremony at the The Cenotaph on Remembrance Day in November 1981, for which he was likened to an "out-of-work navvy" by a fellow Labour MP. Foot later said that the Queen Mother had described it as a "sensible coat for a day like this". He later donated the coat to the People's History Museum in Manchester, which holds a collection that spans Foot's entire political career from 1938 to 1990, and his personal papers dating back to 1926.
The formation of the SDP – which formed an alliance with the Liberal Party in June 1981 – contributed to a fall in Labour support. The double-digit lead that had still been intact in opinion polls at the start of 1981 was swiftly wiped out, and by the end of October the opinion polls were showing the Alliance ahead of Labour. Labour briefly regained their lead of most opinion polls in early 1982, but when the Falklands conflict ended on 14 June 1982 with a British victory over Argentina, opinion polls showed the Conservatives firmly in the lead. Their position at the top of the polls was strengthened by the return to economic growth later in the year. It was looking certain that the Conservatives would be re-elected, and the only key issue that the media were still speculating by the end of 1982 was whether it would be Labour or the Alliance who formed the next opposition.
Through late 1982 and early 1983, there was constant speculation that Labour MPs would replace Foot with Healey as leader. Such speculation increased after Labour lost the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, in which Peter Tatchell was Labour candidate, standing against a Conservative, a Liberal (eventual winner Simon Hughes) and John O'Grady, who had declared himself the Real Bermondsey Labour candidate. Critically, Labour held on in a subsequent by-election in Darlington, and Foot remained leader for the 1983 general election.
As a statement on internal democracy, Foot passed the edict that the manifesto would consist of all resolutions arrived at conference. The party also failed to master the medium of television, while Foot addressed public meetings around the country, and made some radio broadcasts, in the same manner as Clement Attlee did in 1945.
The Daily Mirror was the only major newspaper to back Foot and the Labour Party at the 1983 general election, urging its readers to vote Labour and "Stop the waste of our nation, for your job your children and your future" in response to the mass unemployment that followed Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's monetarist economic policies to reduce inflation. Most other newspapers urged their readers to vote Conservative.
The Labour Party, led by Foot, lost to the Conservatives in a landslide – a result that had been widely predicted by the opinion polls since the previous summer. The only consolation for Foot and Labour was that they did not lose their place in opposition to the SDP–Liberal Alliance, who came close to them in terms of votes but were still a long way behind in terms of seats. Foot was very critical of the Alliance, accusing them of "siphoning" Labour support and enabling the Tories to win more seats.
Foot resigned days following the bitter election defeat, and was succeeded as leader on 2 October by Neil Kinnock; who had been tipped from the outset to be Labour's choice of new leader.
Foot remained a high-profile member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). He wrote several books, including highly regarded biographies of Aneurin Bevan and H. G. Wells, and was a vice-president of the H. G. Wells Society.
Foot was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society and a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association. In 1988, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
In a poll of Labour Party activists in 2008, he was voted the worst post-war Labour Party leader.
At the time a leading article in The Independent newspaper asserted: "It seems extraordinary that such an unreliable figure should now be allowed, given the lack of supporting evidence, to damage the reputation of figures such as Mr Foot." In a February 1992 interview, Gordievsky declared that he had no further revelations to make about the Labour Party. Foot successfully sued the Sunday Times, winning "substantial" damages.
Following Foot's death, Charles Moore writing in The Daily Telegraph in 2010 gave an account that he said had been provided to him by Gordievsky, containing additional uncorroborated information concerning his allegations. Moore said there was no evidence to show that Foot gave away state secrets.
For his 90th birthday, Foot was registered with the Football League as an honorary player and given the shirt number 90. This made him the oldest registered professional player in the history of football.
In February 2007, it was revealed that Foot had an extramarital affair with a woman around 35 years his junior in the early 1970s. The affair, which lasted nearly a year, put a considerable strain on his marriage. The affair is detailed in Foot's official biography, published in March 2007.
On 23 July 2006, his 93rd birthday, Michael Foot became the longest-lived leader of a major British political party, passing Lord Callaghan's record of 92 years, 364 days.
A staunch republican (though well liked by the Royal Family on a personal level), Foot rejected honours from Elizabeth II and the government, including a knighthood and a peerage, on more than one occasion.
He was also an atheist. , he was one of four leaders of the Labour Party to declare that they did not follow any religion.
In October 1963, he was involved in a car crash, suffering pierced lungs, broken ribs, and a broken left leg. Foot used a walking stick for the rest of his life. According to former MP Tam Dalyell, Foot had, up until the accident, been a chain-smoker, but he gave up the habit thereafter. Jill Craigie also suffered a crushed hand in this car crash.
In October 1976, Foot became blind in one eye following an attack of shingles.
The belief later gained currency that The Times actually had run the headline. Some decades later, Martyn Cornell recalled the story as true, saying he had written the headline himself as a Times subeditor around 1986. The headline does not, however, appear in The Times Digital Archive, which includes every day's newspaper from 1785 into the 21st century.
In 2018, John Rentoul included this headline in his "The Top 10: Headlines", subtitled "Clever and memorable plays on words that have made journalistic history".
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
|-
Family
Early life
Journalism
Member of Parliament
In government
Labour leadership
1983 general election
Backbenches and retirement
Gordievsky's KGB allegations
Plymouth Argyle
Personal life
Health
Death
In popular culture
"Foot Heads Arms Body"
Fictional portrayals
Bibliography
Footnotes
Biographies
External links
|
|