About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about the Conservative Party leaders from 1951-64, focusing in particular on: (i) the characterisation of the 1950s as a Conservative decade; (ii) the Conservative power, held from 1951 under Winston Churchill until 1964, when they lost to Labour under Harold Wilson; (iii) Churchill’s declining health during his second premiership; (iv) Churchill’s failed focus on making Britain a mediator of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union; (v) Anthony Eden’s health problems during his premiership, one of the outcomes being an unpopular tendency to call his ministers late at night; (vi) the end of Anthony Eden’s premiership, prompted by the international embarrassment for Britain of was Suez Crisis in 1956; (vii) Harold Macmillan’s resurgence of the Conservative Party after the Suez Crisis; (viii) the fact that the Conservative Party held a ‘one nation’ appeal during this period, spreading its appeal beyond the middle classes.

About the lecturer

Dr Mark Garnett is a senior lecturer in contemporary British history in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. Dr Garnett’s research interests are in UK politics and the Conservative Party. Some of Dr Garnett’s recent publications include ‘What about the workers?: The Conservative Party and the organised working class in British politics’ (2023) and ‘Inevitable but creditable defeats? Neil Kinnock and the general elections of 1987 and 1992’ (2022).