Iain Macleod
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{{Infobox PM |name=Iain Macleod |country-de=the Exchequer |term=20 June 1970 – 20 July 1970 |before=Roy Jenkins |after=Anthony Barber |date_birth = 11 November 1913 |place_birth = Skipton, Yorkshire |date_death=20 July 1970 |party=Conservative Party }} The Right Honourable Iain Macleod, PC (1913 – 1970) was a UK Conservative politician.
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Early life
Iain Norman Macleod was born at Skipton, Yorkshire on 11 November 1913. He had parents from Northern Scotland. He was briefly educated at Ermysted's Grammar School in Skipton and then at Fettes College in Scotland and Cambridge University. He suffered a war wound in 1940 which left him with discomfort for the rest of his life.
Political career
He represented the parliamentary constituency of Enfield, West, and served as a minister in the Conservative Governments of the 1950s. As Minister for Health under Winston Churchill (after succeeding Harry Crookshank to the post in 1952) he famously made the announcement that British clinician Richard Doll had proved the link between smoking and lung cancer at a press conference during which he chain smoked throughout.
In the Macmillan governments he served as first Minister of Labour and National Service (1957-9) and then as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1959-61) where he presided over considerable decolonisation, seeing Nigeria, British Somaliland, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Kuwait and British Cameroon become independent, and in Kenya he stopped the state of emergency and freed Kenyatta. He made a tour of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1960. Macleod was from the liberal wing of the party and was against the death penalty, supported legalisation of abortion and homosexuality and the orthodox economic stance of the time. He fell out with his once great friend Enoch Powell over his 1968 Rivers of Blood speech and the two never spoke again.
In 1961 he added the Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster to his portfolio.
But when Harold Macmillan acted to block the succession of Rab Butler to his position as Conservative party leader and prime minister, Macleod (along with Enoch Powell) refused to serve under Alec Douglas-Home and was subsequently passed over for a position in the Douglas-Home government.
He was at one time editor of The Spectator, and the coinage of the word stagflation is attributed to him.
Shortly before his death he had been appointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Edward Heath. He left behind him an outline budget which most observers found surprisingly hard-line in its proposals for control of public spending and tax reform. This was never put into place as he became the only Chancellor of the Exchequer never to deliver a Budget speech to Parliment. On 7 July 1970 he was rushed to Hospital with Appendicitis. He was discharged 11 days later but at 10.30pm on 20 July 1970 he suffered a severe heart attack and died at 11.35pm.
Speaker
Many conservative politicians of generations following Macleod recalled him as an inspirational speaker, and John Major specifically cited his example on taking office. Many believe he would have made a good leader for the party had he lived.
Family
He married Evelyn Esther Blois on 25 January 1941. Macleod's daughter Dianna Heimann was a UK Independence Party candidate in the 2005 general election.
| Preceded by: Harry Crookshank | Minister of Health 1952–1955 | Followed by: Robin Turton |
| Preceded by: Walter Monckton | Minister of Labour and National Service 1955–1959 | Followed by: Edward Heath |
| Preceded by: Alan Lennox-Boyd | Secretary of State for the Colonies 1959–1961 | Followed by: Reginald Maudling |
| Preceded by: Rab Butler | Leader of the House of Commons 1961–1963 | Followed by: Selwyn Lloyd |
| Preceded by: Charles Hill | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1961–1963 | Followed by: The Viscount Blakenham |
| Preceded by: Roy Jenkins | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1970 | Followed by: Anthony Barber |