James Callaghan

The Right Honourable The Lord Callaghan of Cardiff KG PC
Callaghan in 1975
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 5 April 1976 – 4 May 1979
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Margaret Thatcher
Leader of the Opposition
In office 4 May 1979 – 10 November 1980
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Margaret Thatcher
Succeeded by	Michael Foot
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 5 April 1976 – 10 November 1980
Deputy	Michael Foot
Preceded by	Harold Wilson
Succeeded by	Michael Foot
Foreign Secretary
In office 5 March 1974 – 8 April 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Alec Douglas-Home
Succeeded by	Anthony Crosland
Home Secretary
In office 30 November 1967 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Roy Jenkins
Succeeded by	Reginald Maudling
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 16 October 1964 – 30 November 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Reginald Maudling
Succeeded by	Roy Jenkins
Shadow cabinet offices Shadow Secretary of State 1970–1971 Home Department 1971–1972 Employment 1972–1974 Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 2 November 1961 – 16 October 1964 Leader Hugh Gaitskell George Brown (acting) Harold Wilson Preceded by Harold Wilson Succeeded by Reginald Maudling
Junior ministerial offices Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State 1947–1950 Ministry of Transport 1950–1951 Admiralty
Parliamentary offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Life peerage 5 November 1987 – 26 March 2005 Father of the House of Commons In office 9 June 1983 – 18 May 1987 Preceded by John Parker Succeeded by Bernard Braine Member of Parliament for Cardiff South and Penarth Cardiff South East (1950–1983) Cardiff South (1945–1950) In office 5 July 1945 – 18 May 1987 Preceded by Arthur Evans Succeeded by Alun Michael
Personal details
Born	Leonard James Callaghan (1912-03-27)27 March 1912 Portsmouth, Hampshire, England
Died	26 March 2005(2005-03-26) (aged 92) Ringmer, East Sussex, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Audrey Moulton ​ ​ (m. 1938; died 2005)​
Children	3, including Margaret Jay
Education	Portsmouth Northern Secondary School
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	Royal Navy
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	Second World War

This article is part of a series about James Callaghan
Labour Party MP for Cardiff South East Wilson's Cabinet Decimalisation Race Relations Act 1968 1975 EEC Referendum Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1976 leadership election Cabinet Lib–Lab pact Winter of Discontent 1979 Scottish devolution referendum 1979 Welsh devolution referendum Vote of no confidence 1979 budget 1979 general election
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Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff (/ˈkæləhæn/ ^ⓘ KAL-ə-han; 27 March 1912 – 26 March 2005), commonly known as Jim Callaghan, was a British statesman^[1] and Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980. Callaghan is the only person to have held all four Great Offices of State, having also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1964 to 1967, Home Secretary from 1967 to 1970 and Foreign Secretary from 1974 to 1976. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1945 to 1987.

Born into a working-class family in Portsmouth, Callaghan left school early and began his career as a tax inspector, before becoming a trade union official in the 1930s. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He was elected to Parliament at the 1945 election, and was regarded as being on the left wing of the Labour Party. He was appointed to the Attlee government as a parliamentary secretary in 1947, and began to move increasingly towards the right wing of the Labour Party, while maintaining his reputation as a "Keeper of the Cloth Cap" – that is, seen as maintaining close ties between Labour and the trade unions. Following Labour's defeat at the 1951 election, Callaghan increasingly became regarded as a leader of the right wing of the Labour Party, and stood for the positions of deputy leader in 1960 and for leader in 1963, but was defeated by George Brown for the former and Harold Wilson for the latter.

Following Labour's victory at the 1964 election, Wilson appointed Callaghan as Chancellor of the Exchequer; this appointment coincided with a turbulent period for the British economy, during which Callaghan had to tackle both a chronic balance of payments deficit and various speculative attacks on the pound sterling, with its exchange rate to other currencies being fixed by the Bretton Woods system. On 18 November 1967, having initially denied that it would do so, the Government devalued the pound sterling. In the wake of the decision, Wilson moved Callaghan to the role of Home Secretary. During this time, Callaghan was responsible for overseeing the operations of the British Army to support the police in Northern Ireland, following a request from the Northern Ireland government. Callaghan remained in the Shadow Cabinet during Labour's period in Opposition from 1970 to 1974; upon Labour's victory at the 1974 election, Wilson appointed Callaghan as Foreign Secretary. Callaghan was responsible for renegotiating the terms of Britain's membership of the European Communities (EC), and strongly supported the successful "Yes" vote campaign in the 1975 referendum, which confirmed the UK's membership of the EC.

When Wilson suddenly announced his retirement in March 1976, Callaghan defeated five other candidates to be elected Leader of the Labour Party; he was appointed prime minister on 5 April 1976. Despite winning a narrow majority in the House of Commons at the 1974 election, Labour had lost this by the time Callaghan became prime minister, and several by-election defeats and defections in his early months forced Callaghan to strike a confidence and supply agreement with the Liberal Party. While this initially proved stable, in the wake of significant industrial disputes and widespread strikes in the 1978–79 "Winter of Discontent", and the defeat of the referendum on devolution for Scotland, led to minor parties joining the Conservatives to pass a motion of no-confidence in Callaghan on 28 March 1979. Although remaining personally popular in opinion polls, Callaghan led Labour to defeat at the 1979 election and was replaced by Conservative Margaret Thatcher. The 1979 defeat marked the beginning of 18 years in opposition for the Labour Party, the longest in its history.

Callaghan served as Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition until November 1980. He attempted to reform the process by which Labour elected its leader. After leaving the leadership, he returned to the backbench, and between 1983 and 1987 was Father of the House of Commons. On retiring from the Commons in 1987, he was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Callaghan of Cardiff. He died in 2005 at the age of 92, and remains to date the UK's longest-lived former prime minister.