Leonard James Callaghan Baron Callaghan of Cardiff

Leonard James Callaghan Callaghan of Cardiff, Baron 1912-2005, British statesman. He was first elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1945. As chancellor of the exchequer (1964-67), he introduced extremely controversial taxation policies, including employment taxes; he resigned when he was forced to accept devaluation of the pound. Prime Minister Harold Wilson then appointed him home secretary (1967-70), and in that post he ordered British troops into Northern Ireland to deal with the rising violence there. Callaghan also served as foreign secretary (1974-76). He succeeded Wilson when the latter resigned as prime minister in 1976. Callaghan was by nature a moderate man, but his government was plagued by inflation, unemployment, and its inability to restrain trade unions' wage demands, and foundered after a series of paralyzing labor strikes in the winter of 1978-79. In the elections later in 1979, the Labour party lost to the Conservatives, led by Margaret Thatcher . Callaghan resigned as party leader in 1980 and was created a life peer in 1987.

Bibliography: See his autobiography Time and Chance (1987); biography by B. Donoughue, Prime Minister (1987).

Callaghan, (Leonard) James, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff (1912–2005) British Labour statesman, Prime Minister (1976–79). He became Prime Minister following Harold Wilson's resignation; the leader of a minority government, he was forced in 1977 to negotiate an agreement with the Liberal Party (known as the Lib-Lab Pact) to stay in power. After widespread strikes in the so-called ‘winter of discontent’ (1978–79), Callaghan received a vote of no confidence; the Labour Party was defeated by the Conservatives in the subsequent election.