Why did thorneycroft resign

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If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian. All rights reserved. Powered by: Safari Books Online. He was close to Macmillan over Europe, and seemed a logical choice for the Treasury when Macmillan became prime minister in Thorneycroft is chiefly remembered now for his resignation a year later. He inherited the post-Suez mess, notably the continuing pressure on sterling.

He introduced sharp cuts in spending that had been set in train by Macmillan. Thorneycroft came to believe that the weakness of sterling was caused by inflation, which in turn came from an overly lax approach to the money supply. September saw him have to fight off another run on the pound. In doing so, he spoke publicly of the need to suppress inflation by controlling the money supply. He was, in one sense, an early convert to monetarism.

By this time, his officials were broadly Keynesian; instead, Thorneycroft took advice from his juniors, the brilliant Enoch Powell and Nigel Birch, and the academic Lionel Robbins. Meanwhile, the Keynesian Roy Harrod advised Macmillan. If there were disagreements over theory, what mattered more were disagreements over spending. As ever, the Treasury supported restraint in expenditure.

Instead, the problem was political. Spending ministers always fight their own corner, and Thorneycroft found himself under attack from his own colleagues, notably the rising health secretary, Iain Macleod. In that situation, to get their way, chancellors need the support of their prime minister. And therein lay the rub.

With Macmillan, always, there was politics in it too. Thus, something needed to be done about it, and that thing was cuts in welfare. For Thorneycroft, Powell and Birch, those cuts were but an instalment in a greater reconfiguration of fiscal policy to come.

But with his typical unflappability, Mr Macmillan, instead of cancelling his engagements, insisted on going ahead with a planned six-week tour of the Commonwealth. Not many people will recall the dumping, amid uproar, of Sir Charles "Three-in-a-Bed" Dilke, whose sexual antics scandalised English society and Queen Victoria in particular.

He was appointed Gladstone's Local Government Minister in and quit in after being cited as corespondent in a divorce case. Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription.

How the mighty have fallen Thu, Dec 24, , Most Viewed. Watch More Videos. The Treasury Resignations of a Reconsideration. Magdalen College. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Cite Cite E. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Abstract This essay re-examines the resignation of the Conservative Treasury Ministers in January Issue Section:. You do not currently have access to this article.