Labour government, 1964–1970
was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II on 16 October 1964 and formed the first Wilson ministry, a Labour government, which held office with a slim majority between 1964 and 1966. In an attempt to gain a workable majority in the House of Commons, Wilson called a new election for 31 March 1966, after which he formed the second Wilson ministry, a government which held office for four years until 1970.
History
Formation
The Labour Party won the 1964 general election by a majority of four seats. The Profumo affair had seriously damaged the previous Conservative government, meaning Alec Douglas-Home's premiership lasted only 363 days. Wilson's tiny majority led to impotency during this Parliament, and in 1966 another election was called, leading to a majority of 96 and the continuation of the Wilson government.Domestic issues
Social issues
A number of liberalising social reforms were passed through parliament during Wilson's first period in government. These included the near abolition of capital punishment, decriminalisation of sex between men in private, liberalisation of abortion law and the abolition of theatre censorship. The Divorce Reform Act 1969 was passed by Parliament. Such reforms were mostly via private member's bills on 'free votes' in line with established convention, but the large Labour majority after 1966 was undoubtedly more open to such changes than previous parliaments had been.Wilson came culturally from a provincial non-conformist background, and he showed no particular enthusiasm for much of this agenda, but the reforming climate was especially encouraged by Roy Jenkins during his period at the Home Office. The franchise was also extended with the reduction of the voting age from twenty-one to eighteen in 1969.
Wilson's 1966–70 term witnessed growing public concern over the level of immigration to the United Kingdom. The issue was dramatised at the political level by the famous "Rivers of Blood speech" by the Conservative politician Enoch Powell, warning against the dangers of immigration, which led to Powell's dismissal from the Shadow cabinet. Wilson's government adopted a two-track approach. While condemning racial discrimination, Wilson's Home Secretary James Callaghan introduced significant new restrictions on the right of immigration to the United Kingdom.
Education
Education held special significance for a Labourite of Wilson's generation, in view of its role in both opening up opportunities for those from working-class backgrounds and enabling Britain to seize the potential benefits of scientific advances. Under the first Wilson government, for the first time in British history, more money was allocated to education than to defence. Wilson continued the rapid creation of new universities, in line with the recommendations of the Robbins Report, a bipartisan policy already in train when Labour took power. The economic difficulties of the period deprived the tertiary system of the resources it needed. Nevertheless, university expansion remained a core policy. One notable effect was the first entry of women into university education in significant numbers. More broadly, higher education overall was significantly expanded, with a distinct bias towards the non-university sector. During Wilson's time in office from 1964 to 1970, some 30 polytechnics were set up to provide vocationally-oriented courses that were not fully provided by universities. In addition, student participation rates were increased from 5% to 10%. Within a year of taking office, the government awarded teachers a 13% pay increase, and also tripled spending on a large publicity campaign to persuade married teachers to return to the schools. Expenditure on school buildings was also increased, together with the number of teachers in training.Wilson also deserves credit for grasping the concept of an Open University, to give adults who had missed out on higher education a second chance through part-time study and distance learning. His political commitment included assigning implementation responsibility to Jennie Lee, the widow of Aneurin Bevan, the charismatic leader of Labour's left wing whom Wilson had joined in resigning from the Attlee cabinet. The Open University worked through summer schools, postal tuition and television programmes. By 1981, 45,000 students had received degrees through the Open University. Money was also channelled into local-authority run colleges of education.
Campaigns were also launched by the government to encourage people to take up means-tested benefits to which they were entitled to. For instance, a publicity campaign launched by the government increased the fraction of children eligible to get free school meals. Early in 1968, the standard charge for welfare milk was increased to 6d but, in addition to remission for low income, the new charge was waived automatically "for children in excess of two in any family with three or more children under five years old." At the end of 1968, about 200,000 young children in England and Wales were receiving milk automatically free under this arrangement." In addition, the number of children receiving free school meals rose from 300,000 to 600,000 by 1970, while the provision of adult education was expanded.
Wilson's record on secondary education is given a fuller description is in the article Education in England. Two factors played a role. Following the Education Act 1944 there was disaffection with the tripartite system of academically oriented Grammar schools for a small proportion of "gifted" children, and Technical and Secondary Modern schools for the majority of children. Pressure grew for the abolition of the selective principle underlying the 11-plus, and replacement with Comprehensive schools which would serve the full range of children. Comprehensive education became Labour Party policy. From 1966 to 1970, the proportion of children in comprehensive schools increased from about 10% to over 30%. There was also a move in primary schools towards "child-centred" or individual learning, in keeping with the recommendations of the 1967 Plowden Report on improving the education system. Polytechnics were established in 1965 through the amalgamation of existing institutions such as colleges of technology, art, and commerce. A new external examination, designed for children of middling intellectual ability and leading to a Certificate of Secondary Education, was also introduced that same year. Advanced level courses in further education were also expanded by the government much faster than under the previous Conservative government. The Training of Teachers Regulations 1967 related to England and Wales provided for the payment of grants to students undergoing training as teachers. The School Premises Regulations 1967 set out minimum standards for educational accommodation, playing fields and school sites, and also prescribed standards for " kitchen premises, toilet and washing facilities and staff accommodation." In addition, the Education Act of March 1970 "extended the provision of free school milk to junior pupils in middle schools", who had been deprived of their school milk by Section 3 of the Public Expenditure and Receipts Act 1968.
Labour pressed local authorities to convert grammar schools into comprehensives. Conversion continued on a large scale during the subsequent Conservative Heath ministry, although the Secretary of State, Margaret Thatcher, ended the compulsion of local governments to convert.
Wilson's first government reluctantly decided that it could not fulfill its long-held promise to raise the school leaving age to 16, because of the investment required in infrastructure, such as tens of thousands of extra classrooms and teachers. Baroness Lee considered resigning in protest, but narrowly decided against this in the interests of party unity. It was left to Thatcher to raise the age, during the Heath government.
Attempts were also made to improve the provision of nursery education. In 1960, as a means of saving money, the Conservative government issued a circular which forbade the expansion of nursery education. This restriction was slightly relaxed just before the July 1964 election, when authorities were allowed to provide places "where this would enable married women to return to teaching." In 1965, the Labour government provided a further relaxation which allowed authorities to expand "so long as they provided some extra places for teachers to whom priority was to be given." Nevertheless, the number of children under five in maintained nursery, primary, and special schools increased only slightly, from 222,000 in 1965 to 239,000 in 1969. The Education Act 1969 "removed the power of local authorities to charge fees," and also made child guidance services mandatory.
In 1965, the power was given to the National Assistance Board to make allowances for student mothers and “occasionally, fathers in cases where the local authority refused to do so.” In 1967, Wilson's government decided to spend £16 million, mainly in "Educational Priority Areas", over the next two years. Over a two-year period, £16 million was allocated by the government for construction of schools in EPAs, while teachers in 572 primary schools "of exceptional difficulty" were selected for additional increments. After negotiations with teachers' unions, £400,000 of this money was set aide to pay teachers an additional £75 per annum for working in "schools of exceptional difficulty", of which 570 schools were designated. In April 1966, the government authorised school building projects in 57 authorities in England and Wales. It also sponsored an action research project, an experiment in five of the EPAs to try to devise the most effective ways of involving communities, according to Brian Lapping,
"in the work of their schools, compensating the children for the deprivation of their background, seeing whether, in one area pre-school play groups, in another intensive language tuition, in another emphasis on home-school relations, would be most effective."
Overall, public expenditure on education rose as a proportion of GNP from 4.8% in 1964 to 5.9% in 1968, and the number of teachers in training increased by more than a third between 1964 and 1967. The percentage of students staying on at school after the age of sixteen increased similarly, and the student population increased by over 10% each year. Pupil-teacher ratios were also steadily reduced. As a result of the first Wilson government's educational policies, opportunities for working-class children were improved, while overall access to education in 1970 was broader than in 1964. As summarised by Brian Lapping: