Churchill Defiant: Fighting On 1945–1955. Barbara Leaming

an emissary to make the case to Churchill. Crookshank, who had been castrated by a burst shell during the First World War, lived with his mother in Knightsbridge. Eden, notably, skipped the meeting on the grounds that his direct participation in a plot to install him would be awkward. But, though he had previously vowed to do no more until Eden acted, Bobbety Cranborne – who had become the 5th Marquess of Salisbury on the death of his father in April – was again a key player in the machinations.Why did Salisbury (as Cranborne was now known) stick with Eden when he perceived his flaws so clearly? Quite simply, in Salisbury’s view there was no other viable candidate. He was opposed to Butler because of his history as an appeaser in the 1930s. Nor was he prepared to back Macmillan, whom he disliked and distrusted. Salisbury’s wife, whose opinions meant much to him, was also no fan of Macmillan’s. The reasons for Lady Salisbury’s antipathy were strange and complicated. Early in her marriage, she had lost interest in Bobbety and began to have affairs with other men. Her husband’s rise to political prominence rekindled her interest, and she became fiercely possessive of him. She even resented his lifelong affection for his sister, Mary, Duchess of Devonshire, with whom Macmillan, who was married to the Duke’s sister, enjoyed a close, confiding friendship as well. Macmillan’s association with ‘Moucher’ Devonshire doomed him in Betty Salisbury’s unforgiving eyes.

      Though Salisbury would never have admitted as much, there was another compelling reason to keep coming back to Eden. Salisbury could never have pushed around Butler or Macmillan the way he did Eden. They would not have tolerated it. The very weakness that Salisbury deplored in Eden in some respects made him a most attractive candidate in others. If it was influence Salisbury hankered for, Eden was assuredly his man.

      There was unanimous agreement among Crookshank’s guests that Churchill must go, but most were unwilling to face him. It was not just his epic temper that daunted them. If Churchill survived the putsch, the mission might be a career-destroyer for any ambitious Tory who consented to undertake it. Finally, James Stuart agreed to try – again.

      Interestingly, Butler, who attended the Crookshank luncheon, also threw in his lot with a group of Labour members who, in the hope of saving their own hides should Attlee fall, aimed to bring down the Government themselves in favour of a coalition headed by Ernest Bevin. Because of the hard line he had taken on the Soviets, Attlee’s Foreign Secretary was perhaps the one Labour figure capable of commanding substantial Tory support. What was in it for Butler? As matters stood within the Conservative Party, his way to the top was blocked by a number of factors. One objection was that his résumé was too thin. Another, which threatened to be insurmountable, was that he had been too closely associated with the policy of appeasement when he served in the Chamberlain Government. Then, quite simply, there was the perception that the succession had long been fixed. Were Churchill to go, Eden was ready, as well as widely expected, to take his place. Should Butler be part of a coalition that bypassed Churchill, neither Churchill nor his designated heir would any longer stand in Butler’s way.

      In July, Churchill returned from his convalescence to be greeted by applause from all parties – and by a whirligig of plots and plotters. He was sitting in his room at the House of Commons when Stuart came in. Stuart began by saying that he had a difficult task to perform and that he hoped Churchill would bear with him without being annoyed. When last they spoke of retirement, Churchill had reacted calmly, and Stuart hoped that might be the case again. He repeated what he had said previously about no other man having done more for his country than Churchill. Then he went on to report the view of their colleagues that the time had come for a change of leadership.

      ‘Oh, you’ve joined those who want to get rid of me, have you?’ Churchill exploded.

      ‘I haven’t in the least,’ Stuart protested, ‘but I suppose there is something to be said for the fact that change will have to take place sometime and you’re not quite as young as you were.’

      Churchill responded by angrily banging the floor with his walking stick. With that emphatic gesture, he put an end to the cabal to unseat him in favour of Eden. The plotters acknowledged that Churchill was too beloved a figure, both within the Tory rank and file and the country at large, for there to be any public perception that party leaders had forced him out. If he went, it had at least to appear to be of his own accord. And he was unlikely to go anywhere at a moment when the premiership seemed achingly and unexpectedly within grasp.

      Churchill was not supposed to have learned of the negotiations between Butler and other Tories, on the one side, and Attlee’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Hugh Dalton, on the other, but there had been much open talk of them, including some indiscreet remarks by Butler’s wife. Sydney Butler could not resist broadcasting the news to at least one lunch partner that Churchill was about to have a ‘rude awakening’ when a coalition government was formed with someone other than himself at the top. In the end, however, it was Sydney’s husband who was in for a jolt when Churchill appeared unannounced on 31 July at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, the official Conservative organization for backbenchers. Without referring to Butler or the others by name, he put the plotters on notice that he knew of their machinations. Speaking as if it were a foregone conclusion that were there to be a coalition he would be at the head of it, Churchill warned against any such arrangement with Labour on the grounds that it would deprive the country of an effective alternative government. He made many of his listeners’ mouths water at the prospect of their party’s imminent return to full power if only they proceeded judiciously – under his leadership, of course. Why agree to share power, Churchill suggested, when Conservatives could have it all? Why indeed, many backbenchers concurred.

      Having outmanoeuvred the conspirators in his own party, Churchill went on to leave no doubt in the minds of Britons that he and no other man would lead the Conservatives to victory. At a time when the Government was announcing stringent emergency measures that included longer working hours and extensive further rationing, Churchill publicly declared his intention to fight the next election on the matter of the economic crisis.