The Right Honourable Anthony Crosland
Crosland in 1970
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
In office 8 April 1976 – 19 February 1977
Prime Minister	James Callaghan
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	David Owen
Secretary of State for the Environment
In office 5 March 1974 – 8 April 1976
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Succeeded by	Peter Shore
Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment
In office 15 October 1970 – 5 March 1974
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Himself as Shadow Minister for Regional Planning, Housing & Local Government and the Environment
Succeeded by	Geoffrey Rippon
Shadow Minister of Public Buildings and Works
In office 22 July 1970 – 15 October 1970
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	John Silkin
Succeeded by	Himself asShadow Secretary of State for the Environment
Shadow Minister of Housing and Local Government
In office 19 June 1970 – 15 October 1970
Leader	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Peter Walker
Succeeded by	Himself asShadow Secretary of State for the Environment
Secretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning
In office 6 October 1969 – 19 June 1970
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Tony Greenwood (Minister, Housing and Local Government)
Succeeded by	Peter Walker (Minister of State, Housing and Local Government)
President of the Board of Trade
In office 29 August 1967 – 6 October 1969
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Douglas Jay
Succeeded by	Roy Mason
Secretary of State for Education and Science
In office 22 January 1965 – 29 August 1967
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Michael Stewart
Succeeded by	Patrick Gordon Walker
Minister of State for Economic Affairs
In office 20 October 1964 – 22 January 1965
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Austen Albu
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 19 October 1964 – 22 December 1964
Prime Minister	Harold Wilson
Preceded by	Maurice Macmillan
Succeeded by	Office abolished (eventuallyJock Bruce-Gardyne)
Member of Parliament forGreat Grimsby
In office 8 October 1959 – 19 February 1977
Preceded by	Kenneth Younger
Succeeded by	Austin Mitchell
Member of Parliament forSouth Gloucestershire
In office 23 February 1950 – 6 May 1955
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Frederick Corfield
Personal details
Born	Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (1918-08-29)29 August 1918 St Leonards-on-Sea,Sussex, England
Died	19 February 1977(1977-02-19) (aged 58) Oxford, England
Political party	Labour
Spouses	Hilary Anne Sarson ​ ​ (m. 1952; div. 1957)​ Susan Catling ​ ​ (m. 1964)​
Parent	Jessie Raven Crosland (mother)
Education	Highgate School
Alma mater	Trinity College, Oxford

Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 1918 – 19 February 1977) was a BritishLabour Party politician and author. Asocial democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential bookThe Future of Socialism (1956) argued against manyMarxist notions and the traditional Labour Party doctrine that expanding public ownership was essential to make socialism work, arguing instead for prioritising the end of poverty and improving public services. He offered positive alternatives to both the right wing and left wing of the Labour Party.

Having served asMember of Parliament (MP) forSouth Gloucestershire from 1950 to 1955, Crosland returned to Parliament forGreat Grimsby (1959–1977). DuringHarold Wilson'sgovernments of 1964–1970 he served asEconomic Secretary to the Treasury (1964), thenMinister of State for Economic Affairs (1964–1965). Entering the Cabinet asSecretary of State for Education and Science (1965–1967), he led the Labour campaign to replacegrammar schools withcomprehensive schools that did not use theeleven-plus for the selection of pupils. He later served asPresident of the Board of Trade (1967–1969), thenSecretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning (1969–1970).

When Labour returned to power he served asSecretary of State for the Environment (1974–1976) and briefly asForeign Secretary (1976–1977). In that role he promoteddétente with the Soviet Union. He died suddenly in February 1977 of acerebral haemorrhage, aged 58.

Crosland was born atSt Leonards-on-Sea inEast Sussex. His father, Joseph Beardsall Crosland, was a senior official at theWar Office, and his mother,Jessie Raven, was an academic. Both of his parents were members of thePlymouth Brethren. His maternal grandfather was Frederick Edward Raven (1837–1903),^[1] founder of the RavenExclusive Brethren and secretary of theRoyal Naval College,Greenwich. Crosland later rejected his family's religion.^[2] He grew up in north London and was educated atHighgate School and atTrinity College, Oxford, obtaining asecond class honoursdegree in Classical Moderations in Greek and Latin Literature.

In the spring of 1941, Crosland was commissioned in theRoyal Welch Fusiliers, and in late 1942 he joined (as part of the6th (Royal Welch) Parachute Battalion) the2nd Parachute Brigade, which was part of the1st Airborne Division. In September 1943, he participated in the landings at Taranto,Operation Slapstick. Crosland had his first direct experience of combat in Italy in December . He then became an intelligence officer gathering information for several months in the front line about troop movements at theBattle of Monte Cassino, and was also briefly involved in the Allied invasion of southern France as part of Operation Rugby in August 1944. He ended the war as a Captain.^[3]

After the war, Crosland returned to Oxford University and obtainedfirst class honours inPhilosophy, Politics and Economics, which he studied in 12 months; he also became President of theOxford Union. He then became auniversity don at Oxford, tutoring in Economics. Notable people he taught at Oxford includedTony Benn,Norris McWhirter andRoss McWhirter.

Crosland, who had been talent-spotted byHugh Dalton, was chosen as a Labour candidate in December 1949 to fight the next general election. He enteredParliament at the February1950 general election, being returned for theSouth Gloucestershire constituency. He held that seat until the1955 general election, when he was defeated atSouthampton Test.

Crosland returned to theHouse of Commons at the1959 general election when he was elected forGrimsby, which he would represent for the rest of his life. He was, likeRoy Jenkins andDenis Healey, a friend and protégé ofHugh Gaitskell, and together they were regarded as the "modernisers" of their day.

From June 1960, Crosland played an important part in the establishment of theCampaign for Democratic Socialism, a right-wing grassroots group within the Labour Party, created, in part, as a response to the debates around the Left's advocacy of unilateral nuclear disarmament andClause IV.^[4][5] However, Crosland was against Gaitskell's attempts to change Clause 4.^[6]

Even though they were from the same wing of the party, the thought of the Labour Party being led by the volatileGeorge Brown appalled Crosland, but he also was a critic ofHarold Wilson for his apparent lack of principles. Just over two years earlier Wilson had challenged Gaitskell for the party leadership. Crosland nominated and voted forJames Callaghan in the leadership contest caused by Gaitskell's death on 18 January 1963. He rationalised his decision to back Callaghan on the basis that "We have to choose between a crook [Harold Wilson] and a drunk [George Brown]". However, Callaghan was eliminated after obtaining 41 votes, the margin in votes between Wilson and Brown in the final ballot. With Callaghan eliminated, Crosland's second wife wrote in her 1982 biography, he voted for George Brown in the second ballot, although with zero enthusiasm, and with little interest about the result, as he was opposed to both of the candidates now standing for the party leadership. Wilson won by 144 votes to Brown's 103 on 14 February 1963.

Although critical of Harold Wilson, and angry with him for his 1960 challenge to Gaitskell for the party leadership, Crosland respected him as a political operator. Under Wilson, Crosland was first appointed Brown's deputy in October 1964. In November 1964 Crosland and Brown told Wilson and Callaghan that ruling outdevaluation was a mistake in the face of the economic crisis then under way. However, Crosland was not Brown's deputy for long.

On 22 January 1965, Wilson appointed CroslandSecretary of State for Education and Science.

The ongoing campaign forComprehensive schools in England and Wales gained a major boost withCircular 10/65, which as a statute rather than aGovernment Bill was controversial at the time, although a government motion in favour of the policy had been passed in January 1965.^[7] Crosland's policy gained approval from local government; by 1979 over 90% of pupils were in comprehensive schools.^[8][9] In herbiography published in 1982,Susan Crosland said her husband had told her "If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to destroy every fucking grammar school in England. And Wales and Northern Ireland."^[10]

Another major educational change was that presaged by his speech at Woolwich Polytechnic (nowGreenwich University) establishing a 'binary system' of higher education, in which universities would be joined by polytechnic institutions which concentrated on high-level vocational skills.

In October 1966, a committee of ministers in the Labour government decided to increase university fees for overseas students. Two months later Crosland announced their decision which treated Commonwealth students for the first time as if they were foreign. Widespread protests, which erupted immediately, soon united a large number of influential people from across a wide spectrum from left-wing militant students to mildly conservative vice-chancellors.^[11]

Crosland subsequently served asPresident of the Board of Trade from September 1967 to October 1969. He was deeply disappointed not to have been madeChancellor of the Exchequer after the November 1967 cabinet reshuffle which followed the devaluation of the pound. That job went toRoy Jenkins instead. Then he becameSecretary of State for Local Government and Regional Planning until the election defeat of June 1970.

Crosland was seen as a leader and intellectual guru of the "right wing" or "social democratic" wing of the Labour Party in the 1970s. In April 1972, hestood for the deputy leadership of the party after Roy Jenkins resigned. He polled 61 votes of the Parliamentary Labour Party and was eliminated in the first round. The contest was eventually won byEdward Short, who defeatedMichael Foot. Crosland was embarrassed by the national press in January 1973 when it emerged he had been given a silver coffee pot donated by disgraced corrupt architectJohn Poulson when opening a school inBradford in January 1966. It later transpired that the pot was only silver-plated, and therefore of trivial value.^{[citation needed]}

After Labour's return to power in March 1974, Crosland becameSecretary of State for the Environment. He was instrumental in changing Transport policy onBritish Rail to be a higher fare fast intercity passenger service rather than its previous role as a general freight common carrier. Hecontested the leadership in March 1976 following Wilson's resignation, but polled only 17 votes and finished bottom of the poll. After his elimination, he switched his support to the eventual winner James Callaghan, who duly rewarded Crosland by appointing him Foreign Secretary on 8 April 1976.

According toJohn P. Mackintosh, the Wilson and Callaghan governments were dominated by Crosland's views on equality:

Crosland’s ideas continued to be almost unchallenged and dominated the Labour governments of 1964–1970. [...] [T]he Labour Government which came into office in 1974 edged back towards a Croslandite position. [...] [I]f any ideas or policies could be said to have characterised Mr Callaghan's very matter-of-fact and cautious government, they were the continuation of an approach which Crosland had set out in 1956.^[12]

Crosland's time as foreign secretary was dominated by theThird Cod War and relations withRhodesia. Crosland once quipped to his wife that "when I pop off and they cut open my heart, on it will be engraved 'fish' and 'Rhodesia'".^[13][14]

Early in his life Crosland had numerous gay affairs, including allegedly withRoy Jenkins.^[15][16][17] He later described the relationship as "an exceedingly close and intense friendship."^[18]

Crosland benefited from the patronage ofHugh Dalton, who, in 1951, wrote toRichard Crossman: "Thinking of Tony, with all his youth and beauty and gaiety and charm... I weep. I am more fond of that young man than I can put into words."^[19] According to Nicholas Davenport,^[20] Dalton's unrequited feelings for Crosland became an embarrassing joke within the Labour Party.

Crosland married Hilary Sarson in November 1952, divorcing after five years, though the marriage had effectively ended after a year. Crosland had numerous affairs with other women. He remarried on 7 February 1964 to Susan Catling, an American fromBaltimore resident in London whom he had met in 1956,^[21] and, in contrast to his first marriage, this was very happy and contented.Susan Crosland was a successful journalist and writer. There were no children of either marriage, although Crosland's second wife had two daughters from a previous marriage.^[22] He persuaded his step-daughters to abandon their elite private schools to attendHolland Park Comprehensive.^[23] Susan Crosland died on 26 February 2011.^[24]

Crosland was a keenfootball fan and an avid viewer of the television showMatch of the Day. He insisted on taking the then American Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger, a football fan, toBlundell Park to watchGrimsby Town playGillingham in April 1976 when the two met for the first time.^[25] In December 1976, when Kissinger bowed out after theRepublicandefeat, he watched a football match with Crosland atStamford Bridge betweenChelsea andWolverhampton Wanderers.^[25]

After losing his seat in 1955, he wrote (as C.A.R. Crosland)The Future of Socialism which was published in autumn 1956. This became a seminal work for the moderate British left. (A revised 50th anniversary edition was published in 2006.) In the book he outlines the need for socialism to adapt to modern circumstances – a context from which the use of the term "revisionism" has its origins in Britain, despite the gradualism associated with theFabian Society since the end of the nineteenth century.

Labour revisionism was a powerful ideological tendency within the Party in the 1950s and 1960s, taking intellectual sustenance from the Crosland book, and political leadership fromHugh Gaitskell. The goal was to reformulate socialist principles, and bring the Labour Party policies up to date with the changing British society and economy. Revisionism rejected the view that socialism ought to be primarily identified with the ownership of the means of production. That meant that continuous nationalisation was not a central goal. The focus should rather be on regulating the market, improving workers' pay and conditions, and public investment.^[26] Second, was a series of political values focused on personal liberty, social welfare, and equality and "a more joyful society".^[26] Themes of destroying or overthrowing the rich and elite were downplayed in favour of policies of high taxation, more widespread educational opportunity, and expanded social services. Revisionists insisted on the necessity of a market-oriented mixed economy with a central role for capitalism and entrepreneurship.^[27][28]

Crosland was himself an active member of the Fabian Society, contributing to theNew Fabian Essays collection, which saw the emerging generation of Labour thinkers and politicians attempt to set out a new programme for Labour following the Attlee governments of 1945 to 1951. In the 1951 essay "The Transition from Capitalism" he claimed that "by 1951 Britain had, in all the essentials, ceased to be a capitalist country" as a result of the establishment of thewelfare state.^[29] In particular, Crosland wished to challenge the dominance ofSidney andBeatrice Webb in Fabian thinking, challenging their austere, managerialist, centralising, "top-down", bureaucratic Fabianism with a more liberal vision of the good society and the good life, writing inThe Future of Socialism that "Total abstinence and a good filing system are not now the right signposts to the socialist utopia. Or at least, if they are, some of us will fall by the wayside".

Two further books of essays by Crosland were published:The Conservative Enemy (London, Cape, 1962) andSocialism Now, and Other Essays (London, Cape, 1974).

Crosland and his wife bought a converted mill atAdderbury in Oxfordshire in 1975, as well as having a home at Lansdowne Road inNotting Hill, London. On the afternoon of 13 February 1977, Crosland was at his home in Adderbury, working on a paper on theRhodesian situation, and was planning that evening to complete a major foreign policy speech ondétente. However, he suffered a massivecerebral haemorrhage and fell into a coma. He died six days later, on 19 February, atRadcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, aged 58. Crosland was succeeded as foreign secretary byDavid Owen, who delivered his speech to the Diplomatic Writers Association on 3 March 1977. The following day, Crosland's ashes were scattered at sea near Grimsby.

His papers are held at theLondon School of Economics.^[30]

• Eduard Bernstein
• Roy Hattersley
• Reformism
• Dick Leonard

• Crosland, Susan.Tony Crosland (Cape, 1982),ISBN 978-0-224-01787-9
• Francis, Martin. "Mr Gaitskell's Ganymede? Re-assessing Crosland's the future of socialism", inContemporary British History 11.2 (1997): 50–64.
• Jeffreys, Kevin.Anthony Crosland (1999),ISBN 978-1-86066-157-0
• King, Stephen. 2018.The Ministerial Career of Anthony Crosland 1964–1977. PhD thesis, Newcastle University.
• Kogan, Maurice. "Anthony Crosland: intellectual and politician", inOxford Review of Education 32.1 (2006): 71–86.
• Leonard, Dick, ed.Crosland and New Labour (Palgrave Macmillan, 1999),ISBN 978-0-333-73990-7
• Lipsey, David, and Dick Leonard, eds.The Socialist Agenda: Crosland's Legacy (Cape, 1981),ISBN 978-0-224-01886-9
• Meredith, Stephen. "Mr Crosland's nightmare? New Labour and equality in historical perspective", inBritish Journal of Politics and International Relations 8.2 (2006): 238–255.
• Nuttall, Jeremy. "The Labour party and the improvement of minds: the case of Tony Crosland", inHistorical Journal 46.1 (2003): 133–153.
• Radice, GilesFriends and Rivals: Crosland, Jenkins and Healey (2002)ISBN 978-0-316-85547-1
• Reisman, D. A. "Anthony Crosland on equality and state", inJournal of Income Distribution 7.2 (1997): 161–173.

• The Tony Benn Diaries – Out of the wilderness 1963–1967 (1987, Hutchinson)ISBN 978-0-09-958670-8

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