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The Right Honourable Reginald Maudling
Maudling in 1974
Home Secretary
In office 20 June 1970 – 18 July 1972
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	James Callaghan
Succeeded by	Robert Carr
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
In office 4 August 1965 – 20 June 1970
Leader	Edward Heath
Preceded by	George Brown[a]
Succeeded by	Roy Jenkins[b]
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 13 July 1962 – 16 October 1964
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan Alec Douglas-Home
Preceded by	Selwyn Lloyd
Succeeded by	James Callaghan
Secretary of State for the Colonies
In office 9 October 1961 – 13 July 1962
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Iain Macleod
Succeeded by	Duncan Sandys
President of the Board of Trade
In office 14 October 1959 – 9 October 1961
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	David Eccles
Succeeded by	Frederick Erroll
Paymaster General
In office 14 January 1957 – 14 October 1959
Prime Minister	Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Walter Monckton
Succeeded by	The Lord Mills
Minister of Supply
In office 7 April 1955 – 14 January 1957
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden
Preceded by	Selwyn Lloyd
Succeeded by	Aubrey Jones
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 24 November 1952 – 7 April 1955
Prime Minister	Winston Churchill
Preceded by	John Edwards
Succeeded by	Edward Boyle
Shadow Cabinet portfolios Shadow Foreign Secretary In office 11 February 1975 – 11 April 1976 Leader Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Geoffrey Rippon Succeeded by John Davies In office 16 February 1965 – 4 August 1965 Leader Alec Douglas-Home Edward Heath Preceded by Rab Butler Succeeded by Christopher Soames Shadow Secretary of State for Defence In office 21 April 1968 – 14 November 1968 Leader Edward Heath Preceded by Enoch Powell Succeeded by Geoffrey Rippon Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs In office 19 April 1966 – 21 April 1968 Leader Edward Heath Preceded by Selwyn Lloyd Succeeded by Alec Douglas-Home Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer In office 16 October 1964 – 16 February 1965 Leader Alec Douglas-Home Preceded by James Callaghan Succeeded by Edward Heath
Member of Parliament forChipping Barnet Barnet (1950–1974)
In office 23 February 1950 – 14 February 1979
Preceded by	Stephen Taylor
Succeeded by	Sydney Chapman
Personal details
Born	(1917-03-07)7 March 1917 North Finchley,Middlesex, England
Died	14 February 1979(1979-02-14) (aged 61) Hampstead, London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Beryl Laverick ​ (m. 1939)​
Children	4
Alma mater	Merton College, Oxford

Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979)^[1] was a British politician who served asChancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and asHome Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospectiveConservative leader, and he was twice seriously considered for the post; he wasEdward Heath's chief rival in1965. He also held directorships in several British financial firms.

As Home Secretary, he was responsible for the UK Government'sNorthern Ireland policy during the period that includedBloody Sunday. In July 1972, he resigned as Home Secretary due to an unrelated scandal in one of the companies of which he was director.

Reginald Maudling was born in Woodside Park,North Finchley, and was named after his father, Reginald George Maudling, anactuary at R. Watson & Sons and Public Valuer,^[2] who contracted to do actuarial and financial calculations as theCommercial Calculating Company Ltd. The family moved toBexhill to escape German air raids; Maudling won scholarships to theMerchant Taylors' School andMerton College, Oxford.^[3]

He stayed out of undergraduate politics atOxford, and studied the works ofHegel; he was to formulate his conclusions later as to the inseparability of economic and political freedom: "the purpose of State control and the guiding principle of its application is the achievement of true freedom". He obtained a first classGreats degree.^[4]

Shortly after graduating, Maudling set up a meeting withHarold Nicolson to discuss whether it would be better, as a moderate conservative, to join theConservative Party orNational Labour; Nicolson advised him to wait. Maudling wascalled to the Bar at theMiddle Temple in 1940. However, he did not practise as abarrister, having volunteered for service in theRoyal Air Force (RAF) in theSecond World War.^{[citation needed]}

Owing to poor eyesight he took desk jobs in the RAF intelligence branch, where he rose—as a "Wingless Wonder", as officers who were not qualified to wear pilot's wings were nicknamed—to the rank offlight lieutenant; he was then appointedPrivate Secretary to theSecretary of State for Air,Sir Archibald Sinclair.^[5]

Maudling wrote an essay on Conservative policy in November 1943, recommending that the Conservatives neither imitate theLabour Party nor reflexively oppose all controls; in thegeneral election of July 1945, he was selected as parliamentary candidate forHeston and Isleworth, a newly createdconstituency inMiddlesex, although there were four applicants and he had no ties to that constituency. In the subsequent Labour landslide Maudling was defeated like many others, although Heston and Isleworth had been expected to be a safe Conservative seat. After its defeat in the 1945 general election, the Conservative Party engaged in an extensive rethink of its policy. Maudling argued that the Party had depended excessively on outdated economic slogans and the popularity ofWinston Churchill.

In November 1945, Maudling became the first staff member of the Conservative Parliamentary Secretariat, later theConservative Research Department, where he was head of the Economic Section. He persuaded the party to accept much of the Labour government'snationalisation programme andsocial services while cutting government spending. In March 1946, Maudling was chosen as the prospective candidate forBarnet, close to his birthplace inFinchley, and began giving speeches there. Labour had unexpectedly won the seat in 1945, but it was considered to bemarginal. In 1950, Maudling was elected as Member of Parliament with an absolute majority.^[6]

Following the1951 election, Churchill made Maudling a junior Minister at theMinistry of Civil Aviation. However, his experience of preparing economic policy led to his speaking on behalf of theTreasury on the 1952 budget and thus to an appointment, later that year, asEconomic Secretary to the Treasury. With his mentorRab Butler asChancellor of the Exchequer, Maudling worked to reduce taxes and controls in order to move from post-war austerity to affluence. WhenAnthony Eden took over as prime minister in 1955, Maudling was promoted to head a department asMinister of Supply. He supported theinvasion of Suez.

The Ministry was responsible for aircraft production and supplying the armed forces, and Maudling came to agree with critics who argued that it was an unnecessary intermediary; he therefore recommended its abolition. Although supportive ofHarold Macmillan's appointment as prime minister over the rival claims of Butler in 1957, Maudling found himself in difficulties over his position in the new government. He refused to continue at theMinistry of Supply and also rejected an offer of the Ministry of Health becauseIain Macleod, with whom he had a rivalry, had held the post five years earlier and Maudling did not want to be seen as five years behind him.

Macmillan appointed Maudling to the post ofPaymaster General and spokesman in theHouse of Commons for the Ministry of Fuel and Power, which was technically a demotion. Nine months later, Maudling had proved his usefulness; Macmillan brought him into the Cabinet on 17 September 1957, where he acted more as aMinister without Portfolio: he had specific responsibility for persuading the six members of the embryonicEuropean Economic Community, who had recently signed theTreaty of Rome, to abandon their proposal for acustoms union in favour of a wider free-trade area where each country would preserve their own externaltariffs. However, Maudling's lack of international experience led him to underestimate the importance of the nascent Community and what was constructive in it. Faced with widespread rejection of the proposals, Maudling aroused hostility inBonn and Paris by seeking to play off the Germans against the French.

On 14 November 1958, six months after the election ofGeneral de Gaulle as premier,Jacques Soustelle, the FrenchMinister of Information, confirmed to the Press that France would reject the Maudling plan. Two days later, the British delegation to the Community formally called an end to accession negotiations. Maudling later revised his proposals, which were to form the basis of theEuropean Free Trade Association.^[7]

Meanwhile, Maudling became an underwriting member ofLloyd's of London in December 1957, although his assets were somewhat below average for other 'names'.^[8]

Maudling entered the front line of politics after the1959 election when appointedPresident of the Board of Trade. He was responsible for introducing the government's proposals to help areas of high unemployment. This was achieved by paying grants to companies to create new plants in these deprived areas, and also by the government taking over unused land for development. Maudling also succeeded in negotiating a free trade agreement between the countries outside theCommon Market; this became theEuropean Free Trade Association and was some compensation for his failure to negotiate a free trade area with the Common Market. Maudling was opposed to any proposal to join the Common Market on the basis that it would end Britain's right to make commercial agreements with New Zealand and Australia. He was later to remark that "I can think of no more retrograde step economically or politically". This comment was to be quoted against him when, less than two years later, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of the reopening of negotiations for Common Market membership.^[9]

Reginald Maudling was for a short time, asSecretary of State for the Colonies in 1961, responsible for the process ofdecolonisation. In this position he chaired constitutional conferences forJamaica,Northern Rhodesia andTrinidad and Tobago which prepared them for independence; his plan for Northern Rhodesia was controversial and he had to threaten resignation before it was approved. However, Maudling was keen to return to economic policy, and seized his opportunity when Macmillan made it clear in private that he supported a voluntaryincomes policy. Maudling promptly made his case in public, and three weeks later was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer in Macmillan's "Night of the Long Knives" attempt to rejuvenate his Cabinet.^[10]

As Chancellor, Maudling soon cutpurchase tax and bank interest rates.^[11] His 1963 budget^[12] aimed at "expansion without inflation". Following a period of economic difficulty, with a growth target of 4%, Maudling was able to removeincome tax from owner-occupiers' residential premises. He also abolished the rate of duty onhome-brewed beer which in effect legalised it. This was the period in which Maudling was at his most popular within the Conservative Party and in the country.

However, later commentators have been less kind to Maudling:Harold Wilson and his ChancellorJames Callaghan (who nevertheless sounded out Maudling for the governorship of the Bank of England in 1966)^[13] blamed the "dash for growth" that followed the 1963 budget for increasingsterling's chronic instability between 1964 and 1967 and by greatly increasing domestic demand the budget certainly exacerbated the existingbalance of payments problem. Maudling largely recognised this himself by the time of the 1964 budget and, although he increased taxes, he did little to subdue demand in an election year.

By 1963, during theProfumo affair, there was talk, encouraged byMartin Redmayne (Chief Whip) andLord Poole (Party Chairman), of Maudling succeeding Macmillan as prime minister. Maudling visited Butler (Deputy Prime Minister) and obtained a mutual promise that they would, if necessary, agree to serve under one another – Maudling believed that he had gained an advantage in obtaining the agreement of Butler, his senior, to serve under him if necessary.William Rees-Mogg claimed inThe Times on 28 July that Butler led Maudling by 2:1 in the Cabinet, although Maudling had more support amongst backbench MPs.^[14]

Macmillan's sudden illness and announcement of his resignation in October 1963 came at a time when Maudling's support had fallen. He was also poorly received at the Conservative Party conference, which had become a hustings for the leadership, despite coaching fromIain Macleod, in how to deliver his speech. Back in London the following week, a process of "consultation" byLord ChancellorDilhorne and by Redmayne declared Foreign SecretaryLord Home, rather than Maudling or Butler, to be the compromise candidate.Enoch Powell, Macleod,Hailsham and Maudling (known as "the Quad" in some accounts of the following days) sought to persuade Butler to refuse to serve under Home, so that Butler rather than Home would have to become prime minister. Macleod and Maudling demanded that Dilhorne lay the results of his consultations before the Cabinet but he refused.^[15] Maudling attended the meeting at Powell's house late in the evening of 17 October, "well-refreshed" after attending a formal dinner and seems to have "gone along with it" rather than being a ringleader, although he and Hailsham agreed to serve under Butler.^[16] On the morning of Saturday 19 October Butler then Maudling agreed to serve under Home, enabling him to accept office as prime minister.^[15]

Maudling retained his post as Chancellor under the new prime minister and in the1964 election, Maudling had a prominent role at the helm of the party's daily press conferences, while Douglas-Home toured the country. On theBBC's election results programme, the journalistAnthony Howard said that he believed that if Maudling had been leader, the narrow Conservative defeat would have been a narrow Conservative victory.^[17] Upon being forced out of the post by the election defeat, Maudling left a note to his successor, James Callaghan, simply stating"Good luck, old cock.... Sorry to leave it in such a mess".^[18]

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Out of office, Maudling accepted the offer of a seat on the board ofKleinwort Benson in November 1964, one of the factors which led to his being shifted to spokesman on Foreign Affairs in early 1965. Unlike other potential leadership contenders, Maudling publicly maintained his loyalty to Douglas-Home as criticisms of his leadership mounted. When Douglas-Home resigned, after putting in place a system in whichthe leadership was directly elected, Maudling fought againstEdward Heath for the position of candidate to the party centre-right.

Unfortunately for Maudling,Enoch Powell also stood, but he was a candidate supportingmonetarist and proto-Thatcherite economics, which at that time had little support. Powell won 15 votes. Maudling won 133 votes against Heath's 150; Powell's 15 votes were seen as more likely to have gone to Maudling had Powell not stood, but they would have made no difference to Heath's narrow majority. This was a moment of philosophical instability for the Conservatives. Their historic scepticism of Keynesianism began to grow through the 1960s because there was little to distinguish between the policies of the Conservatives and Labour. The cross-party support for economic planning and union negotiation was becoming increasingly unable to stimulate high levels of economic growth.

Maudling's business directorships with Kleinwort Benson and others were mentioned by his opponents as evidence of his lack of commitment for the role, and he was criticised as too close to the Macmillan/Douglas-Home style of politics.

Maudling served as Deputy Leader under Heath, and was also a prominent member of theShadow Cabinet. However, he was neither personally nor politically close to Heath, and as a consequence his influence declined; his support for an incomes policy now went against party policy. He also tended to make gaffes, as for example when he saidHarold Wilson had been following the same policy as the Conservatives onRhodesia and "I can't think of anything he has done wrongly". After Enoch Powell had been sacked from the Shadow Cabinet in 1968 for his controversialRivers of Blood speech, Maudling was moved from the position ofShadow Commonwealth Secretary to becomeShadow Defence Secretary until 1969 when he was replaced byGeoffrey Rippon. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970, Maudling was appointedHome Secretary; the most pressing problem at the Home Office was tacklingthe Troubles in Northern Ireland. After boarding the aircraft at the end of his first visit to the region, he remarked "For God's sake bring me a largeScotch. What a bloody awful country."^[19] When Iain Macleod, who had been appointed as Chancellor in the new Conservative Government, died after barely a month in office, it was reported inThe Glasgow Herald that Maudling "was being consistently tipped" at Westminster to move from the Home Office back to his old post.^[20] Ultimately the post went toAnthony Barber.

Maudling's attitude of reassuring calmness in interviews, normally helpful to him, was sometimes damaging. At a 15 December 1971 news conference in Belfast, Maulding said that the British Army had the power to reduceIRA violence to "something which is acceptable", a remark widely regarded as agaffe.^[21] He also tended to trust theUnionist-controlledGovernment of Northern Ireland and gloss over differences between their approach and that of the United Kingdom government. This backfired when thePrime Minister of Northern Ireland,James Chichester-Clark, resigned when denied the full number of troops he requested in March 1971. That August, Maudling authorised the Northern Ireland government to introduceinternment without trial for terror suspects, which caused widespread upheaval and anger among thenationalist population due to its exclusive use on that community,^[22] and was followed by an already planned massive escalation in the level of violence.

Regarding criminal justice, Maudling made no attempt, despite his personal support, to reintroduce capital punishment after its abolition in 1969. He introduced Community Service, a new alternative to prison, and in 1971 introduced further restrictions on immigration of Commonwealth migrants.^[23] He was criticised for ordering thedeportation ofRudi Dutschke, a leader of theGerman student movement. Dutschke, who was in Britain to recuperate from an assassination attempt, was considered a student anarchist.^{[citation needed]}

Maudling was often the target of satirical cartoons in major newspapers, and was lampooned in the magazinePrivate Eye and the television comedy showMonty Python's Flying Circus.^[24]

After soldiers from theParachute Regiment shot and killed 14 protestors from aNorthern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) march on 30 January 1972, Maudling gave a statement in the House of Commons, agreeing with statements published by army spokesmen claiming that the regiment had only opened fire in self-defence.^[25][26] Northern Irish politician and MPBernadette Devlin, who had been present inDerry when the incident occurred, attempted to respond to Maudling's statement but was denied, in defiance of established protocol, by Speaker of the HouseSelwyn Lloyd; Devlin responded by walking across the commons floor and slapping Maudling. Devlin subsequently told journalists that Maudling's statement contained numerous falsehoods and expressed no regrets for the victims of the incident.^[27][28] Eventually, Edward Heath decided to bring indirect rule of Northern Ireland under a separateSecretary of State. In 1974, Shane Paul O'Doherty, anIRA member, sent Maudling aletter bomb, which slightly injured him.^[29]

In 1972, Maudling's business activities were causing considerable disquiet and speculation in the press. In 1966, he had obtained a directorship in the company ofJohn Poulson, an architect Maudling helped obtain lucrative contracts. Poulson routinely did business through bribery and in 1972 was made bankrupt. The bankruptcy hearings disclosed his bribe payments, and Maudling's connection became public knowledge. Maudling came to the decision that his responsibility for theMetropolitan Police, which was beginning fraud investigations into Poulson, made his position as Home Secretary untenable. He resigned on 18 July, to general sympathy from the press.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after receiving Maudling's resignation, Edward Heath's government performed a 'U-turn' on economic policy and subsequently adopted an approach strikingly similar to Maudling's. Heath advised Maudling not to drop out of the public eye and he continued to make many media appearances. In the year after the Conservative Party's electoral defeat in 1974, Heath was replaced as leader byMargaret Thatcher. She appointed Maudling to the post of Shadow Foreign Secretary. However, Maudling clashed with Thatcher over economics, and after less than two years in the role he was dismissed on 19 November 1976. Departing, Maudling summed up his career as "hired by Winston Churchill, fired by Margaret Thatcher".^{[citation needed]}

In 1969, Maudling had been president of the Real Estate Fund of America, whose chief executive, Jerome Hoffman, had been imprisoned for fraud; Maudling had also been an adviser to the Peachey Property Corporation, whose chairman,Sir Eric Miller, hadembezzled company money and later took his own life. He was revealed to have lobbied for more aid toMalta after obtaining a commission for Poulson there, which had led to heavy losses for the Maltese government. These further revelations led to a Parliamentary inquiry into the conduct of Maudling and two other MPs linked to Poulson. This inquiry published its report on 14 July 1977; the report concluded that Maudling had indulged in "conduct inconsistent with the standards which the House is entitled to expect from its members".^{[citation needed]}

When the report was considered by the House of Commons, the Conservative Party organised its MPs to attend the debate to "Save Reggie". An amendment was put down to "take note" of the report, instead of endorsing it, and carried by 230 votes (211 Conservatives, 17 Labour, 2 Liberals and 2 Ulster Unionists) to 207. No punishment was imposed. An attempt by backbench Labour MPs to expel Maudling from the House was defeated by 331 votes to 11, and a move to suspend him for six months was lost by 324 to 97.

As Lewis Baston's 2004 biography recounts, Maudling and his wife became heavy drinkers once his political career was effectively ended by the scandal. The drinking turned to alcoholism and Maudling's health rapidly deteriorated in the late 1970s. He collapsed in early 1979.^{[citation needed]}

Maudling died at theRoyal Free Hospital in London, fromkidney failure andcirrhosis of theliver, on 14 February 1979; he was 61. His body was buried in the churchyard ofLittle Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. A stone seat from his garden was placed beside the grave.

Maudling married actress Beryl Laverick (1919–1988) in 1939.^[3] They had three sons and a daughter, Caroline Maudling, who became a journalist in the 1960s as the "travelling teenager" of theDaily Mail and, among other things, appeared alongsideJohn Lennon onBBC TV'sJuke Box Jury in 1963.^[30]

Maudling's mother had disowned him as a result of his marriage, and Maudling did not attend her funeral in 1956.^[31] When Caroline aroused comment by having a child out of wedlock in the late 1960s, Maudling was staunch in her defence, publicly expressing paternal pride.^[30] Beryl Maudling's body was buried next to her husband's at Little Berkhamsted.^[32]

Maudling was portrayed by actorMichael Culkin in theBBC-produced 2018 limited television seriesA Very English Scandal.

• List of deaths through alcohol
• Acceptable level of violence

• Dell, Edmund.The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90 (HarperCollins, 1997) pp 283–303, covers his term as Chancellor.
• Lewis Baston (2004)Reggie: The Life of Reginald Maudling. Sutton Publishing.ISBN 0-7509-2924-3 Principal source, where no other is specified.
• Michael Gillard (1974)A little pot of money. The story of Reginald Maudling and the Real Estate Fund of America.Private Eye productions / André Deutsch.ISBN 0-233-96444-4
• Michael Gillard (1980)Nothing to declare: the political corruptions of John Poulson. John Calder.ISBN 0-7145-3625-3
• Howard, AnthonyRAB: The Life of R. A. Butler, Jonathan Cape 1987ISBN 978-0-224-01862-3
• Reginald Maudling (1978)Memoirs. Sidgwick & Jackson.ISBN 0-283-98446-5
• Sandbrook, Dominic (2005).Never Had It So Good. London: Little, Brown.ISBN 978-0-349-11530-6.
• Robert Shepherd (2004) "Reginald Maudling" inOxford Dictionary of National Biography,Oxford University Press.

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• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Reginald Maudling
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