James Callaghan

Early life and career, 1912–1945

Leonard James Callaghan was born on 27 March 1912 at 38 Funtington Road, Copnor, Portsmouth, England. He took his middle name from his father James (1877–1921) was the son of an Irish Catholic father (who had fled to England during the Great Irish Famine) and a Jewish mother. Callaghan's father had left home in the 1890s to join the Royal Navy, giving a false birthday and changing his surname from Garoghan to Callaghan to hide the fact that he was a year too young to enlist. He served in the First World War on board the battleship HMS Agincourt and rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer.

Callaghan's mother was Charlotte Callaghan (née Cundy 1879–1961), an English Baptist. As the Catholic Church at the time refused to marry Catholics to members of other denominations, James Callaghan senior abandoned Catholicism and married Charlotte in a Baptist chapel. Their first child was Dorothy Gertrude Callaghan (1904–82).

When Callaghan's father was demobbed in 1919, he joined the Coastguard and moved the family to the town of Brixham in Devon. He died only two years later, in 1921, of a heart attack at the age of 44, plunging the family into poverty, and forcing them to rely on charity to survive. Their financial situation was improved in 1924 when the first Labour government was elected, and introduced changes allowing Mrs Callaghan to be granted a widow's pension of ten shillings a week, on the basis that her husband's death was partly due to his war service.

Early career

In his early years, Callaghan was known by his first name Leonard. When he entered politics in 1945 he decided to be known by his middle name James, and from then on he was referred to as James or Jim. He attended Portsmouth Northern Secondary School. He gained the Senior Oxford Certificate in 1929, but could not afford entrance to university and instead sat the Civil Service entrance exam. At the age of 17, Callaghan left to work as a clerk for the Inland Revenue at Maidstone in Kent. While working at the Inland Revenue, Callaghan joined the Maidstone branch of the Labour Party and the Association of the Officers of Taxes (AOT), a trade union for this branch of the civil service; within a year of joining he became the office secretary of the union. In 1932, he passed a Civil Service exam that enabled him to become a senior tax officer, and in the same year he became the Kent branch secretary of the AOT. The following year he was elected to the AOT's national executive council. In 1934, he was transferred to Inland Revenue offices in London. Following a merger of unions in 1936, Callaghan was appointed a full-time union official and to the post of assistant secretary of the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF), and resigned from his Civil Service duties.

During his time working in the Inland Revenue in the early 1930s, Callaghan met his future wife Audrey Moulton, and they were married in July 1938 at Maidstone.

His union position at the IRSF brought Callaghan into contact with Harold Laski, the Chairman of the Labour Party's National Executive Committee and an academic at the London School of Economics (LSE). Laski encouraged him to stand for Parliament, although later he requested several times that Callaghan study and lecture at the LSE.

War service

In 1940, following the outbreak of the Second World War, Callaghan applied to join the Royal Navy, but was initially turned down on the basis that a trade union official was deemed to be a reserved occupation. He was finally allowed to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as an ordinary seaman in 1942. While he trained for his promotion, his medical examination revealed that he was suffering from tuberculosis, so he was admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar in Gosport near Portsmouth. After he recovered, he was discharged and assigned to duties with the Admiralty in Whitehall. He was assigned to the Japanese section, and wrote a service manual for the Royal Navy The Enemy: Japan. He then served in the East Indies Fleet on board the escort carrier HMS Activity, and was promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant in April 1944. As of 2025, Callaghan remains the last British prime minister to be an armed forces veteran and the only one ever to have served in the Royal Navy.

While on leave from the Navy, Callaghan was selected as a Parliamentary candidate for Cardiff South: he narrowly won the local party ballot with twelve votes, against the next highest candidate George Thomas, who received eleven. Callaghan had been encouraged to put his name forward for the Cardiff South seat by his friend Dai Kneath, a member of the IRSF National executive from Swansea, who was in turn an associate and friend of the local Labour Party secretary, Bill Headon.

By 1945, he was serving on HMS Queen Elizabeth in the Indian Ocean. After VE Day, he returned, along with other prospective candidates, to the United Kingdom to stand in the general election.

Attlee government, 1945–1951

Member of Parliament

The Labour Party won the overdue general election in a landslide victory on 26 July 1945, bringing Clement Attlee to power, in charge of the first-ever majority Labour government. Callaghan won his Cardiff South seat at the 1945 general election (and would hold a Cardiff-area seat continuously until his retirement in 1987). He defeated the sitting Conservative MP, Sir Arthur Evans, by 17,489 votes to 11,545. He campaigned on such issues as the rapid demobilisation of the armed forces and for a new housing construction programme. He stood on the left wing of the party, and was a vocal critic of the United States in 1945, joining 22 other rebels in voting against accepting the Anglo-American loan. Callaghan did not join the Keep Left group of left-wing Labour MPs, but he did sign a letter in 1947 with 20 other MPs from the group calling for a 'socialist foreign policy' which would create an alternative to the capitalism of the United States and the totalitarianism of the USSR.

Junior minister

In October 1947, at the age of 35, Callaghan got his first junior ministerial job, when he was appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport under Alfred Barnes. Callaghan was given responsibility for improving road safety; in this role he persuaded the government to introduce zebra crossings, and to extend the use of cat's eyes on trunk roads. Callaghan did not oppose the government's use of emergency powers to break dockers' strikes in both 1948 and 1949; however, he sympathised with the feelings of ordinary dockers, and wrote to Attlee to protest over how the Dock Labour Scheme was operated.

In February 1950 he was appointed as Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty. He was a delegate to the Council of Europe, where he supported plans for economic co-operation but resisted plans for a European army. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Callaghan was given responsibility for deciding how the money allocated to the Royal Navy for rearmament was spent.

In opposition, 1951–1964

After Labour lost power in the 1951 general election, Callaghan, who was popular with Labour MPs, was elected to the Shadow Cabinet; he would serve on the party's front bench for the next 29 years, either in opposition or in government. He was now associated with the Gaitskellite wing of the party on the Labour right, although he avoided joining any faction. He served as the Labour spokesman on Transport (1951–53); Fuel and Power (1953–55); Colonial Affairs (1956–61) and Shadow Chancellor (1961–64). He ran unsuccessfully for the Deputy Leadership of the party in 1960. When Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963, Callaghan ran to succeed him, but came third in the leadership contest, which was won by Harold Wilson.

Wilson government, 1964–1970

Chancellor of the Exchequer, 1964–1967

In October 1964, Conservative Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home (who had only been in power for twelve months since the resignation of Harold Macmillan) was forced to call a general election, the parliament being about to expire. Labour won a narrow majority, gaining 56 seats for a total of 317 to the Conservatives' 304. The new Labour government under Harold Wilson immediately faced economic problems; Wilson acted within his first hours to appoint Callaghan as the new chancellor of the Exchequer. Callaghan's time as chancellor was characterised by an ultimately doomed effort to stave off devaluation of the pound. The previous chancellor, Reginald Maudling, had initiated fiscally expansionary measures that had helped create a pre-election economic boom. By greatly increasing domestic demand, this had caused imports to grow much faster than exports; thus, when Labour entered government it faced a balance of payments deficit of £800,000,000 (equivalent to £14,167,500,000 in 2025), and sterling, which was then on a fixed exchange rate came under immediate speculative attack. Both Wilson and Callaghan took a strong stance against devaluation of sterling, which would have made British exports more competitive, partly due to the perception that the devaluation carried out by the previous Labour government in 1949 had contributed to that government's downfall. The alternative to devaluation, however, was a series of austerity measures designed to reduce demand in the economy in order to reduce imports, and to stabilise the balance of payments and the value of sterling.

Just ten days after taking up his post, Callaghan immediately introduced a 15% surcharge on imports, with the exception of foodstuffs and raw materials. This measure was intended to tackle the balance of payments deficit; however, it caused an uproar amongst Britain's international trading partners. The outcry was so intense that it caused the government to announce that the surcharge was a temporary measure. Callaghan later admitted in his autobiography that he could have handled the matter better, and in his haste to tackle the balance of payments problem, had failed to consult foreign governments.

On 11 November, Callaghan gave his first budget and announced increases in income tax, petrol tax and the introduction of a new capital gains tax, actions which most economists deemed necessary to take the heat out of the balance and sterling deficit. In line with Labour's manifesto commitments, the budget also contained social measures to increase the state pension and the widows pension; measures which were disliked by the City and speculators, causing a run on the pound. On 23 November, it was decided to increase the bank rate from 2% to 7%, which generated a large amount of criticism. Handling the situation was made more difficult by the attitude of Lord Cromer, the governor of the Bank of England, who argued against the fiscal policies of the new Labour government. When Callaghan and Wilson threatened to call a new general election, the governor soon raised a £3,000,000,000 loan to stabilise the reserves and the deficit.

Home secretary, 1967–1970

Callaghan was responsible for the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1968, a controversial piece of legislation prompted by Conservative assertions that an influx of Kenyan Asians would soon inundate the country. It passed through the Commons in a week and placed entry controls on holders of British passports who had "no substantial connection" with Britain by setting up a new system. In his memoirs Time and Chance, Callaghan wrote that introducing the Commonwealth Immigrants Bill had been an unwelcome task but that he did not regret it. He said the Asians had "discovered a loophole", and he told a BBC interviewer: "Public opinion in this country was extremely agitated, and the consideration that was in my mind was how we could preserve a proper sense of order in this country and, at the same time, do justice to these people – I had to balance both considerations". An opponent of the Act, Conservative MP Ian Gilmour, said that it was "brought in to keep the blacks out. If it had been the case that it was 5,000 white settlers who were coming in, the newspapers and politicians, Callaghan included, who were making all the fuss would have been quite pleased".

Also significant was the passing of the Race Relations Act in the same year, making it illegal to refuse employment, housing or education on the basis of ethnic background. The Act extended the powers of the Race Relations Board at the time, to deal with complaints of discrimination and unfair attitudes. It also set up a new supervisory body, the Community Relations Commission, to promote "harmonious community relations". Presenting the Bill to Parliament, Callaghan said: "The House has rarely faced an issue of greater social significance for our country and our children."

Another significant development was the Representation of the People Act 1969, which made Britain the first major democratic nation to lower the voting age from 21 to 18. This came into effect in time for the 1970 general election.

Callaghan's tenure as home secretary was marked by the emerging conflict in Northern Ireland: Like all British governments since the partition of Ireland in 1921, Harold Wilson's Labour government preferred not to intervene in the affairs of Northern Ireland. However, in August 1969, escalating sectarian violence between the province's Protestant and Catholic communities, gave the Government of Northern Ireland little choice but to ask the British government to intervene directly and send in troops, and it was as home secretary that Callaghan took the decision to deploy British Army troops in the province. In return Callaghan and Wilson demanded that various reforms be implemented in the province, such as the phasing out of the Protestant paramilitary B-Specials, and their replacement by the Ulster Defence Regiment, which was open to Catholic recruits, and various reforms to reduce discrimination against Catholics, such as reforms to the voting franchise, and a reform of local government boundaries and housing allocations. Although the troops were initially welcomed by Northern Ireland's Catholics, by early 1970 this had soured, and the Provisional IRA emerged, and embarked on what became a decades-long violent campaign during what became known as The Troubles.

In opposition, 1970–1974

Wilson's government went on to be unexpectedly defeated by Edward Heath at the 1970 general election.

Callaghan initially became Shadow Home Secretary, later becoming Shadow Foreign Secretary. In 1973, after an approach from the Conservative Chancellor Anthony Barber he agreed to have his name go forward for the job of managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), however, this was vetoed by the French government.

Wilson government, 1974–1976

Foreign secretary, 1974–1976

When Wilson won the next general election and returned as prime minister in March 1974, he appointed Callaghan as Foreign Secretary.

In July 1974 a crisis erupted in Cyprus, when there was a coup d'état on the island, sponsored by the Greek military junta, which installed the pro-Greek puppet leader Nikos Sampson as the President, who threatened to unify the island with Greece. Turkey responded by launching an invasion of the island to protect the island's Turkish community. Britain was involved in the dispute as a signatory of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. Britain sent troops alongside the UN to prevent further advancement of Turkish troops. Callaghan led diplomatic efforts to secure a ceasefire, and called on both sides to attend tripartite meetings on the crisis with Britain. On 22 July a ceasefire was called. The tripartite talks got underway, and in August an agreement was reached to make the ceasefire permanent, with a buffer zone patrolled by the UN between the Greek and Turkish controlled parts of the island. As of 2025 the island remains partitioned.

Labour had entered office with the policy of renegotiating the terms of the United Kingdom's membership of the European Community, and then holding a referendum on remaining in the EC on these terms. Callaghan was put in charge of these negotiations. When the talks concluded, Callaghan led the Cabinet in declaring the new terms acceptable and he supported a successful "Yes" vote in the 1975 European Community referendum. Callaghan had formerly been on the eurosceptic wing of the Labour Party, however, during the negotiations and referendum he converted to be a pro-European. He was awarded the Freedom of the City of Cardiff on 16 March 1975.

In 1975, Callaghan flew out to Uganda in order to bring home the British lecturer Denis Hills, who had been sentenced to death by Uganda's dictator Idi Amin for writing a book critical of him. After an appeal for clemency by both the Queen and the prime minister, Amin agreed to release Hills on the condition that Callaghan appeared in person to take him back to the UK.

Also in 1975, Argentina made territorial claims on the Falkland Islands. In response, Callaghan sent HMS Endurance to the islands, in order to send a message to Argentina that Britain would defend them. Seven years later, in 1982, Callaghan criticised the government of Margaret Thatcher for its decision to withdraw Endurance from the islands; a decision which contributed to the Argentine invasion that year.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: 1976–1979

Callaghan was, and still is, the only prime minister to have held all three leading Cabinet positions – chancellor of the exchequer, home secretary and foreign secretary – prior to becoming prime minister.

On becoming prime minister, Callaghan immediately reshuffled the Cabinet: Anthony Crosland was given Callaghan's previous job as foreign secretary, while Merlyn Rees became home secretary, replacing Roy Jenkins whom Callaghan nominated to become president of the European Commission. Callaghan removed Barbara Castle, with whom he had a poor relationship, from the Cabinet, and gave her job at social security to David Ennals.

IMF loan

Callaghan came to office at a troubled time for the British economy, which was still recovering from the 1973–75 global recession, and was beset by double-digit inflation, low growth, and rising unemployment (i.e. stagflation). Within months of entering office, his government was faced with a sterling crisis, which caused the Chancellor Denis Healey to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a large loan of $3900 million (equivalent to $22.1 billion in 2025) to maintain the value of sterling. The IMF demanded large cuts in public spending in return for the loan, which caused consternation among Labour's supporters. The Cabinet was split on the issue, and the left of the party led by Tony Benn put forward an Alternative Economic Strategy as a proposed alternative to the loan, which involved protectionism, but this option was ultimately rejected by the Cabinet. After tough negotiations, the government was able to negotiate a reduction in the proposed public spending cuts from £5000 million (equivalent to £33.7 billion in 2025) to £1,500 million in the first year, and then £1000 million a year over the next two years. In the event the size of the loan was excessive, for it was based on an overestimation of the Public Sector Borrowing Requirement by the Treasury. The government needed to draw on only half of the loan, and it was paid back in full by May 1979. By 1978 the economic situation showed signs of improvement, with unemployment falling, and inflation falling to single digits. Healey was able to introduce an expansionary budget in April 1978.

Callaghan was widely judged to have handled the IMF crisis skilfully, avoiding any resignations from the Cabinet, and negotiating much lower spending cuts than had been originally demanded.

Minority government

Callaghan's time as prime minister was dominated by the troubles in running a government with a minority in the House of Commons. Labour had won a narrow majority of three seats at the October 1974 election, but by April 1976 its overall majority had disappeared, owing to by-election losses and the defection of two MPs to the breakaway Scottish Labour Party. Callaghan was left heading a minority government, forced to do deals with smaller parties in order to govern. An arrangement negotiated in March 1977 with Liberal Party leader David Steel, known as the Lib–Lab pact, lasted until June the following year. Deals were then forged with various small parties including the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru, prolonging the life of the government. The nationalist parties, in turn, demanded devolution to their respective constituent countries in return for their supporting the government. When referendums for Scottish and Welsh devolution were held in March 1979 the Welsh devolution referendum saw a large majority vote against, while the Scottish referendum returned a narrow majority in favour, but failed to reach the required threshold of 40% of the electorate in support. When the Labour government duly refused to push ahead with setting up the proposed Scottish Assembly, the SNP withdrew its support for the government: this finally brought the government down as the Conservatives triggered a vote of no confidence in Callaghan's government that was lost by a single vote on 28 March 1979, necessitating a general election.

Policies

Callaghan's time as prime minister saw broad continuation of the policies which Labour had adopted since it had been elected in 1974 under Wilson. Callaghan continued the policies of the "social contract" under which the trade unions agreed to a programme of voluntary wage restraint to control inflation, in return for various measures to control the cost of living, and increases in social expenditure. This policy was initially quite successful at controlling inflation, although the public spending cuts after 1976 left the government unable to deliver the increased social spending which had been promised as part of the package. Another policy continuation was the National Enterprise Board (NEB) which formed the centrepiece of the government's industrial policy. In practice, the NEB's main activity became one of rescuing failing companies.

At the 1976 Labour Party Conference, at the height of the stagflation crisis, Callaghan made the following statement in his speech:

"We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists, and in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion since the war by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next step."

Given that the policy of every post-war government had prioritised the pursuit of full employment, this statement has been seen as a repudiation of Keynesian economics (which had formed the bedrock of the post-war consensus) and a precursor to monetarism, instead prioritising government action on the fight against inflation. However, Callaghan was never a full-blown monetarist, for he had rejected larger cuts in public expenditure which would have resulted in higher unemployment.

Despite its lack of a parliamentary majority, Callaghan's government was able to carry out a number of reforms in many areas (see Labour government, 1974–1979#Major contributions). Callaghan relied heavily on Michael Foot, who was made Leader of the House of Commons and given the task of steering through the government's legislative programme. Among the measures introduced was the Race Relations Act 1976, which established the Commission for Racial Equality to promote racial equality; increases in pension and benefit rates; the creation of the Police Complaints Board; the expansion of comprehensive education; the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977, which placed upon local authorities a statutory responsibility to provide housing for the homeless; universal Child Benefit; the phasing out of pay beds in NHS hospitals; housing security for agricultural workers; grants to inner cities; and legislation to improve consumer safety.

Proposed 1978 election

Over the summer of 1978, most opinion polls showed Labour with a lead of up to five points, and the expectation grew that Callaghan would call an autumn snap election, which would have given him a second term in office until autumn 1983. The economy had started to improve by this time: 1978 was a year of economic recovery for Britain, with inflation falling to single digits, unemployment declining during the year from a peak of 1.5 million in the third quarter of 1977, to 1.3 million a year later, and general living standards going up by more than 8%. Famously, he strung along the opposition and was expected to make his declaration of an election in a broadcast on 7 September 1978. Instead he announced that the election would be delayed until the following year, which was met with almost universal surprise. His decision not to call an election was seen by many as a sign of his dominance of the political scene and he ridiculed his opponents by singing old-time music hall star Vesta Victoria's song "Waiting at the Church" at that month's Trades Union Congress meeting. This was celebrated by the TUC but has since been interpreted as a moment of hubris. Callaghan intended to convey the message that he had not promised an election.

Callaghan's failure to call an election during 1978 was later widely seen as a political miscalculation; indeed, he himself later admitted that not calling an election was an error of judgement. However, private polling by the Labour Party in the autumn of 1978 had shown the two main parties with about the same level of support.

Winter of Discontent

Callaghan's method of dealing with the long-term economic difficulties involved wage restraint, which had been operating for four years with reasonable success. He gambled that another year of wage restraint would further improve the economy and allow him to be re-elected in 1979, and so he attempted to hold pay rises to 5% or less. The trade unions rejected continued wage restraint, and in a wave of widespread strikes over the winter of 1978–79 (known as the Winter of Discontent) secured higher pay. The industrial unrest made his government unpopular, and Callaghan's response to one interview question only made it worse. Returning to the United Kingdom from the Guadeloupe Conference in January 1979, Callaghan was asked, "What is your general approach, in view of the mounting chaos in the country at the moment?" Callaghan replied, "Well, that's a judgement that you are making. I promise you that if you look at it from outside, and perhaps you're taking rather a parochial view at the moment, I don't think that other people in the world would share the view that there is mounting chaos." This reply was reported in The Sun under the headline "Crisis? What Crisis?". Callaghan also later admitted in regard to the Winter of Discontent that he had "let the country down".

1979 general election

The Winter of Discontent saw Labour's performance slump dramatically in the opinion polls. They had topped most of the pre-winter opinion polls by several points, but in February 1979 at least one opinion poll was showing the Conservatives 20 points ahead of Labour and it appeared inevitable that Labour would lose the forthcoming election.

In the buildup to the election, the Daily Mirror and The Guardian supported Labour, while The Sun, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, and The Daily Telegraph supported the Conservatives.

On 28 March 1979, the House of Commons passed a motion of no-confidence by one vote, 311–310, which forced Callaghan to call a general election which was held on 3 May. The Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher ran a campaign on the slogan "Labour Isn't Working". Although Callaghan remained personally more popular with the electorate than Thatcher, the Conservatives won the election with an overall majority of 43 seats. The Labour vote held up, with the party winning a similar number of votes to 1974, however the Conservatives benefited from a surge in turnout.

During the 1979 election campaign, Callaghan detected a sea-change in public opinion, on which he privately opined:

"You know there are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of. I suspect there is now such a sea change and it is for Mrs Thatcher."

After losing power in 1979, Labour spent the next 18 years in opposition; this is described by some commentators as some of the party's "wilderness years".

Leader of the opposition, 1979–1980

In the immediate aftermath of the election defeat, Callaghan wanted to resign as leader, but was persuaded to stay on in the hope that he would provide some stability, and ease the way for Denis Healey to be elected as his successor. During Callaghan's 17-month stint as opposition leader, the Labour Party was torn apart by factional struggles between the left and right of the party. In the event, the left succeeded in electing Michael Foot as his successor following the November 1980 leadership election, and he returned to the backbenches.

Backbenches and retirement, 1980–2005

In 1982, along with his friend Gerald Ford, he co-founded the annual AEI World Forum.

In 1983, he attacked Labour's plans to reduce defence, and the same year became Father of the House as the longest continually-serving member of the Commons.

In 1987, he was made a Knight Companion of the Garter and stood down at the 1987 general election after 42 years as an MP. He was one of the last remaining MPs elected in the Labour landslide of 1945. Shortly afterwards, he was elevated to the House of Lords on 5 November 1987 as a life peer with the title Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, of the City of Cardiff in the County of South Glamorgan. In 1987, his autobiography, Time and Chance, was published. He also served as a non-executive director of the Bank of Wales.

His wife Audrey, a former chairman (1969–82) of Great Ormond Street Hospital, spotted a letter to a newspaper which pointed out that the copyright of Peter Pan, which had been assigned by J. M. Barrie to the hospital, was going to expire at the end of that year, 1987 (50 years after Barrie's death, the then-current copyright term). In 1988, Callaghan moved an amendment to the Copyright Designs & Patents Act, then under consideration in the House of Lords, to grant the hospital a right to royalty in perpetuity despite the lapse of copyright, and it was passed by the government.

During the 1980s, Lord Callaghan supported the work of the Jim Conway Memorial Foundation (JCF), a registered educational charity. He gave the foundation's inaugural memorial lecture in 1981 and took the chair for a JCF symposium in 1990, being the final event of that ten-year lecture series.

Tony Benn recorded in his diary entry of 3 April 1997 that during the 1997 general election campaign, Callaghan was telephoned by a volunteer at Labour headquarters asking him if he would be willing to become more active in the party. According to Benn:One young woman in her mid-twenties rang up Jim Callaghan and said to him on the phone, "Have you ever thought of being a bit more active in politics?" So Callaghan said, "Well I was a Labour Prime Minister – what more could I do?"

Personal life

Callaghan's interests included rugby (he played lock for Streatham RFC before the Second World War), tennis and agriculture. He married Audrey Elizabeth Moulton, whom he had met when they both worked as Sunday School teachers at the local Baptist church, in July 1938 and had three children – one son and two daughters.

Margaret, Baroness Jay of Paddington, who married first Peter Jay and later Professor Mike Adler;

Julia, who married Ian Hamilton Hubbard and settled in Lancashire;

Michael, who married Jennifer Morris and settled in Essex.

In 1968, Callaghan purchased a farm in Ringmer, East Sussex, and in his retirement he and his wife commenced full time farming there.

Although there is much doubt about how much belief Callaghan retained into adult life, the Baptist nonconformist ethic was a profound influence throughout all of his public and private life. It has been claimed that Callaghan was an atheist, who lost his belief in God while he was working as a trade union official. His son Michael Callaghan disagrees: "My father, Jim Callaghan, was brought up as a practising Baptist and as a young man was a Sunday school teacher. As a young man embracing socialism, he had difficulties reconciling his new beliefs with the teachings of his church, but he was persuaded to stay in his Baptist chapel. [...] Incidentally, the title of his autobiography is 'Time and Chance', a quote from Ecclesiastes 9:11."

Death

Callaghan died from lobar pneumonia, cardiac failure and kidney failure, on 26 March 2005. His death came one day before his 93rd birthday and 11 days after that of his wife of 67 years, who had spent her final four years in a nursing home due to Alzheimer's disease. Following her death, Callaghan moved into her former room at the nursing home in Burgess Hill, Sussex, where he spent his last days. He died as Britain's longest-lived former prime minister, having surpassed Harold Macmillan's record 39 days earlier and four months before the death of former prime minister Edward Heath.

Callaghan was cremated, and his ashes were scattered in a flowerbed around the base of the Peter Pan statue near the entrance to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, where his wife had previously served as chair of the board of governors.

His Order of the Garter Banner was transferred from St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, to Llandaff Cathedral in Cardiff after his death.

Historiography

His contribution and legacy are still contested. The left wing of the Labour Party considers him a traitor whose betrayals of true socialism laid the foundations for Thatcherism. They point to his decision in 1976 to allow the IMF to control the government budget. They accuse him of abandoning the traditional Labour commitment to full employment. They blame his rigorous pursuit of a policy of controlling income growth for the Winter of Discontent. Writers on the right of the Labour Party complained that he was a weak leader who was unable to stand up to the left. New Labour writers who admire Tony Blair identify Callaghan with the old-style partisanship that was a dead end, and which a new generation of modernisers had to repudiate.

Practically all commentators agree that Callaghan made a serious mistake by not calling an election in the autumn of 1978. Bernard Donoughue, a senior official in his government, depicts Callaghan as a strong and efficient administrator who stood heads above his predecessor Harold Wilson. The standard scholarly biography by Kenneth O. Morgan is generally favourable – at least for the middle of his premiership – while admitting failures at the beginning, at the end, and in his leadership role following Margaret Thatcher's victory. The treatment found in most textbooks and surveys of the period remains largely negative.

Historians Alan Sked and Chris Cook have summarised the general consensus of historians regarding Labour in power in the 1970s:

If Wilson's record as prime minister was soon felt to have been one of failure, that sense of failure was powerfully reinforced by Callaghan's term as premier. Labour, it seemed, was incapable of positive achievements. It was unable to control inflation, unable to control the unions, unable to solve the Irish problem, unable to solve the Rhodesian question, unable to secure its proposals for Welsh and Scottish devolution, unable to reach a popular modus vivendi with the Common Market, unable even to maintain itself in power until it could go to the country at the date of its own choosing. It was little wonder, therefore, that Mrs Thatcher resoundingly defeated it in 1979.