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Rab Butler: The Best Prime Minister We Never Had?
Despite his tenure of three of the four Great Offices of State, his popularity with the electorate and the truly revolutionary 1944 Education Act that bears his name, Richard Austen ‘Rab’ Butler narrowly missed out on the premiership on three separate occasions during his political career, earning him the sobriquet that has attached to his name ever since – The Best Prime Minister That Britain Never Had.
Banished from the inner council of the War Cabinet for his support of appeasement, Butler used his time as Education Minister wisely to emerge as the progressive face of the post-war Tory Party, going on to spend four years at the Treasury before the gradual but relentless eclipse of his career after Anthony Eden’s accession.
Was Butler an over-ambitious, condescending intellectual who had antagonised enough colleagues in the course of his career to ensure he would ultimately be thwarted? Or did he simply not want the leadership enough? Could this liberal Tory, in tune with the electorate, have led the Conservatives to victory in the 1964 election?
In this robust and insightful biography of the great nearly-man of British politics, bestselling author Michael Jago looks to answer whether Rab Butler really was ‘The Best Prime Minister We Never Had’.
Banished from the inner council of the War Cabinet for his support of appeasement, Butler used his time as Education Minister wisely to emerge as the progressive face of the post-war Tory Party, going on to spend four years at the Treasury before the gradual but relentless eclipse of his career after Anthony Eden’s accession.
Was Butler an over-ambitious, condescending intellectual who had antagonised enough colleagues in the course of his career to ensure he would ultimately be thwarted? Or did he simply not want the leadership enough? Could this liberal Tory, in tune with the electorate, have led the Conservatives to victory in the 1964 election?
In this robust and insightful biography of the great nearly-man of British politics, bestselling author Michael Jago looks to answer whether Rab Butler really was ‘The Best Prime Minister We Never Had’.
- GenresPolitics
642 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 20, 2015
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About the author
Michael Jago
9 books2 followersMichael Jago read Ancient History and Philosophy at University College, Oxford before settling in the USA in 1980. For fifteen years he ran an educational travel business, focusing on the battlefields of Western Europe. Previously a publisher and editor of a number of journals, he now specialises in biography.
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June 8, 2016
Very readable and accessible biography of the man responsible for the 1944 Education (Butler) Act that saw in the reforms and structure for modern education post-world war two. The author looks to answer the book's title and from early years and family connections to politics, universities and civil service at the highest levels in India the young Rab enters parliament.
The cast of characters is wide and with so many big names creates a fascinating view of Rab and history as we see him side with Chamberlain on appeasement and serve Churchill during wartime as Education secretary and lead the forming of Conservative party policy through his setting up and stewardship of the Conservative Research Department.
He fulfills cabinet and covering roles for Churchill and Eden and illness hits both and, with predictable Rab loyalty to his boss, sides with Eden on Suez, even though he is personally against the episode.
Under Macmillan he again serves and works on various initiatives including the Central African Federation. Recently widowed and overlooked - or sidestepped - for the premiership on Macmillan's stepping down with Douglas Home being invited to form a government by Her Majesty, Rab moves to the coveted Foreign Secretaryship, but time and appetite is gone and within 24 months he has left politics.
A life outside sees him take up Master of Trinity College Cambridge where Prince Charles becomes the first royal to gain a university degree under Butler's counsel and mentorship. The twilight years are covered quickly and demise through ill-health is quick with Butler dying in early 1982.
A thoroughly enjoyable book on a man who may have been prime minister but in the end fell at the last hurdle. The why is explained well in the author's summing up.
Recommended to all interested in pre-war and mid 20th century British politics.
The cast of characters is wide and with so many big names creates a fascinating view of Rab and history as we see him side with Chamberlain on appeasement and serve Churchill during wartime as Education secretary and lead the forming of Conservative party policy through his setting up and stewardship of the Conservative Research Department.
He fulfills cabinet and covering roles for Churchill and Eden and illness hits both and, with predictable Rab loyalty to his boss, sides with Eden on Suez, even though he is personally against the episode.
Under Macmillan he again serves and works on various initiatives including the Central African Federation. Recently widowed and overlooked - or sidestepped - for the premiership on Macmillan's stepping down with Douglas Home being invited to form a government by Her Majesty, Rab moves to the coveted Foreign Secretaryship, but time and appetite is gone and within 24 months he has left politics.
A life outside sees him take up Master of Trinity College Cambridge where Prince Charles becomes the first royal to gain a university degree under Butler's counsel and mentorship. The twilight years are covered quickly and demise through ill-health is quick with Butler dying in early 1982.
A thoroughly enjoyable book on a man who may have been prime minister but in the end fell at the last hurdle. The why is explained well in the author's summing up.
Recommended to all interested in pre-war and mid 20th century British politics.
Displaying 1 of 1 review