On This Day: Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell dies aged 56

JAN 18, 1963: Former Labour Hugh Gaitskell died aged 56 from a sudden attack of the rare disease lupus on this day in 1963 – and triggered one of the great “what ifs” in politics.

The Leader of the Opposition, who was fighting to reform his party in the way Tony Blair later did, has been described as the “greatest Prime Minister we never had”.

His death from lupus, a condition that often lies dormant but can attack any organ, opened a continuing debate over how different Britain would be if he had lived.

Some have argued that if Gaitskell had survived, the party might have avoided its 18 years out of government after Margaret Thatcher’s Tory victory in 1979.

A British Pathé newsreel described Gaitskell, whose party had been in opposition since 1951, as the “finest political brain since Lloyd George” and “sorely needed”.

It showed his wife Anna and political colleagues mourning his passing at his funeral at St John-at-Hampstead Church, near the former economist’s home in north London.

Not seen was his widely known mistress, Ann Fleming, a Tory socialite and the wife of philandering James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

Gaitskell, who was described in a 1963 Spectator magazine obituary as a “technocrat with a heart”, became politically active while studying at Oxford.

While he was deeply hostile to conservatism and wanted to reduce inequality, he also feared Marxism and believing fiscal responsibility was paramount.

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While Chancellor of the Exchequer he sparked a furious row when he introduced prescription fees to Labour’s recently created NHS in a bid to balance the budget.

It led to a host of Cabinet resignations – including his successor Harold Wilson - and triggered the 1951 general election, which Labour lost.

Britain boomed once again and the resurgent Conservatives persuaded people that Britain’s newfound prosperity during the 1950s was down to them.

And as in the 1980s – when Labour’s vote slumped to its lowest in the post-war era – many in the party feared it would never get back into government.

In 1955, Gaitskell took over the leadership from Clement Attlee and set to work to rebuild Labour’s tarnished reputation.

Among his successes, he helped oust Tory Prime Minister Anthony Eden after opposing Britain and France’s invasion of Egypt during the 1956 Suez Crisis.

But, despite being tipped to win, Labour lost another election in 1959.

Gaitskell believed the solution to Labour’s problems would be scrapping Clause IV from the party’s constitution, which committed it to further nationalisation.

He did not oppose the state running certain industries, but he believed private enterprise needed to play a part in the economy.

He also thought Clause IV was a vote loser with an electorate including a growing middle class and a shrinking working class, which was Labour’s traditional base.

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But rival Harold Wilson, had resigned from the Cabinet in 1951, led a left-wing faction that successfully halted the reform finally adopted by Blair in 1994.

Yet Gaitskell was able to weather the division and helped his party to a big lead in the polls.

After his death, Wilson became leader and – helped by the Profumo Scandal over a Tory minister who lied about his affair with the mistress of an alleged Soviet spy – he won the 1964 election.

He served as PM for a total of 12 years, during which his government introduced social reforms such as legalised abortions and abolished the death penalty.

But he failed to address public concern over Labour’s economic management – and was notably forced into the humiliating 1967 devaluation of the pound.

He also failed to confront fears over growing trade union power, which was among the biggest reasons the Tories won power three years after Wilson’s 1976 resignation.

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Labour waited more than a decade for another “moderniser” to lead the party, although Blair refused to mention the notoriously divisive Gaitskell as an influence.

Yet many believe Blair – and indeed Thatcher – would not have played their decisive roles if Gaitskell had lived and won the 1964 election.

Shortly before the 1997 Labour landslide, Gaitskell’s biographer Brian Brivati wrote: “Essentially Tony Blair is playing catch-up to a revolution in political economy instigated from the right.”