Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

=== Appointment ===
In 1960 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, [[Derick Heathcoat-Amory]], insisted on retiring.<ref>Ramsden John. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30760, "Amory, Derick Heathcoat, first Viscount Amory (1899–1981)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 28 April 2012 {{Subscription required}}</ref> Macmillan agreed with Heathcoat-Amory that the best successor at the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] would be the current Foreign Secretary, [[Selwyn Lloyd]].<ref>Thorpe (1997), pp. 205–206</ref>  In terms of ability and experience the obvious candidate to take over from Lloyd at the Foreign Office was Home,<ref name=dnb/> but by 1960 there was an expectation that the Foreign Secretary would be a member of the House of Commons. The post had not been held by a peer since [[Lord Halifax]] in 1938–1940; Eden had wished to appoint Salisbury in 1955, but concluded that it would be unacceptable to the Commons.<ref>Dutton, p. 33</ref>

[[File:Sir Edward Heath.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Edward Heath]], Home's deputy at the Foreign Office. They later served in each other's cabinets.]]
After discussions with Lloyd and senior civil servants, Macmillan took the unprecedented step of appointing two Foreign Office cabinet ministers: Home, as Foreign Secretary, in the Lords, and Edward Heath, as [[Lord Privy Seal]] and deputy Foreign Secretary, in the Commons. With British application for admission to the [[European Economic Community]] (EEC) pending, Heath was given particular responsibility for the EEC negotiations as well as for speaking in the Commons on foreign affairs in general.{{Sfnp|Hutchinson|1980|pp=76–77}}

==== Objection at appointment ====
The opposition Labour party protested at Home's appointment; its leader, [[Hugh Gaitskell]], said that it was "constitutionally objectionable" for a peer to be in charge of the Foreign Office.<ref name=pike462/> Macmillan responded that an accident of birth should not be allowed to deny him the services of "the best man for the job&nbsp;– the man I want at my side".<ref name="pike462">Pike, p. 462</ref> Hurd comments, "Like all such artificial commotions it died down after a time (and indeed was not renewed with any strength nineteen years later when [[Margaret Thatcher]] appointed another peer, [[Lord Carrington]], to the same post)".<ref name=dnb/> The Home–Heath partnership worked well. Despite their different backgrounds and ages&nbsp;– Home an [[Edwardian]] aristocrat and Heath a lower-middle class meritocrat raised in the inter-war years&nbsp;– the two men respected and liked one another. Home supported Macmillan's ambition to get Britain into the EEC, and was happy to leave the negotiations in Heath's hands.<ref name=dnb/>