Editing William Whitelaw (section)

==Political career==
Following early defeats as a candidate for the constituency of [[East Dunbartonshire (UK Parliament constituency)|East Dunbartonshire]] in [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]] and [[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]], Whitelaw was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for [[Penrith and the Border]] at the [[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955 general election]] and represented that constituency for 28 years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 September 2018 |title=THE HOUSE OF COMMONS CONSTITUENCIES BEGINNING WITH "P" |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Pcommons1.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003150406/http://www.leighrayment.com/commons/Pcommons1.htm |archive-date=3 October 2018 |url-status=usurped |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref> He held his first government posts under [[Harold Macmillan]] as a [[Lord of the Treasury]] (government whip) between 1961 and 1962 and then under Macmillan and [[Sir Alec Douglas-Home]] was [[Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour]] between 1962 and 1964. After the Conservatives lost the 1964 election, Douglas-Home appointed Whitelaw as Opposition [[Chief Whip]].<ref> Eric Caines, ''Heath and Thatcher in Opposition'' (2017), p. 37.</ref> He was sworn of the [[Privy Council (United Kingdom)|Privy Council]] in January 1967.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=44210|date=30 December 1966|page=1}}</ref>

===Heath government, 1970–1974===
When the Conservatives returned to power in 1970 under [[Edward Heath]], Whitelaw was made [[Lord President of the Council]] and [[Leader of the House of Commons]], with a seat in the cabinet.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=45134|date=23 June 1970|page=6953}}</ref> Upon the imposition of direct rule in March 1972, he became the first [[Secretary of State for Northern Ireland]], serving in that capacity until November 1973. During his time in Northern Ireland he introduced [[Special Category Status]] for paramilitary prisoners. He attempted to negotiate with the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]], meeting its Chief of Staff [[Seán Mac Stiofáin]] in July 1972. The talks ended in an agreement to change from a seven-day truce to an open-ended truce; however, this did not last long. As a briefing for prime minister Heath later noted, Whitelaw "found the experience of meeting and talking to Mr Mac Stíofáin very unpleasant". Mac Stiofáin in his memoir complimented Whitelaw, saying he was the only Englishman ever to pronounce his name in Irish correctly.<ref>MacStiofáin, Seán ''Revolutionary in Ireland'', pp. 281–89.</ref>

In 1973, Whitelaw left Northern Ireland—shortly before the [[Sunningdale Agreement]] was reached—to become [[Secretary of State for Employment]], and confronted the [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|National Union of Mineworkers]] over its pay demands. This dispute was followed by the Conservative Party losing the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge74feb.shtml |title=BBC Politics 97 |access-date=28 January 2020}}</ref> Also in 1974, Whitelaw became a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]].<ref>{{cite web |date=16 June 2008 |title=COMPANIONS OF HONOUR |url=http://www.leighrayment.com/misc/compofhonor.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080926113647/http://www.leighrayment.com/misc/compofhonor.htm |archive-date=26 September 2008 |url-status=usurped |access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref>

===In opposition, 1974–1979===
Soon after [[Harold Wilson]]'s Labour Party returned to government, Heath appointed Whitelaw as deputy leader of the opposition and chairman of the Conservative Party. Following a second defeat in the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974 general election]], during which Whitelaw had accused Wilson of going "round and round the country stirring up apathy", Heath was forced to call a [[1975 Conservative Party leadership election|leadership election in 1975]]. Whitelaw loyally refused to run against Heath; however, and to widespread surprise, [[Margaret Thatcher]] narrowly defeated Heath in the first round. Whitelaw stood in his place and lost convincingly against Thatcher in the second round. The vote polarised along right–left lines, with in addition the region, experience and education of the MP having their effects.<ref>Philip Cowley and Matthew Bailey, "Peasants' Uprising or Religious War? Re-Examining the 1975 Conservative Leadership Contest", ''British Journal of Political Science'' (2000) 30#4 pp. 599–629 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/194287 in JSTOR]</ref>

Whitelaw managed to maintain his position as deputy leader until the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]], when he was appointed [[Home Secretary]]. In an unofficial capacity,<ref name="Hennessy" /> he also served as [[Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Deputy Prime Minister]] in Thatcher's new government.<ref name="Aitken" /><ref>Charles Moore, ''Margaret Thatcher: From Grantham to the Falklands'' (2013), p. 427.</ref>

===Home Secretary, 1979–1983===
Thatcher admired Whitelaw and appointed him Home Secretary in her first Cabinet, later writing of him "Willie is a big man in character as well as physically. He wanted the success of the Government which from the first he accepted would be guided by my general philosophy. Once he had pledged his loyalty, he never withdrew it".<ref>[[Margaret Thatcher]], ''The Downing Street Years'' (HarperCollins, 1993), p. 27.</ref> Thatcher was rumoured to have said that "every Prime Minister needs a Willie" and Whitelaw was seen as Thatcher's ''de facto'' [[Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Deputy Prime Minister]] between 1979 and 1988 (though he never formally held the office), to the extent that the then [[Cabinet Secretary (United Kingdom)|Cabinet Secretary]], [[Robert Armstrong, Baron Armstrong of Ilminster|Robert Armstrong]], said that had Thatcher been killed in the [[Brighton hotel bombing]], he thought he would have advised Queen [[Elizabeth II]] to send for Whitelaw.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Norton |first=Philip |date=2017 |title=A temporary occupant of No.10? Prime Ministerial succession in the event of the death of the incumbent |journal=[[Public Law (journal)|Public Law]] |pages=26, 28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Brazier |first=Rodney |title=Choosing a Prime Minister: The Transfer of Power in Britain |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=9780198859291 |location= |pages=80–81}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Norton |first=Philip |title=Governing Britain: Parliament, Ministers and Our Ambiguous Constitution |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=2020 |isbn=9-781526-145451 |pages=143}}</ref>

As home secretary, Whitelaw adopted a hard-line approach to law and order. He improved police pay and embarked upon a programme of extensive prison building. His four-year tenure in office, however, was generally perceived as a troubled one. His much vaunted "[[short, sharp shock]]" policy, whereby convicted young offenders were detained in secure units and subjected to quasi-military discipline, won approval from the public but proved expensive to implement.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} He was home secretary during the six-day [[Iranian Embassy siege]] in April–May 1980.

In March 1981, he approved [[Wolverhampton]] Metropolitan Borough Council's 14-day ban on political marches in the borough in response to a planned [[National Front (United Kingdom)|National Front]] demonstration there.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xgdfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4Y0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=6565,4462303&dq=wolverhampton+million+unemployment&hl=en |title=New Sunday Times – Google News Archive Search |website=news.google.com}}</ref>

[[Inner city]] decay, unemployment and what was perceived at the time as heavy-handed policing of [[ethnic minorities]] (notably the application of what some called the "notorious" [[sus law]]) sparked [[1981 England riots|major riots]] in London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds, and a spate of disturbances elsewhere. The [[Provisional IRA]] escalated its bombing campaign in England.

He contemplated resigning after an intruder broke into the Queen's bedroom in 1982 but was dissuaded from doing so. "We couldn't do without Willie," Margaret Thatcher reflected in later years. "He was a wonderful person."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ñ9Wc8kG_1vcs |title=Queen & Country pt3 |website=[[YouTube]] |date=23 May 2020 }}</ref>

===Leader of the House of Lords, 1983–1988===
Two days after the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]], Whitelaw received a [[hereditary peer]]age (the first created for 18 years) as '''Viscount Whitelaw''', of Penrith in the County of Cumbria.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=49394 |date=21 June 1983 |page=8199 }}</ref> Thatcher appointed him [[Lord President of the Council]] and [[Leader of the House of Lords]]. Lord Whitelaw faced many challenges in attempting to manage the [[House of Lords]], facing a major defeat over abolition of the [[Greater London Council]] within a year of taking over. However, his patrician and moderate style appealed to Conservative peers and his tenure is considered a success.{{citation needed|date=January 2012}}

During his period as her deputy and as Leader of the Lords, Thatcher relied on Whitelaw heavily; she famously announced that "every prime minister needs a Willie".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/lords/2003/jun/18/changes-to-government-departments#S5LV0649P0_20030618_HOL_105 |date=18 June 2003 |title=Changes to Government Departments (Hansard, 18 June 2003) |website=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref> He chaired the "[[star chamber]]" committee that settled the annual disputes between the limited resources made available by Treasury and the spending demands of other government departments. It was Whitelaw, in November 1980, who managed to dissuade Thatcher from going to [[Leeds]] to take charge of the [[Yorkshire Ripper]] investigation personally.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/mar/15/featuresreviews.guardianreview8 ''The Guardian'': "The Killing Suit"] – review of book ''Wicked Beyond Belief''.</ref>

===Resignation===
Following a stroke in December 1987, he felt he had no choice but to resign. [[Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale|Nicholas Ridley]] argued that Whitelaw's retirement marked the beginning of the end of the Thatcher premiership, as he was no longer around as often to give sensible advice and to moderate her stance on issues, or to maintain a consensus of support in her own Cabinet and parliamentary party.{{citation needed|date=January 2018}} He resigned from the Cabinet on 10 January 1988.<ref>{{cite web |last=Lion |first=Ed |date=10 January 1988 |title=Thatcher's No. 2 Cabinet minister resigns |url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/01/10/Thatchers-No-2-Cabinet-minister-resigns/4375568789200 |access-date=23 August 2021 |website=[[United Press International]]}}</ref>