REMEMBEriNG JEREMY THORPE Jeremy Thorpe, leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976, died three weeks before Christmas 2014. The infamy of his political downfall in the late 1970s unfairly colours all else in his life. Thorpe was a stylish, progressive and popular politician, and under his leadership the Liberal Party won more votes than ever before at a general election and helped drive legislation taking Britain into the European Community through a divided Parliament. To commemorate his life for the Journal of Liberal History, Robert Ingham analyses Thorpe’s political legacy, while Ronald Porter takes a look at his life and times. 6 Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 REMEMBEriNG JEREMY THORPE Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberal legacy Coverage of Jeremy Thorpe’s Liberalism of nationalised indus- established the principle of target- death inevitably dwelt on the sen- tries and the mixed economy. The ing and the concomitant respon- sational end to his political career. Liberal Assembly witnessed an sibility on local associations to do Questions had been raised before annual battle between the two fac- what they were told, in the overall Thorpe’s resignation as Liberal tions; whichever side was better interests of the party, in order to leader in 1976 about his judgement, organised came out on top. The receive money. his finances, his choice of friends Liberal leadership, such as it was, As leader, Thorpe initially and his sexual orientation, in an did not intervene. The free-mar- seemed out of his depth. He inher- era when homosexuality had only keteers were making the running ited a party whose electoral for- recently been legalised. All of these in 1953 until Thorpe, still in his tunes were in reverse and which issues swirled around Thorpe’s early twenties, intervened to say contained numerous divergent trial for conspiring to murder Nor- that Liberal candidates in the south- strands of opinion. Just six Liber- man Scott. It hardly mattered that west would resign if the party dis- als were elected to the Commons Thorpe was acquitted. The trial claimed agricultural subsidies on at the 1970 election, a result which destroyed his reputation. He lost his doctrinal grounds. Thorpe swung seemed to show that the 1960s seat in Parliament and was unable the vote and helped change the cli- revival had been a temporary blip to rebuild his career. Tragically, he mate of opinion within the party in the party’s long-term decline. was afflicted by Parkinson’s Disease against the economic liberals. In After Thorpe’s first wife died in for his last thirty years. speaking out he demonstrated the June 1970 he appeared to lose inter- These issues have tended to pragmatism which was at the heart est in politics. And yet, his party eclipse Thorpe’s political career, of his political outlook. He wanted revived with a series of improbable which is worthy of reappraisal. to advance Liberal politics by win- by-election victories and Thorpe Thorpe is sometimes character- ning elections, not by running a was reinvigorated. He recognised ised as a showman, all style but debating club. that the leader of the third party no substance, an unworthy suc- Thorpe’s pragmatism was evi- needed to stand out from the crowd cessor to the intellectual rigour dent in the early 1960s when he in order to gain any media atten- and undoubted integrity of his developed the party’s first scheme tion. Combining an old-fashioned, predecessor, Jo Grimond. This is for targeting resources into win- debonair style of dress with the unfair. If Thorpe lacked an intel- nable seats. He pored over details newest campaigning techniques – lectual commitment to Liberal- of election results, party member- helicopters, hovercraft and the like ism he would surely have joined ship and the activities of local asso- – he got the coverage the Liberals the Conservatives, given his fam- ciations to decide where money needed. It was also significant that, ily background, where he may well should be focused – money he often under Thorpe’s leadership, the Lib- have ended up as a cabinet minister raised himself rather than via offi- erals stood in every constituency under Ted Heath. That he chose cial party channels. Local associa- in Great Britain for the first time. to plough the stony ground of the tions were surprised, and appalled, In February 1974 the Liberals had post-war Liberal Party demon- to be told that funding depended their best general election result for strates that Thorpe had more politi- on dropping a candidate they had over forty years (6,059,519 votes, a cal depth than is often appreciated. selected or on increasing member- total not surpassed until 2010, and Thorpe first became promi- ship by a certain amount. At first, 19.3 per cent of the vote), although nent in Liberal circles at the 1953 targeting was Thorpe’s initiative it still fell well short of the break- Assembly. The party was at that and he kept the party’s governing through the party hankered after. time in the midst of a lively debate committees in the dark. When they Later third-party leaders – mostly between strident free-marketeers found out what was happening Paddy Ashdown – have followed – some of whom later resurfaced as they were unimpressed but his view Thorpe in combining their own Margaret Thatcher’s most ardent prevailed. A number of the Liberal Jeremy Thorpe personal characteristics with inno- supporters – and social liberals, gains of the mid 1960s owed a debt speaking at vative and high-profile campaign- grappling with the implications for to Thorpe. More importantly, he Liberal Assembly ing to good effect. Journal of Liberal History 85 Winter 2014–15 7 REMEMBEriNG JEREMY thORPE Thorpe was a pragmatist and the inconclusive first election in Thorpe was family and friends, at about the a campaigner but his intellectual 1974. Details of precisely what hap- same time. Before he returned to input into the Liberal Party should pened remain murky and it seems a pragmatist Eton in 1943, he was reputed to not be overlooked. International- unlikely that Thorpe would have have had consenting sex with at ism was the most prominent aspect been offered the post of Home Sec- and a cam- least two young American truck of his Liberalism and he was a prin- retary, as has been suggested, given drivers. After Eton, Thorpe went cipled exponent of views which the rumours already circulating paigner but to Trinity College, Oxford, to were not intended to garner popu- about his private life. Crucially, read law. His aim was to get a law larity. He spoke out against apart- Thorpe could not proceed without his intellec- degree, then do the Bar Finals, be heid in South Africa at a time when the consent of his party, which he called to the Bar and use his career many British politicians preferred did not have. The similarities and tual input at the criminal bar as a stepping to remain silent. Although he was differences between the coalition into the Lib- stone to adoption for a winnable ridiculed for suggesting that the discussions in 1974 and 2010 deserve Liberal parliamentary seat. He was UK should bomb the railway line further exploration, but Thorpe eral Party never really interested in a legal by which Ian Smith’s renegade understood that the Liberals would career as such; a parliamentary regime in Rhodesia was supplying not be bounced into coalition. should not be career was always the ultimate goal, itself with oil, it was at least a pos- Thorpe’s political legacy to the just as it was for graduates who fol- sible way of enforcing sanctions. Liberal Party is complex but, look- overlooked. lowed after him such as Emlyn With air strikes against dissident ing beyond the obvious negatives, Hooson or Menzies Campbell. regimes now an established part of there are positive aspects which At the age of 30, Thorpe won the US and UK foreign policy, it can deserve recognition. Most signifi- seat of North Devon in the October now be seen that Thorpe was ahead cantly, it is difficult to see how any 1959 general election. It was about of his time. Thorpe also ensured of his rivals for the leadership in this time that the Devon Constabu- that the Liberals maintained the 1967 would have done better in the lary opened a file on Thorpe and pro-Common Market course first 1974 elections, which put beyond his ‘weekend liaisons’ with other set by Jo Grimond, voting for Brit- debate the question of whether the young men, in their twenties and ish entry amid stormy scenes in the party was declining or on the way early thirties, in a hotel in his con- Commons, during which punches up. stituency, not far from the seaside were thrown. Thorpe could have I will be developing these town of Ilfracombe. Well before sought narrow partisan advantage themes further in a chapter on Jer- the liberating Sexual Offences Act by compromising on the Common emy Thorpe’s leadership in the His- of 1967, this was a period when Market issue to bring down the tory Group’s forthcoming book on homosexuality was still a crime, Heath Government, but he was not Liberal leaders, due for publication punishable by imprisonment. prepared to do so. in autumn 2015. Thorpe soon became a good, Thorpe was also the first Liberal and very witty, debater in the leader for over twenty years to be Robert Ingham is a political writer and House of Commons. He first came offered a seat in government, after Biographies Editor of the Journal of to the public’s attention after Ian Liberal History.