The Fight for the Tory Leadership - A contemporary chronicle

October 1963 saw a crisis unprecedented in the history of the Tory party. The background of events which led up to the crisis are recorded here and put into perspective: Orpington, the Night of the Long Knives in July 1962, the Cuba Crisis, the Common Market failure, the Radcliffe Tribunal, Mr Profumo's statement to the House of Commons and his resignation, the debate in the House of the Keeler Affair, the Test-Ban Treaty and the publications of the Denning Report. Contradictory reports in the newspapers - often in the same newspaper - led to widespread mystification on the part of the public both at home and abroad. In this book Randolph Churchill, writing from a ringside seat with life-long knowledge of most of the participants in the controversy, puts on the record all that he has been able to unravel of what has largely been veiled in obscurity. Mr Churchill does not claim to tell the last word about these events; historians wil ponder and dispute them for many years. But the roles played by Macmillan, Macleod, Maudling, Butler, Hailsham, Heath and Home are carefully analysed. And the conflict between their actions and interests is set out in a coherent story. This is the first serious attempt to assess what is so far known, in the history and at the same time be useful to all who will have to vote in the forthcoming General Election.