In memory of Denis Healey, saviour of the British economy

Denis Healey, who has died at the age of 98, never led the Labour Party – but it still owes as much to him as to any post-war politician. And not just because of his time at the Treasury. The statements released by Labour figures tonight scarcely do him justice. Of course, he was a “towering figure” – but he was much more than that. He saved the Labour Party from itself, and saved Britain from the worst of the Labour Party. And when the crunch came, he rose to the challenge: bringing expenditure reform more radical than any Tory Chancellor has been able to enact.

Major Denis Healey, addressing the 1945 Labour Party conference in uniform

As secretary of Labour’s International Committee, Maj. Healey was the expert who fashioned the arguments that kept unilateralism at bay in the 1950s. He was an authoritative and decisive defence secretary in 1964-70, fighting his party’s anti-nuclear and anti-American instincts. By his own admission, he made a disastrous and start to his long stint at the Treasury.