Macmillan’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ was political genius (1962)

Sixty years ago today, Harold Macmillan carried out a cabinet reshuffle which became known as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’. He dismissed seven ministers – one-third of the cabinet – and replaced them with men who would soon become political heavyweights, such as Reg Maudling, Sir Keith Joseph and Bill Deedes. The Spectator’s leader that week said ‘the new administration is strong in intellect, experience, and vigour, with far more weight placed on younger men, and no concessions offered to those who think that a move to the right would save the day for the party and damn the consequences’.

The issue’s cover story was the following essay by Henry Fairlie, a Scotsman regarded as the first modern political columnist who later moved to the Washington Post and wrote one of the first critiques of Kennedy’s presidency. You can explore the whole issue and more here on our archive.

If the Conservative Party were not in its eleventh year of office, and if the Government were not in electoral difficulties, the new Cabinet would be acknowledged to be one of the strongest of this century and, more pertinently, almost the strongest which could be recruited from the present House of Commons.