Leonard James Callaghan Callaghan of Cardiff, Baron Callaghan of
Cardiff, Leonard James Callaghan, Baron, 1912–2005, British
statesman. He was first elected to Parliament as a Labour member
in 1945. As chancellor of the exchequer (1964–67), he introduced
extremely controversial taxation policies, including employment
taxes; he resigned when he was forced to accept devaluation of
the pound. Prime Minister Harold Wilson then appointed him home
secretary (1967–70), and in that post he ordered British troops
into Northern Ireland to deal with the rising violence there.
Callaghan also served as foreign secretary (1974–76). He
succeeded Wilson when the latter resigned as prime minister in
1976. Callaghan was by nature a moderate man, but his government
was plagued by inflation, unemployment, and its inability to
restrain trade unions' wage demands, and foundered after a
series of paralyzing labor strikes in the winter of 1978–79. In
the elections later in 1979, the Labour party lost to the
Conservatives, led by Mar