In the reshuffle Butler lost the Home Office (although he kept the Central Africa Department) but at last received the formal titles of Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State. At this point Macmillan told him that he was still his most likely successor as Prime Minister. However, Macmillan used the occasion to promote younger men such as Lord Hailsham (in charge of negotiating the Test Ban Treaty), Reginald Maudling (Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a remit to reinflate the economy going into the next General Election) and Edward Heath (in charge of the EEC entry negotiations), from amongst whom he hoped to groom an alternative successor. By 1962, Howard writes, "Macmillan had come to regard Rab as a trout that he could tickle and play with at will". Butler told Tony Benn in February 1963 that he expected Macmillan to stay on and fight the next general election, which could occur no later than 1964. During the Profumo affair, in which Macmillan's government almost fell, Butler received a visit from Martin Redmayne (Chief Whip) and Lord Poole (Party Chairman) asking whether he would, in principle, be willing to serve in a Maudling government. Butler received a visit from Maudling in which the latter obtained a mutual promise that they would, if necessary, agree to serve under each other, Maudling believed that he had gained an advantage in obtaining the agreement of Butler, his senior, to serve under him if necessary. However, William Rees-Mogg claimed in "The Times" on 28 July that Butler led Maudling by 2:1 in the Cabinet although Maudling had more support amongst backbench MPs. On 16 July, the Lords amended the Peerage Bill then passing through Parliament, so that any existing peer could disclaim his peerage within twelve months of the bill becoming law, not after the next general election, as originally planned. The Peerage Act 1963 received Royal Assent on 31 July, thus allowing Lords Hailsham and Home to become potential candidates for the succession. By mid-1963, Butler had largely come to believe (or so he alleged in a 1966 interview) that he was probably too old for the leadership, and that when Macmillan resigned the job would go to a younger man. This may explain why Butler did not put up all that much of a fight for the leadership that autumn, although in fact Home, the eventually successful candidate, was almost exactly the same age as Butler, and both men were substantially younger than Macmillan himself had been when he first entered 10 Downing Street.