It Is Healey vs. the Left

Only minutes after James Callaghan announced his resignation, Denis Healey rushed to stake his claim to the Labor Party leadership. Healey, 63, the candidate of the moderate right, certainly rates as the people's choice: a new public opinion poll shows him 33 percentage points ahead of his closest rival. But his mandate is less clear among Labor M.P.s, who will vote for one of several contenders. Abrasive and impatient, Healey has alienated Labor's left, part of its right and even some centrist union leaders. Says a former Cabinet colleague: "Denis is like a Sherman tank blasting opposition out of the way."

Born in Mottingham and educated at Oxford's Balliol College, where he took a double first in classics and philosophy, Healey served as Defense Secretary (1964-70) and Chancellor of the Exchequer (1974-79). His bushy eyebrows, imposing girth and bare knuckle style make him a favorite target of cartoonists, who sometimes turn his teeth into fangs. "There's a Jekyll and Hyde aspect to him," says Tory Home Secretary William Whitelaw, using the caricaturists' horror-show imagery. "You sometimes get the impression that once Denis decides what is good for Britain and his party, he pursues it even if you have to lie and cheat along the way." Healey mistrusts ideology, and sees the job of government as mundanely doing what most people want-- trying to eradicate poverty, inflation, unemployment and other social ills. "These things aren't very exciting for visionaries," he says, "but trying to get them is not an ignoble thing to do."

Healey's intelligence and zest for combat should serve him well if he becomes Labor's candidate against Margaret Thatcher and the Conservatives. "No Tory frontbencher carries Healey's weight of punch," says Julian Critchley, an anti-Thatcher Tory M.P. "His brains, bellicosity and bloody-mindedness may be just what the doctor ordered for Labor."

Leading the left against Healey is Peter Shore, 56, the party spokesman on foreign affairs. Trained as a political economist at King's College, Cambridge, Shore was elected to the House of Commons in 1964 and later served as Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (1967-69), Trade (1974-76) and the Environment (1976-79). With hair that flops over his face, he is an attractive if low-key candidate. He owes his leftist credentials to his opposition to Britain's membership in the European Community. But he is also a passionate supporter of NATO and the Anglo-American alliance and opposes any form of unilateral disarmament. Says a friend: "Peter is a socialist who is not afraid to say he is British."

Others on the left would prefer Michael Foot, 67, a fidgety, white-maned journalist who was first elected to Parliament in 1945. Foot, a brilliant parliamentary debater, is personally popular and thus might be acceptable as a caretaker until Labor's electoral college can get organized. Another declared candidate is a long shot, former Agriculture Minister John Silkin, 57, who is also on the left.

Waiting anxiously in the wings is the radical left's idol, Tony Benn, 55, who will probably boycott the parliamentary balloting for the party leadership on the ground that it is less democratic than the proposed new electoral college. Cynics offer another reason: Benn would make a poor showing because even leftist colleagues are cool to him. If the electoral college is dominated by the far left and chooses Benn, Labor M.P.s would almost certainly move to elect their own leader. This dual system works well in West Germany. But in the acrimonious precincts of the British Labor Party, where the parliamentary leader would have the real power, it would probably bring chaos.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.