Healey’s term at the Treasury was marked by constant crises, as the post-war consensus broke down and Britain’s lack of competitiveness in international markets was exposed. Yet Healey himself emerged from his ordeal with a great deal of personal credit because, as a Labour Chancellor, he was prepared to challenge a lot of ‘sacred cows’.

Battling the twin problems of inflation and unemployment, Healey had to resort to the now traditional deflationary tactics of prices and incomes controls and cuts in public spending, made more difficult by the fact it was not only a minority Labour government which held office courtesy of the ‘Lib-Lab’ pact, but also because the Labour Party itself was in ideological turmoil.

Acrimonious battles with powerful trade union leaders on incomes policy and humiliation on public spending at the hands of the IMF added to his difficulties.

When he left office, inflation was 11%, unemployment was at 1.3 million and the public sector was borrowing a record £8.4 billion (over 4% of GDP), a marked deterioration in the UK’s economic fundamentals over five years.