Harold Wilson

Born in Huddersfield in 1916 to a politically active lower middle-class family, Wilson studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, then lectured there before entering Parliament in 1945. He rose fast in the Attlee government - Parliamentary secretary, Secretary for Overseas Trade, then President of the Board of Trade at Cabinet level - before Labour's 1955 defeat sent him to the Shadow Cabinet. When Hugh Gaitskell died in January 1963, Wilson won the leadership election and took Labour to a narrow win in 1964, then a bigger majority in 1966. His first government abolished capital punishment and theatre censorship, partially decriminalised male homosexuality, relaxed divorce laws, outlawed racial discrimination, and liberalised abortion - but chronic balance of payments trouble forced him to devalue the pound in 1967, and in 1969 he sent British troops into Northern Ireland, accelerating the Troubles.