Callaghan, (Leonard) James, Baron

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Callaghan, (Leonard) James, Baron (1912– ) British statesman, prime minister (1976–79). Callaghan entered Parliament in 1945, and succeeded Harold Wilson as Labour Party leader in 1976. He is the only prime minister in British history to have held all three major offices of state: chancellor of the exchequer (1964–67), home secretary (1967–70) and foreign secretary (1974–76). Callaghan also has the dubious distinction of being only the second post-war prime minister never to have won a general election. His tenure was marked by delicate negotiations with David Steel in the Lib-Lab Pact, and strife with the trade unions which culminated in the ‘winter of discontent’. He was defeated by Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 general election and became a life peer in 1987.

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