ABSTRACT
Michael Foot was elected Leader of the Labour Party in November 1979. He had difficulties asserting control over the intensely divided party. Foot was committed to left-wing causes like unilateral nuclear disarmament; he also supported withdrawal from the Common Market. On the critical issue of unilateral nuclear disarmament however, Aneurin Bevan made common cause with Hugh Gaitskill, to the consternation of Bevanites like Foot. Foot arrived at the helm of the Labour Party at a critical moment, facing problems both on his right and left. The crisis of the Labour Party mirrored a deeper crisis in English society. In 1960, the Scarborough congress of the Labour Party narrowly approved English renunciation of nuclear weapons. The Labour Party is caught in the difficult position of being a party that represents to a large extent the labor unions, within government, is obliged to take positions against labor unions.
