ABSTRACT
Up to the mid-1980s the Cabinet arbitrated in any case in which the Chief Secretary and a departmental minister remained at loggerheads. The Prime Minister would confer with Treasury ministers and agree privately with them where the Cabinet will be urged to take a strong line and where the Chancellor might give some ground. Usually the Chancellor would have cultivated allies by agreeing early on in his bilaterals a generous allocation for one or two colleagues in the exchange for their support in Cabinet. Such bargains were repeatedly struck with the Defence Secretary, Healey, in Wilson’s early governments.
