Edward Heath quotes

Edward Heath was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Known for taking the UK into the European Economic Community, his leadership was marked by significant political and economic challenges. He played a major role in shaping Britain's place in Europe during the 1970s. Here are 68 of his quotes:

You mustn't expect prime ministers to enjoy themselves. If they do, they mustn't show it – the population would be horrified.

Edward Heath

We will have to embark on a change so radical, a revolution so quiet and yet so total, that it will go far beyond the programme for a parliament.

Edward Heath

Do you know what Margaret Thatcher did in her first Budget? Introduced VAT on yachts! It somewhat ruined my retirement.

Edward Heath

There's a lot of people I've encouraged and helped to get into the House of Commons. Looking at them now, I'm not so sure it was a wise thing to do.

Edward Heath

I think Churchill would be appalled at the Thatcher government.

Edward Heath

I have always had a hidden wish, a frustrated desire, to run a hotel.

Edward Heath

We have had eight years of consistent and persistent attacks on those four years in government - and on me, personally, but that does not matter - by people who were collectively responsible for those four years.

Edward Heath

This was a secret meeting on a secret tour which nobody is supposed to know about. It means that there are men, and perhaps women, in this country walking around with eggs in their pockets, just on the off-chance of seeing the Prime Minister.

Edward Heath

Whatever the lady does is wrong. I do not know of a single right decision taken by her.

Edward Heath

In excluding me from the shadow cabinet, Margaret Thatcher has chosen what I believe to be the only wholly honest solution and one which I accept and welcome.

Edward Heath

The historic role of the Conservative Party is to use the leverage of its political and diplomatic skills to create a fresh balance between the different elements within the state at those times when, for one reason or another, their imbalance threatens to disrupt the orderly development of society.

Edward Heath

The time has come to speak out. Britain is now locked in a vicious spiralling interest rates...The net result of completing the vicious circle is that prices have increased, the rate of inflation has gone up, the money supply has increased, unemployment has gone up, the rate of bankruptcies has increased, the industrial base has been further eroded, the Government's borrowing requirement has increased and as a result there is more pressure to raise interest rates yet again, to be followed inevitably by the same vicious circle. It is this that must be broken.

Edward Heath

He is not mad in the least. He's a very astute person, a clever person.

Edward Heath

No one can deny that today the major cause of the inflation from which we are suffering is the excessive wage demands... It is the responsibility of an employer, direct or indirect...if they go their own way and accede to irresponsible wage demands which damage their own firms and create a loss of jobs for those who work in them, then the Government are certainly not going to step in and rescue them from the consequences of their own actions.

Edward Heath

To return to the question of strategy... The Falkland Islands are unlikely to cause a major explosion.

Edward Heath

We may be a small island. We're not a small people... For the last six years the Government of this country...have let us be treated as second rate. They even plan for us to stay second rate. Because that's what Labour policies mean... Now I don't intend to stand by and see this happen... Do you want a better tomorrow? ... That's what I will work for with all my strength and with all my heart. I give you my word and I will keep my word.

Edward Heath

A tragedy for the party. He's got no ideas, no experience and no hope.

Edward Heath

Robin Day: But how low does your personal rating, among your own supporters, have to go before you consider yourself a liability to the party you lead? Edward Heath: Well, popularity isn't everything. In fact it isn't the most important thing. What matters is doing what you believe to be right, and that's what I've always tried to do and I shall go on doing. The question doesn't arise.

Edward Heath

If there are any who believe that immigrants to this country, most of whom have already become British citizens, could be forcibly deported because they are coloured people...then that I must repudiate, absolutely and completely.

Edward Heath

It was wildly exciting. It certainly wasn't the highest feeling I've ever had, but it was one of them. In those days, security was not as good as today. Just afterwards, some chap was able to get at me and stab the back of my neck with a cigarette. It wasn't very pleasant.

Edward Heath

The miners' leaders have said more than once that they are confronting the Government, not the National Coal Board. I believe they may not yet have fully understood the implications of this approach. For it is just not the government-it is the expressed will of the elected representatives of the people in Parliament. That is the main difference between the dispute in 1972 and the dispute in 1973 and I believe that it will prove decisive. For the authority of the elected Parliament is the cornerstone of our democracy, and is recognized as such by the overwhelming majority of people in this country.

Edward Heath

Government, management and unions...have now...jointly embarked for the first time in Britain, on the path of working out together how to create and share the nation's wealth for the benefit of all the people. It is an offer to employers and unions to share fully with the Government the benefits and the obligations involved in running the national economy.

Edward Heath