Heath In Fighting Mood

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 17

Heath In Fighting Mood

(N.Z .P.A .-Reuter—Copyright)

BRIGHTON, Oct. 8.

The British Conservative Party leader (Mr Edward Heath) apparently plans a show of aggressive leadership when the party'opens its annual conference today.

He was in fighting snood in a speech last night to the party managers, warning them that the Labour Government was likely to call a General Election within 12 months.

Mr Heath, who gave an indication of what a Conservative government would do about three of the most contentious public issues in Britain today immigration, capital punishment and Rho-desia-appeared to be rallying after renewed rumblings about his leadership and signs of a slight dip in Conservative popularity among the electors.

A challenge to Mr Heath may come from an aspirant to the leadership, Mr Enoch Powell, the Right-wihger who has moved into outright opposition to the official party stand on British entry into the Common Market,, also a key conference issue.' A group of Young Conservatives today lashed the party, describing it as “undemocratic” and “hidebound.” The critics, from the Greater London Y.C. branch, which has 10,000 members, issued an 80-page .pamphlet urging the leadership to change the party’s “secret society” atmosphere. They attacked its internal structure, but made it clear that this was not an onslaught on Mr Heath or on the party’s policies.

A Gallup poll survey published in today’s “Daily Telegraph” shows a continued decline in popular support for Mr Heath’s leadership. It was made after last week’s Labour

Party conference, also held in Brighton, and it shows that Mr Harold Wilson’s stock as Prime Minister has risen to equal the highest rating he has had for two years. Mr Heath told the party managers , last night that the Tories would fight the election on his already-pro-claimed policy of greater curbs on immigration. He proposed that controversy over capital punishment, which was abolished experimentally in Britain until 1971, should be taken out of politics until the facts had been fully and dispassionately analysed. On the Rhodesia issue, Mr Heath said: “When we are returned to office, we shall make one further attempt, as we are bound in duty to do, to reach a settlement with the Smith regime; and that is the policy on which we shall fight the election.” Recently, Mr Heath has been confronted by party waverings on the Common

Market issue, and has taken a more qualified stance, though he says he personally still thinks it is the right thing for Britain to get into Europe. The issue has caused divided feelings in both major parties. Last week, the Labour Party hedged its bets on Europe, passing a resolution approving entry with adequate safeguards. Ah article published this week in a Left-wing Conservative publication, “Crossbow,” expresses fear that the European problem may split the party the way tariff reform divided it at the turn of the century. The Common Market will be debated tomorrow, the second day of the four-day gathering, which Mr Heath will close on Saturday with a major speech. Today, the conference will discuss defence, housing, industrial relations, education, Northern Ireland, and social security.