Old records reveal police strike threat is nothing new

Dec 28 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Senior ministers in James Callaghan's Labour Government feared they would be brought down by a Merseyside-instigated police strike, files made public for the first time today show.

In 1977, there was a growing mood of militancy among leaders of the Police Federation, with fears that some members could be prepared to break the law banning the police from taking industrial action.

Papers released by the National Archives at Kew, west London, under the 30-year rule, show that Home Secretary Merlyn Rees warned that a police strike could destroy the Government just as the miners’ strike had brought down Edward Heath’s Tory Government in 1974.

A defiant Callaghan, however, declared that he would rather resign than give in to police demands for an inflation-busting pay rise.

Anger had been mounting within police ranks throughout the year after the Government had imposed a 5% annual increase, at a time when inflation had skyrocketed to 15%.

The Police Federation had come back with a fresh demand for a rise worth between 78% and 104% – smashing through the new 10% limit announced by ministers in a desperate bid to curb prices.

With crucial talks scheduled for October 27, Rees met senior police officers to ask their advice.

As he briefed a Cabinet committee on October 21, their unanimous view was that a 10% offer would provoke an “immediate showdown”.

In three areas, including Merseyside, there was a danger of all-out strikes, while other parts of the country such as London could see selective action such as bringing the roads to a standstill by refusing to perform traffic duties.

However, an immediate offer of 15% together with an inquiry into future police pay levels, the senior officers suggested, could just “do the trick”.

Rees was inclined to accept their advice, but Callaghan was having none of it.

In a tense phone call on October 24 – three days before the crucial meeting – he bluntly told Rees that “people would laugh” if they offered 15%.

According to a handwritten note of the call made by a No 10 official – marked Secret – Rees accepted, but warned that there was a real danger of a strike if they held to 10%.

“We do not want to let the police be our miners,” he told Callaghan.

The Prime Minister, however, brushed aside the strike threat, telling Rees that he was “certainly prepared to face one, and prepared to resign rather than give in to the threat of a strike”.

It could not, however, save Callaghan’s government from the wave of industrial unrest which was to engulf it the following year in the Winter of Discontent.

Ironically, the release of the documents comes at a time when the Police Federation is again demanding the right to strike, once more over pay.