Troops Threat

THE CABINET CRISIS OF 1964

Harold Wilson's Labour government considered using troops to break a threatened docks strike.

A month after taking office Labour ministers were discussing the prospect of deploying more than 30,000 soldiers to keep open Britain's ports.

The Home Secretary , Sir Frank Soskice , told colleagues at a Cabinet meeting Wilson that they had a duty to maintain essential supplies if the dockers' pay dispute, which began under the previous Tory Government, developed into a strike. The strike was referred to arbitration