Politics and 'Black Tuesday': Shifting Power in the Cabinet and the Decision to Withdraw from East of Suez, November 1967-January 1968

On 16 January 1968, the Wilson government announced that theBritish would swiftly depart from what had long been consideredone of the country's most vital strategic assets—the eastof Suez network. Traditional scholarship maintains that thedecision was driven by economic scarcity and the jolts thatrepeated financial crises gave to the body politic. Whilst economicpressures were real, this essay utilizes newly released governmentrecords to argue that political concerns played an even moreimportant role. The rising political power of reformers suchas Chancellor Roy Jenkins and their coalition-building effortsin the Cabinet must be included in any compelling explanationof the east of Suez decision.