February 2003
People

Barbara Castle's Cabinet Diaries

Former Cabinet minister and Labour party stalwart Baroness Barbara Castle, who died last year, aged 91, has left the University the original transcript of her Cabinet Diaries from the 1960s.

The diaries, which have since been published on condition that the copyright remains vested in her estate, detail the life of the former MP for Blackburn who grew up in Bradford and kept links with the city throughout her career.

Her feelings towards the city are shown by her decision to bequeath her diaries to its University, which, in 1966, awarded her an honorary doctorate (of Technology).

Barbara was elected MP for Blackburn in 1945 and retained the seat for 34 years. After the Labour victory in 1964, her career flourished as Prime Minister Harold Wilson put her in charge of the newly-created Ministry of Overseas Development and then later made her Minister of Transport in 1965.

In 1968 she became Secretary of State for Employment then Secretary of State for Social Services in 1974.

Barbara made many positive changes throughout her career, including the introduction of breathalysers, compulsory seat belts and national speed limits during her time as Minister of Transport and her work on equal pay legislation, redundancy payments, prices and incomes policy as Secretary of State for Employment. Then as Secretary of State for Social Services, she introduced payment of child benefit to mothers and worked on the State Earnings Related Pensions Scheme.

Her attempt to equalise services in the National Health Service with abolition of pay beds met with considerable opposition, and legislation was still in process when Harold Wilson resigned as prime minister in 1976. His successor, James Callaghan, dropped Castle from the cabinet, ostensibly on the grounds of age.

Barbara Castle was a Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989 and in 1990 she entered the House of Lords as Baroness Castle of Blackburn. She continued to campaign on a range of issues, particularly on pension rights.

She began to keep political diaries soon after she became a Cabinet minister and continued throughout her periods in office. She typed the volumes from her shorthand notes. Later she published the diaries as The Castle diaries 1974-76 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1980) and The Castle diaries 1964-70 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1984) and also drew heavily on them for her autobiography Fighting all the way (London : MacMillan, 1993).

Special Collections Librarian at the University Alison Cullingford, said: "The diaries, typed by Barbara herself, form an important primary source for history, government and politics in 1960s and 1970s Britain. They give immediate, detailed and candid insight into the many important government actions and often controversial issues, with which Barbara Castle was involved."

The diaries will be cared for and made available by Special Collections in the J.B. Priestley Library.Researchers wishing to study the diaries should contact the library to make an appointment. Telephone 01274 235256 or email special-collections@bradford.ac.uk.

11 February 2002

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