Edward Heath the Liberal Party. Despite losing a second general election in October that year, he vowed to continue as leader of his party. In February 1975, Margaret Thatcher challenged and defeated him to win the leadership. Returning to the backbenches, Heath became an active critic of Thatcher's leadership. He remained a backbench MP until retiring at the 2001 election, serving as the Father of the House for his last nine years in Parliament. Outside politics, Heath was a world-class yachtsman and a talented musician. He died in 2005, aged 89. He is one of only four British prime ministers never to
Racism in the UK Conservative Party Griffin, was sacked from the party due to his support for his son's far-right British National Party. Griffin claimed to have rank and file Tory support for his views, which included financial subsidies for "the coloured folk" to leave the UK. This, combined with Conservative MP John Townend's claim that immigrants were "undermin[ing]" the purity of Britain's "homogeneous Anglo-Saxon society" and were causing a rise in crime rates across the UK led Conservative MP Andrew Lansley to say that there was "endemic racism in the Tory party". As editor of "The Spectator", Boris Johnson was strongly criticised for allowing columnist