Macmillan planned to break the news of his impending dismissal to Lloyd, but Butler leaked it to the press first – the news appeared in the ""Daily Mail"" on the morning of 12 July. 12 July was also the day of the Leicester North East by-election, and Cabinet were due to discuss incomes policy. At the by election the Conservative share of the vote dropped from 48.1% in 1959 to 24.2%. That evening Lloyd was sacked from the government and returned to the backbenches, after a 45 minute meeting which Macmillan described as "a terribly difficult and emotional scene". Next morning, 13 July, Macmillan carried out the rest of his changes after hearing, from Lord Home, that Lloyd had tried in vain to get John Hare, Minister of Labour, to resign in protest. He sacked a third of his Cabinet in a brutal reshuffle which came to be known as the "Night of the Long Knives". Macmillan later claimed that he had intended to postpone the full reshuffle until the autumn.