The man tasked with keeping Labour in power

Fifty years ago, the MP for Bristol South was tasked with the job of holding the Labour Party's wafer-thin majority together in Parliament. Eugene Byrne tries to disentangle the facts from the many legends about Michael Cocks.

- Eugene Byrne

In March of 1976, Harold Wilson announced his intention of resigning as Prime Minister, and the following month he was succeeded by James Callaghan.

Callaghan's term of office would be defined by economic problems, inflation and by the demands of trade unions that were far more powerful than today.

Added to his woes was Labour's wafer-thin parliamentary majority, which meant that with many government measures, every last available Labour MP had to be persuaded one way or another, to vote on the government side.

Luckily for him, he had just the man for the job. He appointed the member for Bristol South Michael Cocks as his Chief Whip, the MP tasked with ensuring that every vote went the government's way.

The Chief Whip's job is a simple one, but one involving all manner of dark arts, whichever the party and whether they're in power or not. They monitor the activities and personal lives of their MPs, they want to know who has problems with, say, drink or gambling, or is having an illicit affair.

They're supposed to know where all the bodies are buried, and the human weaknesses and foibles of MPs. If a recalcitrant member has a squeaky-clean record, how can s/he be bought off? A pleasant foreign jolly, perhaps? A seat on a committee?

It's hardly any surprise then that stories of their deviousness and brutality psychological or physical abound. One Labour whip - not Cocks was in the habit of cornering difficult (male) members and grabbing them by the (male) members until tears came to their eyes. One victim of such treatment said that the only time he could remember such pain was when playing rugby at school.

These tales are all the more legendary because nowadays we like to think we live in an altogether more gentle society. But not back in the 1970s. As Harriet Harman is supposed to have said, "the idea that Michael Cocks could do pastoral support is like putting Dracula in charge of a blood bank".