How Harold Wilson helped shape modern Britain - Ian Swanson

Harold Wilson was prime minister from 1964 until 1970 and from 1974 until 1976. Picture: Central Press/Getty Images. | Getty Images

Harold Wilson - who died 30 years ago, on May 23, 1995 - was not always appreciated and sometimes maligned as a wily operator .....

But political leaders as diverse as Keir Starmer, Ed Miliband and Alex Salmond are said to have recognised him as a politician whose example they could learn from.

Harold Wilson was prime minister from 1964 until 1970 and from 1974 until 1976. Picture: Central Press/Getty Images. | Getty Images

After working as an economist and statistician in the civil service, Wilson became an MP in the 1945 Labour landslide at the end of the Second World War. And two years later, at 31, he became the youngest Cabinet minister in the 20th century.

He led Labour to a narrow victory in 1964 after 13 years of Tory rule, which ended in a mire of sleaze and scandal, and secured a much bigger majority two years later. With his trademark pipe and Gannex raincoat and his eagerness to harness the "white heat of technology", Wilson was seen as a man of the people for the modern age.

And his government did indeed help to shape an updated Britain.

In the 1960s, racial discrimination was rife, not least when it came to housing or employment. Wilson's government passed two Race Relations Acts to outlaw such practices.

Women were typically paid less than men and the government passed equal pay legislation to tackle the injustice.

Wilson took a personal interest in setting up the Open University to make higher education accessible for all.

And Labour moved the education system in England away from dividing children between grammar and secondary modern schools based on the 11-plus exam towards comprehensive schools.

There was legislation to increase tenants' protection from eviction and appoint officials to assess fair rents.

Safety measures taken for granted nowadays were brought in under Wilson - namely, the breathalyser and the requirement for cars to be fitted with seatbelts.

And the government also passed or helped to pass legislation to legalise abortion, abolish hanging, liberalise divorce laws and decriminalise homosexual acts between two consenting adults in private.

And Wilson kept Britain out of the Vietnam war despite American pressure for UK troops to join the conflict.

After losing in 1970, he went on to win two elections in 1974 and stepped down in 1976.

Three decades after his death, Harold Wilson deserves to be remembered as a skilled and successful prime minister who made a positive and lasting difference.