Home, whom she knew well socially, to Butler, although that did not influence the decision. The Palace knew that Home could not form a government without Butler serving, although Home himself later said that he could have formed a government without Butler but not without Maudling. Some, including Macmillan, argued that Butler's vacillation was further proof of his unfitness to be Prime Minister. Lord Poole commented that "if you had seen him yesterday morning, dithering about in a gutless sort of way, you would not want him to be Prime Minister of this country. I was quite appalled, quite disgusted". Butler later alleged in a letter to The Times that not to have served might have led to a Labour government; the suggestion was later dismissed as absurd by Wilson himself. Butler later described Home as an "amiable enough creature". He was motivated by his knowledge of Robert Peel and the split over the Corn Laws. He later told Elizabeth Longford that it was "the supremely unforgettable political lesson of history.... I could never do the same thing in the twentieth century, under any circumstances whatever". Powell and Macleod refused to serve under Home. Butler had planned to make Macleod Chancellor of the Exchequer and discussed the names of economists who could be asked to advise. Butler was less devastated than in 1957, as this time, it was largely a voluntary abnegation. In a BBC radio interview in 1978, he discussed that in 1963, he had been passed over in favour of a "terrific gent", not a "most ghastly walrus". Home and even Macmillan himself in the 1980s later conceded that it might have been better if Butler had become leader. The episode of Home's elevation was a public relations disaster for the Conservatives, who decided to elect their next leader (Edward Heath in 1965) by a transparent ballot of MPs. Foreign Secretary under Douglas-Home Home appointed Butler Foreign Secretary but he lost the title of Deputy Prime Minister. Macmillan, trying to control events from his sickbed, had urged Home to appoint Heath as Foreign Secretary but conceded that allowing Butler to have the position that he had always coveted might be a necessary price for his agreeing to serve. Macleod's article in The Spectator of 17 January 1964 in which he claimed that the leadership had been stitched up by a "Magic Circle" of Old Etonians damaged Macleod in