years in parliament, they too had previously served as cabinet ministers. Shore had been in the House of Commons since 1964 and had held a number of ministerial appointments in the Wilson and Callaghan governments, also serving as Harold Wilson's Parliamentary Private Secretary between 1965 and 1966. He also had a reputation as "an inveterate anti-European" and had supported Foot's unsuccessful bid to become Labour leader in 1976. Silkin had first been elected in 1963 and had held various governmental roles including serving as Government Chief Whip from 1966 until 1969. Results The result of the first ballot of Labour MPs on 4 November was as follows: The result eliminated Shore and Silkin and meant Healey and Foot competed to win over their supporters. Although Healey enjoyed a clear lead, it was predicted that the final result would be narrow, with a majority of single figures reported to be likely. The second ballot, a run-off between Healey and Foot, was held six days after the first vote. Although political commentators had expected Healey to win, Foot emerged victorious by a margin of 10 votes in a surprise result. One suggested explanation for this outcome was that Foot's popularity as an MP meant that even his opponents within the party felt that he had a better chance of uniting Labour than Healey. Writing after Healey's death in 2015, David McKie argued that Labour MPs opted for Foot over "the combative Healey" as they wanted "a quiet life" at a time of internal party divisions, and also noted that the fact Healey had recently been involved in a dispute with Labour's left alienated both those who opposed his views, but also his sympathisers who felt that his actions had been damaging to the party. Anthony Howard, in an article published as an obituary of Healey in 2015 but written prior to Howard's own death in 2010, argued that Labour should have immediately changed its leader following its defeat in the 1979 general election. He implied that such a course of action would have brought the leadership to Healey. He further contended that by 1980 civil war had broken out in the party. That meant Healey, as the candidate of the right, lost support of those MPs who wanted "peace at any price" and the later founders of the SDP who, for "kamikaze reasons", desired Foot's election, which they hoped would provide the