however, resulted in a wide margin of victory for the 'Yes' campaign. In 1976, Wilson stood down as prime minister, and in the resulting leadership election, Atkins helped organise left-winger Tony Benn's campaign. At the time, the leadership was voted on solely by the Parliamentary Labour Party. Benn came fourth on the first ballot with 37 votes, and withdrew from the contest, which was won by the more moderate Jim Callaghan, who thus became prime minister. According to The Guardian, "Atkins never sought high political office and it was never offered – he settled for being a constituency MP." In 1979, following a vote of no confidence in the Labour government, another general election was held. The party lost on a decisive swing to the Conservatives, who won a comfortable majority. In a tight result which saw two recounts, Atkins was defeated by the (unrelated) Conservative candidate Robert Atkins, who won by just 29 votes (0.1%). Despite his name being mentioned in connection to winnable seats, Ronald Atkins did not stand for election to Parliament again. Outside Parliament In between his two terms in Parliament, Atkins stood for election to Preston City Council's Ward No. 5 (Preston: Ribbleton) in 1973. He won a seat, serving until 1976, by which time he had returned to the House of Commons. Following the loss of his parliamentary seat in 1979, Atkins stood for the Park ward in Preston, which he won comfortably. He supported Preston Polytechnic becoming Lancashire Polytechnic, which took place in 1984. His ward was abolished in boundary changes for the 1990 elections, and he instead stood in Avenham ward, which covered the central area of the town. The new boundaries meant that the whole council was up for election, rather than in thirds, as usually happened. In the multi-member ward, Atkins topped the poll, winning more votes than the two Labour candidates elected alongside him. In 1992, full university status was awarded to the Lancashire Polytechnic he had first lobbied for as Preston Polytechnic. That year, it became the University of Central Lancashire, which he had been "a powerful voice for". In 2002, the next set of boundary changes saw Atkins' ward abolished again, with him instead standing in the Town Centre ward, and receiving more votes than the two Labour candidates who were also elected. In 2006, a year which saw poor performances by Labour in the local elections,