 At the February 1974 general election the Heath government was narrowly defeated . Douglas @-@ Home , then aged 71 , stepped down at the second election of that year , called in October by the minority Labour government in the hope of winning a working majority . He returned to the House of Lords at the end of 1974 when he accepted a life peerage , becoming known as Baron Home of the Hirsel , of Coldstream in the County of Berwick . 
