 As Leader of the Opposition , Douglas @-@ Home persuaded Macleod and Powell to rejoin the Conservative front bench . Within weeks of the general election Butler retired from politics , accepting the post of Master of Trinity College , Cambridge together with a life peerage . Douglas @-@ Home did not immediately allocate shadow portfolios to his colleagues , but in January 1965 he gave Maudling the foreign affairs brief and Heath became spokesman on Treasury and economic affairs . There was no immediate pressure for Douglas @-@ Home to hand over the leadership to a member of the younger generation , but by early 1965 a new Conservative group called <unk> ( Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism ) had discreetly begun to call for a change . Douglas @-@ Home either did not know , or chose to ignore , the fact that Heath had made a donation to <unk> . He decided that the time was coming for him to retire as leader , with Heath as his preferred successor . 
