Claim: The United Kingdom has had the same deputy prime minister from 1962 until 1979.
Evidence: Rab Butler held the post in 1962–63 under Harold Macmillan, but was passed over for the premiership in favour of Alec Douglas-Home. During Edward Heath's government (1970–1974), the office of Deputy Prime Minister was not formally used. However, in his Memoirs, Home Secretary Reginald Maudling described himself as Deputy Prime Minister under Heath from 1970 to his resignation in 1972 over the Poulson affair. William Armstrong, head of the Civil Service, was also called Heath's Deputy Prime Minister. The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, Ted Short, was Leader of the House of Commons from 1974 to 1976 under Harold Wilson and often thought of as Deputy Prime Minister; he was referred to as such in the citation for being made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne. William Whitelaw was Margaret Thatcher's de facto deputy from 1979–1988, an unofficial position he combined with that of Home Secretary in 1979–1983 and Leader of the House of Lords after 1983.