After the Great Train Robbery in August 1963, Bevins was criticised for laxity in security as the robbery had happened on a mail train. He moved to increase security, but resisted calls to have armed police guarding the trains. That October, Bevins was shocked at the choice of Sir Alec Douglas-Home as the new Prime Minister (to replace Macmillan), as he thought Douglas-Home was part of the upper-class traditional leadership of the Conservatives who would find it difficult to win support from the electorate.