Constituency : Plymouth Devonport 1923-45 ( from 1931 Liberal National, from 1942 National Independent )
Leslie took Devonport from the Tories at the second attempt in a three-cornered contest.
Leslie was the son of a Jewish insurance manager. He was educated at Clifton College and Oxford. He served in World War One reaching the rank of Major. He became a barrister and a journalist. He came a good second in 1922.
Leslie quickly made a reputation as a good speaker. He was on the right wing of the party and opposed co-operation with Labour.
Leslie held onto his seat against the odds in 1924 and strengthened his position in 1929. In 1931, after apparently toying with Mosley's New party, he allied with Simon , despite previous support for Lloyd George, and became a prominent Liberal National. He got 29 Liberal MPs to sign a memorial acquiescing in protectyion policies if deemed necessary. He crushed Labour in a straight fight that year. He became a junior minister at the Board of Trade and was promoted to Financial Secretary to the Treasury when Samuel's Liberals quit the government in 1932.
In 1934 Leslie became Minister of Transport . He made his name with the Road Traffic Act that year which introduced a speed limit of 30mph in built-up areas. He also re-wrote the Highway Code, introduced the driving test and, of course ,the Belisha beacon.
Leslie supported Edward VIII during the Abdication Crisis
In 1937, the incoming Neville Chamberlain promoted Leslie to Secretary of State for War which displeased anti-Semites in the Tory ranks. One MP Archibald Ramsay warned that he would "lead us to war with our blood-brothers of the Nordic race in order to make way for a Bolshevised Europe". At Chamberlain's prompting, Leslie followed the policy set by Liddell Hart of avoiding involvement in a continental land war and he was obliged to sack a number of generals who opposed him. He also sought to democratise the army and improve living conditions for soldiers .After the Munich crisis, he reversed this policy and began to build up a new territorial force. In March 1939 he introduced the Military Training Act which displeased Chamberlain who was still hoping to avoid war.
By 1940, Leslie's relations with General Gort, the commander of the B.E.F. had got so bad that Chamberlain was obliged to remove him. Gort's chief of staff recorded in his diary that the conflict was due to the contrast between "a great gentleman and an obscure, shallow-brained, charlatan, political Jewboy". The final conflict was over the slow rate of construction of pillboxes in France. Chamberlain was dissuaded from offering him Minister of Information by Halifax who said it was "inappropriate to have a Jew in charge of publicity" and Leslie refused to become president of the Board of Trade.
In 1942, Leslie resigned from the Liberal Nationals and sat as a National Independent. He briefly rejoined the government in 1945 as Minister for National Insurance. Despite neither the Tories nor the Liberal Nationals standing a candidate against him, he was defeated by Labour's Michael Foot in 1945.
Leslie then joined the Conservative party and was elected to Westminster City Council in 1945. He came second in Coventry South in 1950. In 1954 he became Baron Hore-Belisha.
Leslie was a humorous and engaging speaker and had considerable drive and energy. He was also nakedly ambitious, conceited and over-sensitive, once slapping a colleague for criticising his journalism. He also showed little consideration for the feelings of others.
In 1957 he suffered a fatal stroke while making a speech in Rheims and died aged 63.
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