James Callaghan was a British Labour politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1976 - 1981). Callaghan is the only British politician in history to serve in all four of the great offices of state, Chancellor (1964 - 1967), Home Secretary (1967 - 1970) and Foreign Secretary (1974 - 1976). Callaghan subsequently called a snap general election in October 1978, which saw labour returned with a small majority.