He trained as a lawyer before entering politics as a socialist. Gradually moving to the right, he was Prime Minister (1931–32 and 1935–36) but was best known as Foreign Minister (1934, 1935–36), when he was the co‐author of the unsuccessful Hoare–Laval pact for the settlement of Mussolini’s claims to Ethiopia. He fell from power soon after, but after France’s defeat in 1940 he became chief minister in the Vichy government. He advocated active support for Hitler, drafting labour for Germany, authorizing a French fascist militia, and instituting a rule of terror. In 1945 he was tried and executed in France.