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CAMBRIDGE MUSLIM COLLEGE

Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

Winston Churchill is one of the most iconic political figures of the 20th century,
particularly due to his effective leadership of the wartime coalition of 1939-1945. Yet,
despite his popularity, his Conservative party lost the first post-war election in 1945. In
this essay, I will examine the factors which have been cited by historians as leading to
this defeat and I will draw a conclusion with regards to which factors were most
instrumental to that end.
The analysts of the age were not expecting a Labour victory, although historians have
retrospectively largely regarded it as unsurprising.1
Although Churchill was popular personally as a wartime leader, polls showed that his
party was not. However, the polls were not taken seriously as there was still a vestige of
a sentiment that Labour was not fit to govern.
The factors which affected the 1945 election result can be divided into three categories:
long-term structural change in the electorate, the medium-term effect of war on political
attitudes, and the short-term effect of the election campaigns.
Long-term
The last election prior to 1945 was ten years earlier, owing to the fact that elections
were suspended during wartime. Although there had not been any recent change to the
franchise, the electorate of 1945 was starkly different to that of 1935 because of
younger people becoming eligible to vote in the intervening period. In 1945, one fifth of
voters were first-time voters.
These newly-eligible voters had lived all of their politically-conscious lives through a
formative period of unemployment and domestic unrest under Conservative rule. 61%
of first-time voters were in support of Labour, with feelings exacerbated by the Daily
Mirrors support of the same. According to Henry Pelling, most historians agree, the
partys victory was due primarily to the voters assessment of the past; it was the

Paul Adelman, The Rise of the Labour Party 1880-1945, (New York: Longman Inc., 1994), 88
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Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

Conservatives therefore who were blamed for pre-war unemployment, appeasement,


and the failure to rearm.2
Peter Hennessy opines, It was the party the electorate turned against the Party of
unemployment, the means test and appeasement rather than the Party leader of 1945
whom the Conservatives had spurned throughout the 1930s.3
Medium-term
The war itself played a significant role in public perception of the parties.
Neville Chamberlains advocacy of appeasement with Hitler, crucially to no avail,
tarnished the Conservatives image. The very party that pursued appeasement now had
a leader, in the form of Churchill, who was the spearhead of the war effort. Harold
Macmillan claimed, It was not Churchill who lost the 1945 election, it was the ghost of
Neville Chamberlain.4
On the other hand, Labour had been opposed to appeasement from the outset. In
addition, it was Labour who was most vociferous with regards to putting leading Nazis
to trial, the party distancing itself from its pacifist image from World War I.5
Churchill expected to win with a majority, partly by precedent of Lloyd-George who
retained his prime ministerial position after the First World War. However, from a
political perspective, Churchill should not have relied on this due to the fact that the
situation was different; the elections of 1918 were held within one month of an
unexpected victory, with ecstatic emotions running high. On the other hand, in the
Second World War, victory was assumed as early as 1942, providing ample time for
consolidation of public mood, and a long period for the parties to set out proposals for
post-war policy. On issues such as housing, health and employment, Labour was much

Henry Pelling, The 1945 General Election Considered (Historical Journal, vol. 23, 1980)
Peter Hennessy, Never Again, (London: Penguin, 2006), 84
4
Harold Macmillan, Tides of Fortune 1945-1955 (London: Macmillan, 1979), 132
5
Paul Addison, From Blitz to Blair, ed. Nick Tiratsoo (London: Phoenix, 1998), 67.
3

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Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

more popular, proposing policies in accordance with many of the recommendations of


the 1942 Beveridge report6 with which 90% of the public was familiar.
On the other hand, Churchill repeatedly missed the opportunity to frame a
Conservative strategy in the field of social and economic policy.7 Churchill was
consumed by the war effort liaising with Roosevelt and Stalin and playing a vital role
in the defeat of the Nazis at the expense of being able to concentrate on domestic
issues. A Conservative MP is reported to have said in 1944, Never was a party so
leaderless as the Conservative Party is today8.
Another factor in favour of Labour was that it had members in key positions of in the
wartime cabinet of World War II9; Clement Attlee was the deputy prime minister and
Ernest Bevin was the Minister of Labour and National Service. The latter post was
instrumental with regards to the maintenance of the countrys infrastructure and the
logistics of the forces. With Labour ministers commanding a respectable image and
reputation at the forefront of government, the party was able to significantly counter
the sentiment of inability to govern.
Labour was also bolstered by its advocacy of nationalisation of key industries,
supported by the positive results of wartime controls by which the government had
influence in private industry.10
Yet another war-related tactic employed by Labour was that of patriotism. Key slogans
like Now weve won the war now win it at home struck a chord with the electorate.
In addition, the Daily Mirror reached out to the wives of servicemen with their Vote for
Him campaign. This kind of image also managed to sway working-class patriotic Tory
supporters to vote Labour.

Hennessy, Never Again, 85.


Addison, Blitz, 71.
8
Stuart Ball, Portrait of a Party: The Conservative Party in Britain 1918-1945, (Oxford: Oxford University Press
Ltd., 2013), 472
9
Adelman, The Rise, 83
10
Hennessy, Never Again, 85.
7

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Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

Yet Labour also promoted a moderate, not revolutionary, image of itself. They
deliberately avoided the buzzword socialism and preferred to use phrases such as
pragmatism and collectivism.
Short-term
The biggest detriment in the Conservatives election campaign was Churchills
concentration on criticism of Labour. Rather than calling it by its name, Churchill would
refer to the Labour Party as the socialists. Particularly distasteful was his
scaremongering Gestapo speech of 4th June 1945, warning the nation of a Labour
government introducing a Gestapo into Britain, when in fact his own deputy for the past
few years was Labours Clement Attlee who was respected by the public.
While criticising Labour, the Conservatives were not perceived to be counterbalancing
their criticisms with what they have to offer under a government of their own. At the
same time, Labour were very active in showing the electorate what they have to offer
and putting up posters around the country. In fact it was Labour who wished to dissolve
the National Government whereas Churchill wanted it to at least continue until victory
in the East.11
Conclusion
Although the aforementioned factors all played their own parts in assisting Labour to
victory, the key factors which I think were the most effective are the following:
1. Activeness of the Labour party. Whilst Churchill was busy with international
affairs, Labour was able to focus its attention on domestic policy, governance and
planning for the post-war election.12 The party had a clear vision of the future of
Britain as a welfare state. Although socialism was a relatively new concept, I feel
that the idea of a socialist welfare state now profoundly captured the zeitgeist,
particularly after the Five Giant Evils of want, disease, ignorance, squalor and
11
12

Adelman, The Rise, 85


Adelman, The Rise, 83-84
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Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

idleness highlighted by the Beveridge Report - already widespread before the


war - became exacerbated by the war. Despite the partys well-known
philosophy, Labour showed PR adeptness by avoiding the word socialism
which had been made somewhat taboo by the likes of Stanley Baldwin and
Winston Churchill, and this brings us onto the second factor:
2. The role of effective rhetoric, media and PR. The party used posters
effectively to appeal to the nation images of prosperity and fulfilment of
servicemens efforts were emotively utilised. Furthermore, the support of
popular newspapers such the Daily Mirror cannot be ignored.
The differing language used by Labour and Conservative is stark; for example,
the title of Labours manifesto was Let Us Face the Future whereas Labours was
the more solemn Mr Churchills Declaration of Policy to the Electors.13
3. The activeness of the Labour Party can be contrasted against the relative
perceived indecision and idleness of the Conservative Party. Its image was
tainted by its attempts to appease Hitler prior to the war14, only to then take up
arms against him and be consumed by the war effort to the extent that Labour
ministers were more proactive in home affairs than Churchill. Addison writes:
Churchill and the Conservatives were on the defensive, reacting to Labour
and the left as and when issues arose. At no point during the war did the
Conservatives succeed in organising a counterattack: by the time of the
general election campaign it was too late. After the election defeat,
Conservatives complained that for five years they had been under attack
from left-wing propaganda while the Conservatives themselves had
abstained from attacks on their opponents. To a very great extent this was
true: and the primary explanation lay in the fact that Churchill consistently
neglected the interests of the party of which he was nominally the leader.15
The stance adopted by the Conservatives in their election campaign was too antiLabour and not enough pro-Conservative, whilst Labour advocated themselves
and opposed the Conservatives more subtly.

13

Adelman, The Rise, 86


Addison, Blitz, 55.
15
Addison, Blitz, 70.
14

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Mohammed Khairul Islam

Modern British Political History The Conservative Defeat 1945

In summary, my view is that Churchill lost the 1945 election to the Labour party on
account of extra concentration on international affairs and his party, already having a
bad record, not being active enough in party politics in an era of dire need amongst the
national populace.
I conclude this essay with Hennessy quoting Tom Harrisson: (Churchill) himself
received vast public and published acclaim as Britains successful wartime leader. But
the basic public distrust of strong leadership showed Millions in fact thought of
Churchill, specifically, as a mighty support in dire necessity, a sort of intellectual deepshelter, intended for emergency protection only.16
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Addison, Paul, From Blitz to Blair, ed. Nick Tiratsoo (London: Phoenix, 1998)
Adelman, Paul, The Rise of the Labour Party 1880-1945, (New York: Longman Inc.,
1994)
Ball, Stuart, Portrait of a Party: The Conservative Party in Britain 1918-1945, (Oxford:
Oxford University Press Ltd., 2013)
Hennessy, Peter, Never Again, (London: Penguin, 2006)
Macmillan, Harold, Tides of Fortune 1945-1955 (London: Macmillan, 1979)

16

Hennessy, Never Again, 84.


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