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Feb 17, 2011 · Labour's landslide in the 1945 general election remains one of the greatest shocks in British political history. How did Winston Churchill, a hugely popular national hero, fail to win?
- Churchill and The Wartime Consensus
- Churchill Misses Reform
- The Date Is Set, The Campaign Fought
- Labour Win
In 1940 Winston Churchill was appointed Prime Minister of a Britain who appeared to be losing the Second World War against Germany. Having been in and out of favor over a long career, having been ousted from one government in World War One only to return later to great effect, and as a long-standing critic of Hitler, he was an interesting choice. H...
One area where the Labour party were having success campaigning during the war was reform. Welfare reforms and other social measures had been developing before World War 2, but in the early years of his government, Churchill had been induced into commissioning a report on how Britain could rebuild after it. The report had been chaired by William Be...
World War 2 in Europe was declared over on May 8th, 1945, the coalition ended on May 23rd, and the elections were set for July 5th, although there would have to be extra time to gather the votes of the troops. Labour began a powerful campaign aimed at reform and made sure to take their message to both those in Britain and those who had been forced ...
The results began coming in on July 25th and soon revealed Labour winning 393 seats, which gave them a dominant majority. Attleewas Prime Minister, they could carry out the reforms they wished, and Churchill seemed to have been defeated in a landslide, although the overall voting percentages were much closer. Labour won nearly twelve million votes,...
Aug 27, 2020 · The end of World War II in 1945 turned Winston Churchill into the world’s most eminent statesman. He was feted and celebrated everywhere he went and had an approval rating of 83%. Yet three months later, he suffered a humiliating election defeat.
- The hangover of pre-war ‘appeasement’ Despite Britain’s victory over Nazism under a Conservative-led coalition, the post-war Conservative Party was held to account for its pre-war policy of ‘appeasement’ towards Britain’s fascist enemies.
- The Conservatives concentrated too much on Churchill. By 1945, Churchill had established himself as the face of British victory, and the Conservatives had been trusted with national security and foreign policy for years.
- The need to ‘face the future’ In contrast, Attlee offered peace and prosperity at home. The Labour Party’s policies – geared towards social reform, workers’ rights, housing, low unemployment, and ‘cradle-to-grave’ healthcare in the form of the NHS – ultimately proved more attractive than the Conservative Party’s argument that such changes were not affordable.
- Ill-judged campaign rhetoric. Churchill’s speeches are legendary models of fine oration, but his words weren’t always on point. Early in his election campaign, he sneered that the implementation of Attlee’s socialist policies would require ‘… some form of Gestapo, no doubt very humanely directed in the first instance’ – a badly placed comment considering the serious horrors of the recent past.
Jul 27, 2020 · In 1945, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Churchill and his Conservative Party would win the next general election. No election had taken place during the war.
Churchill had wanted his alliance with the Labour Party to continue until Japan was defeated. But its leader, Clement Attlee, refused, arguing that the end of the war was nigh and that, after ten years without an election, it was time to test the public mood.
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Winston Churchill is arguably Britain's greatest wartime leader, having led his country through its 'Darkest Hour' all the way to victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. So why, just months after VE Day, did he lose the 1945 General Election?
