Clement Attlee’s Labour government transformed post-war Britain
The two critical general elections which shaped the second half of the 20th century were those of 1945 and 1979.
Both elections resulted in the election of resolute and determined prime ministers with radical agendas: Clement Attlee and Margaret Thatcher. Just as Mrs Thatcher transformed the nature of British politics and society after 1979, Attlee transformed the nature of British politics and society after 1945.
As prime minister in the first six years after the Second World War, Clem Attlee gave the Indian subcontinent independence, presided over the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth, nationalised 20% of the British economy and created the National Health Service.
When Eire formally became a republic and left the Commonwealth, Attlee’s government passed the Ireland Act (1949) which stated that in no circumstances would Northern Ireland or any part thereof cease to be part of His Majesty’s Dominions without the consent of the Northern Ireland Parliament.
Despite having won a landslide victory in the general election of 1945 and just having been invited to form the first Labour government in history, Attlee, the leader of the Labour Party, simply recorded in his diary that July 26 1945 had been ‘quite an exciting day’. That day the following exchange is alleged to have taken place during his audience with King George VI at Buckingham Palace:
Attlee: I’ve won the election.
King George VI: I know. I heard it on the Six O’Clock News.
Possibly apocryphal, the dialogue is perfectly credible because neither man was capable of scintillating conversation. Attlee never used one syllable where none would do.
Asked in 1965 whether he felt that destiny had overtaken him 20 years earlier, Attlee replied, ‘No. I had not much idea about destiny’, unlike Tony Blair who, disavowing soundbites, once famously ‘felt the hand of history on his shoulder’.
Yet, it is possible to identify some striking similarities with Blair. Both were middle class: Attlee’s father was a prosperous solicitor whereas Blair’s father was a barrister whose promising career was cut short by a stroke. Both attended public school: Attlee attended Haileybury, an institution to which he remained devoted, while Blair attended Fettes. Both were Oxford graduates: Attlee attended University College whereas Blair attended St John’s College. Both trained as barristers, although Attlee practised only briefly. Both came from Tory backgrounds, Blair’s father having been a youthful Communist before becoming an active Conservative.
In 1905 the 22-year-old Attlee wandered into a boys club in poverty-stricken Stepney. This chance encounter changed the entire direction of his life. He abandoned his legal career to devote himself to social work in the East End of London.
His interest in social welfare propelled him into politics. He joined the Fabian Society in 1907 and a year later became a member of the Independent Labour party. He served in the Great War, seeing action at Gallipoli and attaining the rank of major. During the inter-war years he was invariably known as Major Attlee.
In 1919 he became mayor of Stepney. In 1922 he was elected to Parliament as the member for Limehouse. Within two years Attlee was sufficiently prominent in the Parliamentary Labour Party to serve in the first Labour government as Under-Secretary for War. Six years later he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the second Labour government.
Being one of the few leading members of the party to survive the electoral debacle of 1931 – when Labour only won 52 seats – Attlee became deputy leader of the party. In 1935 he replaced the pacifist George Lansbury, a loveable man but scarcely a credible prospective occupant of 10 Downing Street, as party leader.
In 1940 Attlee led Labour into the Churchill coalition government where he was successively Lord Privy seal (1940-42), Secretary of State for the Dominions (1942-43), and Lord President of the Council (1943-45). A member of the War Cabinet throughout this period, from 1943 onwards he was also deputy prime minister.
Although that office is often an empty title, Attlee was a powerful force within the wartime coalition government, co-ordinating domestic policy, thinking about the post-war dispensation and thoroughly familiarising himself with the machinery of government.
Although defeating Churchill in the general election of July 1945 came as a surprise to him, few party leaders have been better equipped to assume the highest office than Attlee.
Often dismissed as ‘a sheep in sheep’s clothing’ (not least by Churchill), Attlee’s Cabinet contained a number of headstrong personalities, notably Ernest Bevin, Stafford Cripps, and Herbert Morrison. Of the three, only Bevin was wholly loyal but Attlee knew how to put unruly colleagues in their place, as Professor Harold Laski, the chairman of the Labour Party, could testify. During the 1945 election campaign, Attlee found Laski’s interventions tedious and unhelpful. Attlee simply informed him that a period of silence on his part would be invaluable. Like Henry Campbell-Bannerman, the Liberal prime minister between 1905 and 1908, Attlee possessed the necessary skill to hold together a Cabinet of prima donnas.
Between 1945 and 1951 Attlee’s government implemented an ambitious programme at breakneck speed and never lost a by-election during that period. By implementing their manifesto pledges Attlee’s government worked itself out of a job. Ministers exhausted themselves. And they had no fresh ideas to place before the electorate in 1950 and 1951. However, in truth, it was adverse boundary changes, rather any loss of popularity, which caused Labour’s majority to be almost wiped out in 1950 and to give the Conservatives a narrow victory in terms of seats in 1951. In both elections Labour polled appreciably more votes than the Tories.
When the Conservatives narrowly won the election of 1951, Attlee resigned as prime minister but he grimly hung on to the leadership of the Labour Party until late 1955 as much as anything to frustrate the ambition of Herbert Morrison, Peter Mandelson’s grandfather. He was also created an earl.
Like Tony Blair, Atlee is usually regarded as being in the Christian Socialist tradition. However, asked whether he believed, Attlee responded, ‘Believe in the ethics of Christianity; can’t believe the mumbo-jumbo.’ Further probing by Kenneth Harris, his biographer, prompted the following mildly bizarre exchange:
Harris: Would you say you are an agonistic?
Attlee: I don’t know.
Harris: Is there an after-life, do you think?
Attlee: Possibly.
Although outwardly a modest man, Attlee was privately proud of his achievements, something suggested by the following limerick penned to his brother Tom in April 1956:
‘Few thought he was even a starter
There were many who thought themselves smarter
But he ended PM
CH and OM
An earl and a Knight of the Garter.’