Clement Attlee

Winston Churchill

The United Kingdom General Election of 1945 was one of the most significant general elections of the 20th century. It was held on 5 July 1945, with delayed polls taking place on 12 July and in Nelson and Colne on 19 July. It was ultimately counted and declared on 26 July 1945, due in part to the time it took to transport the votes of those serving overseas. The UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. ... MPs elected in the UK general election, 1931 This is a complete list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 27 October 1931, for the 36th Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee The UK general election held on 14th November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin. ... This is a complete list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 14 November 1935, for the 37th Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... This is a complete list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 5 July 1945, for the 38th Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The United Kingdom general election in 1950 was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. ... This is a complete list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 23 February 1950, for the 39th Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The 1951 election was held soon after the UK general election, 1950, which Labour won, but with an unworkable majority. ... This is a complete list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 25 October 1951, for the 40th Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... Image File history File links Clement_Attlee_Potsdam_1945. ... Image File history File links Clement_Attlee_Potsdam_1945. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ... PD image from http://www. ... PD image from http://www. ... This article is becoming very long. ... United Kingdom general elections are the times when the Members of Parliament forming the House of Commons are elected. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... July 5 is the 186th day of the year (187th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 179 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... Nelson and Colne was a constituency in Lancashire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. ... July 19 is the 200th day (201st in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 165 days remaining. ... July 26 is the 207th day (208th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 158 days remaining. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ...

Held just months after VE Day, it was the first general election to be held since 1935, as general elections had been suspended during World War II. It resulted in the shock election defeat of the Conservatives led by Winston Churchill and the landslide victory of the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee, who won a majority of 145 seats. Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) was May 8, 1945, the date when the Allies during the Second World War formally celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitlers Reich. ... Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee The UK general election held on 14th November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative & Unionist Party) is currently the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), and the largest in terms of public membership. ... This article is becoming very long. ... The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS, PC (3 January 1883 – 8 October 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1945 to 1951. ...

The result of the election was almost totally unexpected, given the heroic status of Winston Churchill, but reflected the voters' belief that the Labour Party were better able to rebuild the country following the war than the Conservatives. Churchill and the Conservatives are also generally considered to have run a poor campaign in comparison to Labour; Churchill's statement that Attlee's program would require a Gestapo-esque body to implement is considered to have been particularly poorly-judged. Equally, whilst voters respected and liked Churchill's wartime record, they were more broadly distrustful of the Conservative Party's domestic and foreign policy record in the late thirties. (It is worth remembering that the last election had been held in 1935, and voters had been given no opportunity, due to the war, to "let off steam" electorally between then and 1945.) Labour had also been given, during the war, the opportunity to display to the electorate their domestic competence in government under men such as Ernest Bevin, Herbert Morrison and Attlee at the Ministry of Labour. The Deaths Head emblem similar to skull and crossbones, often used as the insignia of the Gestapo The   (contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei; Secret State Police) was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 - 14 April 1951) was a British labour leader, politician, and statesman, born in the small village of Winsford in Somerset, England. ... Herbert Morrison For others named Herbert Morrison, see Herbert Morrison (disambiguation). ...

The Labour Party ran on promises to create full employment, a tax funded universal National Health Service, and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the sensational campaign message of 'let us face the future.' The logo of the NHS for England. ... The Welfare State of the United Kingdom was prefigured in the William Beveridge Report in 1942, which identified five Giant Evils in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease. ...

This was the first election in which Labour gained a majority of seats, and also the first time it won a plurality of votes. If it had won another 68,767 or 0.3% of votes it would have had over 50% of all those cast: the closest any party has come a majority of all votes since 1931.

Results

Total votes cast: 24,073,025. All parties shown. Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists. The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal left wing political party in the United Kingdom. ... The Conservative Party (officially the Conservative & Unionist Party) is currently the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), and the largest in terms of public membership. ... This article is about the historic Liberal Party. ... National Liberal Party was a name used by two groups of politicians, who had formerly been associated with the Liberal Party. ... In the United Kingdom the term National Government is in an abstract sense used to refer to a coalition of some or all major political parties. ... The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party active in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist party in the United Kingdom. ... The Nationalist Party, an Irish political party, existed under various forms from 1874 to 1978. ... The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ... The Scottish National Party (SNP) (Scottish Gaelic: is a centre-left political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. ... Plaid Cymru (pronounced IPA: ) – The Party of Wales, is the principal nationalist political party in Wales. ... The Commonwealth Labour Party was a minor political party in Northern Ireland. ... The Liverpool Protestant Party (LPP) were a minor political party operating in the city of Liverpool in northwest England. ... The Democratic Party was formed in 1942, during the Second World War, in support of free enterprise, although supportive of limiting excessive individual incomes. ... Arguing against capitalism, Speakers Corner, October 31, 2004 The Socialist Party of Great Britain, also known as the SPGB, is a small Marxist party, which is emphatically not Leninist. ... The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP, sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or OUP) is a political party in Northern Ireland representing the unionist community, and was the party of government in Northern Ireland between 1921 and 1972. ...

Reason for Labour victory

With the Second World War coming to an end in Europe, the Labour Party decided to pull out of the wartime national government, necessitating a new election set for July of 1945. King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for ten years without an election. What followed was perhaps one of the greatest swings of public confidence of the 20th century. Labour won overwhelming support while 'Churchill... was both surprised and stunned' by the crushing defeat suffered by the Conservatives. How this swing of opinion came about is not only due the failings of the Conservative Party but also to Labour's manifesto of social reform. George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George Windsor) (14 December 1895 - 6 February 1952) became the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Emperor of India, upon the unexpected abdication of his brother, Edward VIII. He reigned from 11 December 1936 until his death. ...

With the war drawing to an end by 1945, the National Government sought to call an election in a bid to return to a two party system. As Churchill's personal popularity remained high, Conservatives were confident of victory and based much of their election campaign on this, rather than propose new programs. Meanwhile, Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a general consensus that social improvements were needed. The Conservatives were not willing to make the same concessions that Labour proposed, and hence appeared disjointed with public support. In the United Kingdom the term National Government is in an abstract sense used to refer to a coalition of some or all major political parties. ...

In addition to the poor Conservative election strategy, Churchill went so far as to accuse Attlee of seeking to behave as a dictator, in spite of Attlee's service in Churchill's war cabinet. Another blow to the Conservative campaign was the memory of the 1930s policy of appeasement, which had been conducted by Churchill's Conservative predecessor, Neville Chamberlain. This policy led many to blame the Conservatives for the outbreak of the war, damaging its re-election efforts. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Appeasement is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance, usually at the sacrifice of principles. ... Arthur Neville Chamberlain (18 March 1869 – 9 November 1940) was a Conservative British politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940. ...

The effects of 'common experiences' shared in the Second World War were so vast, such as the evacuation of primary school children, that they had brought a change in opinion of many middle-class voters. After observing the physical conditions of the working-class children; many voters began to question the State's responsibility, and thus all focusing upon Labour.

The single greatest factor in Labour's dramatic win appeared to be the policy of social reform. In one opinion poll, 41 percent of respondents considered housing to be the single most important issue that faced the country. The welfare state, based on the Beveridge report, proposed a dramatic turn in British social policy, with provisions for nationalised health care, expanded education, national insurance and a new housing policy. William Henry Beveridge (March 5, 1879_1963) was a British economist and social reformer. ...

See also

• MPs elected in the UK general election, 1945

United Kingdom General Elections v • d • e

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