lab strengths 1964

Question 1

PM’s (1964-79)

Answer 1

Labour - Harold Wilson - 1964-70
Conservative - Ted Heath - 1970-74
Labour - Harold Wilson - 1974-76
Labour - James Callaghan - 1976-79

Question 2

Reasons for Labour victory in 1964 election? - Wilson’s leadership

Answer 2

Wilson defeated D-H and won a majority of 4 seats.

Presented Labour as united, despite the fact divisions over nuclear policy, the NHS, Europe and nationalism had not disappeared - he glossed over these issues and presented Labour as modern dynamic and progressive.

The party promised to introduce a range of policies to boost economic growth which had been slow post-war - gain full employment as well as improvements to welfare and education.

Wilson was also depicted as ‘a man of the people’, a Yorkshire born, grammar school, football fan.

Question 3

Reasons for Labour victory in 1964 election? - How the electorate regarded the Tories

Answer 3

Tories in power since 1951.

• ‘thirteen wasted years’, due to many economic difficulties the Conservatives failed to address.

Also, 60-year-old Douglas-Home was no match for a younger Harold Wilson.

The Tories had also been caught up in a number of scandals (Profumo, Philby, Argyll). The electorate had the impression that the Tories were old fashioned, self-indulgent elites.

Question 4

Reasons for Labour victory in 1964 election? - Changes in British society in the 1950s

Answer 4

Young people in Britain began to challenge traditional authority. These attitudes were encouraged by the rise of satire which began to poke fun at politicians.

Class became less important and Grammar schools gave underprivileged children the chance to go to university. All of this created a climate where, young people in particular, desired to create a new, modern, classless Britain.

These changes benefitted Labour, who were far more popular with younger voters

Question 5

Why was the result so close? (1964 election)

Answer 5

1. Conservative tax cuts - Reginald Maudling (Chancellor of the Exchequer) cut taxes in his 1963 budget. This helped to narrow the gap in the opinion polls to Labour as wages rose and unemployment fell from 900,000 (1963) to 300,000 (1964)
   3) Attitudes to the Labour Party -
   - People still distrusted Labour and its links to trade unions.
   - The party’s internal divides had still not been resolved
   - Immigration was a sensitive issue in the lead up to the 1964 election and the conservatives utilised this better. In Smethwick, a Conservative candidate ran an overtly racist campaign and succeeded in overturning a Labour majority into a Tory victory by 1700 votes.

Question 6

Social achievements of Wilson’s Government (1964-70)

Answer 6

Huge social achievements under Wilson, essentially shaped modern society:

• 1965: abolition of the death penalty
• 1965 and 1968: Race Relations Acts - discrimination in public facilities, housing and employment was made illegal.
• 1965: start of the replacement of the grammar system, for a more comprehensive education
• 1965: Expansion of universities led to 250,000 students in 1969 (compared to 130,000 in 1963), this includes the open university, which Wilson stated as his greatest achievement.
• 1967: Sexual offences - homosexual acts in private were made legal
• 1969: voting age lowered to 18
• 1970: equal pay for men and women