Labour 1945 Election Victory

Question 0

Surprise victory

Answer 0

Churchill popular

Cons bigger election budget £780 compared to £595

Based on an out of date electoral

Out-of-date electoral register: older voters

Question 1

Labour’s ‘New Jerusalem’

Answer 1

Priorities for post war Britain:

Achieve full employment

Address social inequalities by implementing a comprehensive system of social insurance

Nationalist key industries

Resolve Britain’s balance of payments problems

Solve problem of homelessness by building 400,000 new houses a year

Question 2

Reasons for landslide

Answer 2

Cons- interwar depression:
Failed to solve economic and social probs

Cons- Appeasement:
Backed policy rather than standing up to Hitler in late 1930’s

Voters viewed cons as just made up of rich and privileged

Failure of cons ‘a land fit for heroes’

Too much emphasis on ‘Churchill factor’

Churchill’s accusation “Labour Party would introduce a secret police force similar to the Gestapo”

Question 3

Labour perceptions

Answer 3

1945 Gallop poll -
56% voters wanted extensive change
Cons seen as party of past, Lab looked most likely to introduce radical reform

Labours manifesto-
‘Let us face the future’
Closer to publics desire for a more egalitarian Britain

Respect during war-
Attlee (wartime deputy PM)
Herbert Morrison (wartime Home Secretary)
Ernest Bevin (wartime minister of labour)

First past the post-
Cons needed around 46,000 votes
Labour needed 30,500 votes