Labour Party divisions between 1951 and 1964

Question 1

How many votes did labour win in the 1951 election?

Answer 1

14 million votes, more then any other previous labour government.

Question 2

What was clear to see with Atlee remaining as leader until 1955?

Answer 2

Atlee continued as Labour until 1955 but it was clear to see that the great wartime leaders of Labour were slowly fading away due to them all ageing and often being in poor health.

Question 3

What were the 2 themes that divided Labour

Answer 3

*Individuals/Personalities
*Ideology

Question 4

who were the 2 key figures in the Labour Party?

Answer 4

Aneurin Bevin and Hugh Gaitskell

Question 5

What was the background of Aneurin Bevin?

Answer 5

Had been minister of health in the Attlee government, he was the architect for the NHS.

Question 6

What was the background of Hugh Gaitskell?

Answer 6

He was chancellor between 1950 and 1951, he was the one who introduced prescription charges.

Question 7

What was the ideology of the Bevin and Gaitskell

Answer 7

Bevin = Left of the party
Gaitskell = Right of the party

Question 8

Why had Bevin and Gaitskell clashed in 1951?

Answer 8

Bevin who was Health minister resigned over the introduction of prescription charges, they were introduced by the chancellor of the time who was Hugh Gaitskell.

Question 9

Who supported Bevin?

Answer 9

He garnered a lot of support from many Labour MPs and especially trade union members.

Question 10

Who became leader in 1955 after Attlee?

Answer 10

Hugh Gaitskell

Question 11

What were the two ideology struggles?

Answer 11

-Unilateral Nuclear disarmament
-Trade union power

Question 12

What did Gaitskell propose at the 1959 conference?

Answer 12

At the 1959 conference Gaitskell proposed the idea of abolishing clause IV of the labour party constitution, the clause committed the party to Nationalisation.

Question 13

Why did Gaitskell back down from removing Clause IV?

Answer 13

There was a lot of pressure and opposition from trade unions and the left of the party especially by trade union leader Frank Cousins.

Question 14

The issue of nuclear weapons at the Scarborough conference = ?

Answer 14

Gaitskell opposed nuclear disarmament and at the 1960 Scarborough conference Gaitskell spoke emotionally when trying to convince the party and the conference to reject unilateral nuclear disarmament. Although he lost the vote he succeeded in overturning the judgement just a year later.

Question 15

What was Bevin’s opinion on the issue of nuclear weapons?

Answer 15

Initially Bevin opposed Britain developing nuclear weapons but in 1957 he sided with Bevin in a rare showing. He argued that unilateral nuclear disarmament “would send a British foreign secretary naked into the conference Chamber”.

Question 16

What was the CND?

Answer 16

Campaign for Nuclear disarmament

Question 17

What did the link between the CND and labour do?

Answer 17

Turned voters away at the 1959 election.

Question 18

Why were the trade unions happy in the 1950s?

Answer 18

High levels of employment

Question 19

Why did the happiness of trade unions change?

Answer 19

Frank Cousins becoming leader of a very powerful trade union [transport and general workers union].

Question 20

What was Cousins pet peeve with Gaitskell?

Answer 20

He led a fierce union opposition to Gaitskell over the issue of nuclear weapons.

Question 21

Why did the Suez crisis hamper Labours effectiveness at opposing the conservatives?

Answer 21

The Suez crisis of 1956 was a particular opportunity whereby Labour could go for the Tories in the hopes of piling the pressure on them, with the boost that Eden was disgraced due to his lying to parliament. Labour hoped that the tories would split even more then they did this meant that Labour was left with few areas to oppose and Gaitskell’s failure of trying to control the party made it even worse as the party looked uncontrollable and shambolic to the public.

Question 22

What happened at the 1959 election?

Answer 22

1959 election looked like it could be somewhat promisjng for Labour but a landslide defeat was not just a genuine surprise but an utter embarrassment.

Question 23

Why was there hope for the Labour Party after 1960?

Answer 23

-Appeared more united
-Cultural shifts in the UK made Labour a more appealing party due to them being more liberal socially.
-They were more critical of the Conservative Party socially [espicially due to the tories being led by Etonian old boys].

Question 24

What major event happened in 1963 that helped Labour?

Answer 24

In 1963 with the death of Gaitskell the party were able to appoint Harold Wilson as leader of the party, he would lead them to election victory in 1964.