United Kingdom general election, 1945

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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.

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.

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 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.'

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.

[edit] Results

UK General Election 1945
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net Gain/Loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Labour	393			+ 239		49.71	11,967,746
	Conservative	197			- 190		36.20	8,716,211
	Liberal	12			- 9		9.04	2,177,938
	National Liberal	11			- 22		2.9	686,652
	Independent	8	6	0	+ 6		0.6	133,191
	National	2	2	1	+ 1		0.5	130,513
	Common Wealth	1	1	0	+ 1		0.5	110,634
	Communist	2	1	0	+ 1		0.4	97,945
	Irish Nationalist	2	0	0	0		0.4	92,819
	National Independent	2			0		0.3	65,171
	Independent Labour	2			0		0.3	63,135
	Independent Conservative	2	2	0	0		0.2	57,823
	Ind. Labour Party	3	0	1	- 1		0.2	46,769
	Independent Progressive	1	1	0	+ 1		0.1	35,072
	Independent Liberal	2	2	0	+ 2		0.1	30,450
	Scottish National Party	0	0	0	0		0.1	26,707
	Plaid Cymru	0	0	0	0		0.0	16,017
	Commonwealth Labour	0	0	0	0		0.0	14,096
	Independent Nationalist	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,430
	Liverpool Protestant	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,601
	Christian Pacifist	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,381
	Democratic	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,809
	Agriculturist	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,068
	Socialist Party (GB)	0	0	0	0		0.0	472
	Independent Socialist	0	0	0	0		0.0	300

Total votes cast: 24,073,025. All parties shown. Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists.

[edit] 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.

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 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.

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.