Factors behind the landslide victory for the British Labour Party in the 1945

election
The landslide victory of the Labour Party in the 1945 election was one of the biggest upsets in
British electoral history. The Conservative Party, under the leadership of the then Prime Minister
Winston Churchill, had confidently expected a return to power after the wartime coalition with
Labour, but their defeat at the polls was not only a rejection of Churchill as the man to lead
Britain in peace-time and during a period of inevitable major reconstruction, but also of their pre-
war record as a government. The overall Labour majority was 145 seats, a huge margin, and a
testimony to the fact that voters, by and large, wanted a fresh start and not a return to the policies
that had caused so much social misery in the 1930s.

The experience of the majority of the British people during the 1930s was undoubtedly a major
factor in giving their votes to the Labour Party. The Great Depression of the 1930s, after the
Wall Street crash of 1929, had led to mass unemployment in Britain. With minimal social
security available to the mass of the population, the working classes endured years of deprivation
and struggle to meet the very basic needs of food, housing and health care. There was no safety
net for the mass of the population to fall back onto. Millions lived in wretched city slums and
were seriously undernourished. The lack of nutritious food meant many children and old people,
in particular, suffered from ill-health. Free medical care was very scarce and when the choice
was between putting food on the table or paying the doctor’s bills, millions had to choose the
survival route and neglect basic health needs. And who was in charge during this decade of
social deprivation? The Conservatives, who were now asking the people who had endured under
their government of the 1930s to give them once again their trust. The bitter experience of that
decade, however, had not been forgotten and it would cost the Tory Party dearly.

It must also be stressed that the 1945 election was the first opportunity the electorate had had to
choose their government since 1935. When war broke out in 1939, elections were suspended so
the British people had had no chance to register their approval or otherwise of government
policies for ten whole years. Victory in Europe had been achieved with the surrender of Germany
and its allies, but the war in the Pacific had still to be won. Most people acknowledged that
Churchill had proved himself a great leader in wartime conditions. He became a symbol of
British resistance to the Nazi war machine. However, voters had long memories and Churchill
was associated in the nation’s consciousness with the horrors of the 1930s. Older voters, too,
recalled the aftermath of the First World War (‘the war to end all wars’), when promises about a
reordering of British society had been made and then power and wealth had returned to the same
people as before the war. In July 1945, as the war neared its close, the mass of the voters seemed
determined that this time things would be very different.

Another important factor in the 1945 election was the widespread feeling among the population
that they had made sacrifices to win the war and deserved some reward for those sacrifices.
Millions of men and women had served, and were still serving, in the armed forces. Almost a
million people had made the ultimate sacrifice. Indeed, the votes of the serving soldiers were a
decisive factor in making sure Labour were returned to power with such a huge majority.
Conscripted men and women had been separated from their families and given up their paid
employment to serve their country. They believed they deserved something better than what had
faced them in the 1930s.

The wartime government under Churchill had, however, anticipated the restructuring of British
society post-war and had produced the Beveridge Report, which had important recommendations
about health, employment, social security and educational opportunities. In the light of that
report, the 1945 election manifestos of the two main parties make an interesting contrast. The
Tory Party headed their manifesto ‘Mr Churchill’s Declaration of Policy to Electors’, which
made clear that they put great faith in the vote-winning capacity of the revered war leader. The
manifesto stressed the need to push towards final victory and the reconstruction of Europe. It was
less detailed about the kind of Britain the Party wanted to construct in post-war Britain. The
Labour Party manifesto, by contrast, was heavily skewed towards the Beveridge Report and
made very specific promises about establishing a welfare state in which the citizen would be
cared for ‘from the cradle to the grave’. There were pledges to nationalise key industries and
utilities. A National Health Service, free to all citizens, was at the core of their plans. The general
impression was created that the Labour Party would be better able to rebuild British society with
greater fairness, equality and opportunity.

In addition, leading Labour politicians because of their prominent roles in the wartime coalition
government had become very well-known to, and trusted by, the British electorate. Clement
Attlee, Ernest Bevin and Herbert Morrison, among others, were now perceived as capable
politicians to whom the reins of government could now be safely entrusted. By contrast,
Churchill was now in his seventies and seemed to many to belong to the past. Furthermore,
Churchill made a grave error by stating that to implement the Labour Party programme would
mean the creation of a Gestapo-like society. As the population had just been heavily involved in
defeating the Gestapo and the totalitarian forces that had led Germany to defeat, this rebounded
on Churchill and he was roundly criticised for the allusion. In the election campaign, then, the
Tory Party scored some own goals, while the Labour Party captured the mood of the nation.

It was, then, the widespread wish for a new beginning and a rejection of the policies of the 1930s
that helped to win the Labour Party such an overwhelming victory in the 1945 election. The
wartime experience of millions of ordinary people in the armed forces had reinforced their
determination not to return to the kind of society they had endured pre-war. Additionally, the
civilian population had suffered family dislocation and loss, blackouts, air raids, rationing,
restriction of movement, and many other problems and the majority of the voters wanted relief
from those hardships in the post-war British society. The Labour Party with its promises about a
kind of ‘new deal’ and a caring State that would intervene on behalf of the ordinary citizen
against the old oligarchies and wealth-owners caught the mood of the people. The result was the
landslide majority gifted to the Party by the voters.

Source: Shiach, Don. How to Write Essays: A Step-by-Step Guide for All Levels, with Sample Essays. How to
Books, 2007.