45-7-5 UK general election

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Winston Churchill . 1940-1945

The 1945 United Kingdom general election was held on 5 July 1945. It was the first election after WW2 ended in Europe, and the first since 1935. Since 1940, the United Kingdom had been governed by a wartime coalition of all major parties led by Winston Churchill and his Conservatives.

The result was an unexpected landslide victory for Clement Attlee's Labour Party over the Conservatives. It was the first time the Conservatives had lost the popular vote since the 1906 election; they would not win it again until 1955. Labour won its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 10.7% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election.

The result of the election came as a major shock to the Conservatives, given the heroic status of Winston Churchill. But it reflected the voters' belief that the Labour Party were better able to rebuild the country after the war than the Conservatives.

The Labour manifesto, "Let Us Face the Future" included promises of nationalisation, economic planning, full employment, a National Health Service, and a system of social security. The Conservative manifesto, "Mr. Churchill's Declaration to the Voters", on the other hand, included progressive ideas on key social issues but was relatively vague on the idea of post-war economic control; having been associated with high levels of unemployment in the 1930s, [the Conservatives] failed to convince voters that they could effectively deal with employment in a post-war Britain. In May 1945, the month in which the war in Europe ended, Churchill's approval ratings stood at 83%, although the Labour Party held an 18% lead as of February 1945. People distinguished between Churchill and his party—a contrast which Labour repeatedly emphasised throughout the campaign. Voters also harboured doubts over Churchill's ability to lead the country on the domestic front.

The greatest factor in Labour's dramatic win appeared to be their policy of social reform. In one opinion poll, 41% of respondents considered housing to be the most important issue that faced the country, 15% stated the Labour policy of full employment, 7% mentioned social security, 6% nationalisation and just 5% international security, which was emphasised by the Conservatives. The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, proposed the creation of a welfare state. It called for a dramatic turn in British social policy, with provision for nationalised healthcare, expansion of state-funded education, National Insurance and a new housing policy. The report was extremely popular, and copies of its findings were widely purchased, turning it into a best-seller. The Labour Party adopted the report eagerly. The Conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report (Churchill did not regard the reforms as socialist), but claimed that they were not affordable. Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed. The Conservatives were not willing to make the same concessions that Labour proposed, and hence appeared out of step with public opinion.

Another blow to the Conservative campaign was the memory of the 1930s policy of appeasement, which had been conducted by Churchill's Conservative predecessors, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, and was at this stage widely discredited for allowing Adolf Hitler's Germany to become too powerful.

An Act of Parliament created an extra 35 seats, from this election onwards.

1935 United Kingdom general election: 14 November 1935 and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party. The greatest number of members, as before, were Conservatives, while the National Liberal vote held steady.