Why the Labour Party Won the Election in 1945

Why the Labour Party Won the Election in 1945

The Labour Party won the general election in 1945, with Clement Attlee

returning as Prime Minister. The state of play was that Labour has won

314 seats, the Conservatives 294.

Socialism was not widely recognised until 1945. The majority of people

were almost frightened by it. This was because Russia was a socialist

state, promoting communism. When Russia proved to be a reliable alley

during the war, socialism became less strange and was more approved

of. The middle class citizens now started to vote socialism, they saw

it as respectable. This therefore increased to amount of votes for

labour.

After the war, there was a mood for social change. This was because

soldiers who came home from serving in the War came back to

unemployment. They were promised a land fit for hero’s but instead

came back to a depression. The 1930’s depression caused poverty in

Britain and many citizens lost their job and became unemployed, the

British public did not want to have go through this again. This caused

for a change in government to see what a different party would offer

the nation, to improve its chances of recovering now the war was over.

The labour slogan was “Let us face to the future”, this slogan

prompted forward thinking.

Labour promoted the welfare state; this was made by written in the

Beveridge report and labour made it specific in its manifesto. This

meant families could receive the Allowances Act which would provide a

regular sum for second and subsequent children to be paid to the

mother. The National Health Service Act in order to provide a free and

fully comprehensive health se...

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...o” in power. This was the internal security police of Nazi

Germany. The Nazis established the Gestapo in order to monitor and

stamp out any political opposition to the Hitler regime. Under

Heinrich Himmler, the Gestapo's powers became brutal and far-reaching

in ferreting out Jews, Marxists, and even moderate critics of the

regime. By referring the labour party to such a brutal regime it was

not approved upon and lost creditability for the conservatives.

Overall the actions of Winston Churchill and his decisions through the

campaign cost them to loose the election to Labour. I believe that the

conservative’s ways of campaigning and relying on gratitude from the

British public for winning the war, lost them votes. I also believe

that by trying to discredit the Labour party also lost them respect,

which lost them votes.