#OTD 1945. Landslide. Attlee becomes first PM to lead a majority Labour Government.

After winning a 146 seat majority, he says "It will give heart to all those all the world over who believe in freedom, democracy and social justice"

A thread on the events of July 26th 1945

The general election of 1945 had taken place on July 5th.

Votes were stored away in town hall basements while the service vote was shipped back to the country

Read the story of the campaign here https://tidesofhistory.com/2020/07/15/1945-at-75-the-week-made-modern-britain/

On July 25th, ballot boxes were opened in the presence of candidates and their agents to check the validity of the service vote.

Counters had to judge who had voted via proxy. They were sworn to secrecy but rumours swirled that there had been a high count.

On the morning of July 26th Churchill was expected to win by a margin of 50-150 seats.

South Salford was the first to declare at 9.45am.

The first shock came when the third result – Manchester Exchange (seen as the business capital of the city) turned red for the first time

Blackley, Moss Side and Rusholme also turn red for the first time. One of the biggest surprises of the day was Labour taking nine out of ten Manchester seats.

By the time the radio coverage began at 11am, Harold Macmillan - the Minister for Air – had lost his seat in Stockton

Clement Attlee enjoyed a leisurely breakfast before arriving at his count in Limehouse.

After securing victory he then drove across London to pick up his daughter Alison from Waterloo station, who was returning from schooling.

Results began to show a huge swing towards Labour (however as the swingometer had not yet been invented, few understood the scale of the national picture)

At 11:15am, Ernie Bevin was returned in Central Wandsworth.

Herbert Morrison was returned in Lewisham and as housewives shopped on the main street, around 500 people stopped to hear him speak: ‘There has been a big swing to the left’.

At 11:45am, Michael Foot produced one of the great upsets by taking Devonport in Plymouth.

Jennie Lee also becomes the MP for Cannock, doubling the Labour vote.

In the Plymouth Sutton, Lucy Middleton defeated Nancy Astor, who had held the seat for over 25 years.

A succession of War Ministers fell, including Brendan Bracken, James Grigg, Richard Law, Duncan Sandys, Hore-Belisha, Mabane, Walter Womersley, Geoffrey Lloyd, Leo Amery, Donald Somervell and Ernie Brown.

Even the Liberal Sir William Beveridge was defeated in Berwick Upon Tweed

Winston Churchill was stunned at the scale of the defeats.

At one point, his daughter went to the kitchen where she found their housekeeper making sandwiches:

‘I don’t know what the world’s coming to but I thought I might make some tea.’

It was from the evening newspapers that the public fully understood what had happened.

The Evening Standard reported ‘Socialists In’ on their news stands

As results came in, Morrison met with Attlee, Bevin and Morgan Phillips at Bevin’s office in Transport House. As London MPs, the trio were able to meet early in the day

When news came in that Churchill was about to resign as Prime Minister, Morrison urged Attlee not to accept any invitation until the PLP had conducted a vote to elect a leader.

This, Morrison argued, was in line with the conventional contest at the start of each Parliament.

Bevin and Attlee both resisted Morrison’s plan. While he was out of the room – taking a call from Stafford Cripps – Bevin urged Attlee ‘to go to the palace right away’

Attlee later remarked that ‘If you are invited by the King to form a Government, you don’t say you can’t reply for forty eight hours, go back and say you can’t and advise the King to send for someone else’.

From there Attlee went to lunch at the Great Western Hotel in Paddington with his family where he would wait for Churchill to resign.

Morrison continued to canvass potential support at Transport House. According to Hugh Dalton, Bevin warned Morrison that ‘if you go on mucking about like this, you won’t be in the bloody Government at all’.

Morrison however refuted the claim in his own biography:

‘I was disturbed to learn that moves had begun to propose me as leader of the party in place of Attlee. I promptly took the steps to see that these activities were stopped’.

At 7pm, Churchill has an audience with the King ‘to tender his resignation as Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister of Defence’

At 7:30pm, Churchill issued his valedictory:

‘The decision of the British people has been recorded in the votes counted today. I have therefore laid down the charge which was placed upon me in darker times’

Churchill concluded: ‘It only remains for me to express to the British people, for whom I have acted in these years, my profound gratitude for the unflinching, unswerving support which they have given me during my task’.

Five minutes after Churchill’s departure, Attlee arrived at Buckingham Palace, driven by his wife.

Attlee informed the King ‘I have won the election’. He responded ‘I know, I heard it on the six o clock news’.

Attlee moved on to Transport House for a celebration with party workers:

‘We went into this election on a carefully thought out programme. We have never swerved. We are on the eve of a great advance in the human race’.

Watching Attlee speak was a young Tony Benn.

A BBC journalist asked Benn to say ‘three cheers for Mr Attlee’ on the radio.

But he refused on account of being 'too shy'.

At Westminster Central Hall, three thousand Labour supporters packed in to celebrate the result with two thousand outside.

Upon arrival, Attlee and Bevin were given a five minute ovation.

Attlee told the crowd: ‘We have a great task before us. The country has put its confidence in Labour. It will not put that confidence in vein’

‘I believe that what we have done today in these islands will give heart to all those all the world over who believe in freedom, democracy and social justice’

‘We accept our responsibility. Let us go forward as comrades in a great cause. We shall need the work of all because our movement is one which demands the co-operation of the people’.

Harold Laski, who had been held up as a dangerous threat by the Conservatives, was quick to praise Churchill:

‘Today when his rule as Premier is drawing to a close, I want to thank Mr Churchill on behalf of the Labour Party for the great services rendered to this nation’

Attlee then went on to the balcony to address the supporters outside who launched into a rendition of the Red Flag.

Inside the hall the crowd continued signing community songs such as Three Blind Mice and John Brown’s Body.

But while Labour enjoyed the celebrations, there appeared to be little interest in the result across most of the country.

Reporters noted the stark contrast with V.E day

Hotels in London were reporting on the action. At the Savoy, a 20 foot bulletin board was put up to keep guests informed of the scores.

The Express reported that The Ritz ‘the tape machine in the lobby ticked on without anyone reading the messages’

A correspondent for the New York Times was shocked at the sombre scenes across the Capital.

He observed that ‘with a socialist revolution taking place at the ballot boxes, there were more persons lining up to buy fish than to hear the election returns in London’.

Trafalgar Square was reported to be ‘a concrete desert’ while Leicester Square ‘was as sleepy as a village green’.

The paper concluded that ‘the only gathering that could be called a crowd consisted of several dozen persons in Downing Street’

The Manchester Guardian also reported on muted celebrations across the city. A few hundred people turned out at Albert Square to hear the results, but the figure was much less than anticipated.

The paper wrote ‘it may be that the war-time restraints have taught the electorate a new self-control’.

Reporting on the muted crowd, the paper claimed that ‘it would be difficult to imagine anything less like the herd instinct than the behaviour of Manchester crowds.

It was only sixty results in – when Stafford Cripps won his seat – that the first cheer of the afternoon was raised. ‘It was greeted with a burst of applause which very soon trailed off into an almost shamefaced silence’

Michael Foot experienced a very different election night.

He recounted how ‘Bonfires were lit, people danced in the streets and young and old crowded into halls all over the country to acclaim their elected standard bearers’.