Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
He remains the longest-serving Labour leader in British history. ==Early life and education== Attlee was born on 3 January 1883 in Putney, Surrey (now part of London), into an upper middle-class family, the seventh of eight children.
In 1896 he followed his brothers to Haileybury College, where he was a middling student.
In 1898 he purchased a estate in Thorpe-le-Soken, Essex.
He was influenced by the Darwinist views of his housemaster Frederick Webb Headley, and in 1899 he published an attack on striking London cab-drivers in the school magazine, predicting they would soon have to "beg for their fares". In 1901, Attlee went up to University College, Oxford, reading modern history.
He was influenced by the Darwinist views of his housemaster Frederick Webb Headley, and in 1899 he published an attack on striking London cab-drivers in the school magazine, predicting they would soon have to "beg for their fares". In 1901, Attlee went up to University College, Oxford, reading modern history.
He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1904 with second-class honours. Attlee then trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in March 1906.
He graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1904 with second-class honours. Attlee then trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in March 1906.
He also played football for non-League club Fleet. Attlee's father died in 1908, leaving an estate valued for probate at £75,394 (equivalent to £ in ). ==Early career== In 1906, he became a volunteer at Haileybury House, a charitable club for working-class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school, and from 1907 to 1909 he served as the club's manager.
He also played football for non-League club Fleet. Attlee's father died in 1908, leaving an estate valued for probate at £75,394 (equivalent to £ in ). ==Early career== In 1906, he became a volunteer at Haileybury House, a charitable club for working-class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school, and from 1907 to 1909 he served as the club's manager.
He also played football for non-League club Fleet. Attlee's father died in 1908, leaving an estate valued for probate at £75,394 (equivalent to £ in ). ==Early career== In 1906, he became a volunteer at Haileybury House, a charitable club for working-class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school, and from 1907 to 1909 he served as the club's manager.
He subsequently joined the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1908 and became active in local politics.
He also played football for non-League club Fleet. Attlee's father died in 1908, leaving an estate valued for probate at £75,394 (equivalent to £ in ). ==Early career== In 1906, he became a volunteer at Haileybury House, a charitable club for working-class boys in Stepney in the East End of London run by his old school, and from 1907 to 1909 he served as the club's manager.
In 1909, he stood unsuccessfully at his first election, as an ILP candidate for Stepney Borough Council. He also worked briefly as a secretary for Beatrice Webb in 1909, before becoming a secretary for Toynbee Hall.
In 1911, he was employed by the UK Government as an "official explainer"—touring the country to explain Chancellor of the Exchequer David Lloyd George's National Insurance Act.
==Military service during the First World War== Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Attlee applied to join the British Army.
This gave him an admiration for Churchill as a military strategist, which would make their working relationship in later years productive. He later served in the Mesopotamian Campaign in what is now Iraq, where in April 1916 he was badly wounded, being hit in the leg by shrapnel while storming an enemy trench during the Battle of Hanna.
In February 1917, he was promoted to the rank of Major, leading him to be known as "Major Attlee" for much of the inter-war period.
He would spend most of 1917 training soldiers at various locations in England.
From 2 to 9 July 1917, he was the temporary commanding officer (CO) of the newly formed L (later 10th) Battalion, the Tank Corps at Bovington Camp, Dorset.
From 9 July, he assumed command of 30th Company of the same battalion; however, he did not deploy to France with it in December 1917. After fully recovering from his injuries, he was sent to France in June 1918 to serve on the Western Front for the final months of the war.
From 9 July, he assumed command of 30th Company of the same battalion; however, he did not deploy to France with it in December 1917. After fully recovering from his injuries, he was sent to France in June 1918 to serve on the Western Front for the final months of the war.
In 1919, he became mayor of Stepney and in 1922 was elected Member of Parliament for Limehouse.
After being discharged from the Army in January 1919, he returned to Stepney, and returned to his old job lecturing part-time at the London School of Economics. ==Marriage and children== Attlee met Violet Millar while on a long trip with friends to Italy in 1921.
It also appointed health visitors and sanitary inspectors, reducing the infant mortality rate, and took action to find work for returning unemployed ex-servicemen. In 1920, while mayor, he wrote his first book, The Social Worker, which set out many of the principles that informed his political philosophy and that were to underpin the actions of his government in later years.
He went on to come first in both the first and second ballots, formally being elected Leader of the Labour Party on 3 December 1935. Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the Labour Party's official policy had been to oppose rearmament, instead supporting internationalism and collective security under the League of Nations.
After being discharged from the Army in January 1919, he returned to Stepney, and returned to his old job lecturing part-time at the London School of Economics. ==Marriage and children== Attlee met Violet Millar while on a long trip with friends to Italy in 1921.
A right established by law, such as that to an old age pension, is less galling than an allowance made by a rich man to a poor one, dependent on his view of the recipient's character, and terminable at his caprice. In 1921, George Lansbury, the Labour mayor of the neighbouring borough of Poplar, and future Labour Party leader, launched the Poplar Rates Rebellion; a campaign of disobedience seeking to equalise the poor relief burden across all the London boroughs.
In 1919, he became mayor of Stepney and in 1922 was elected Member of Parliament for Limehouse.
They fell in love and were soon engaged, marrying at Christ Church, Hampstead, on 10 January 1922.
During this period, Attlee developed a lifelong dislike of Morrison. ===Member of Parliament=== At the 1922 general election, Attlee became the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Limehouse in Stepney.
At the time, he admired Ramsay MacDonald and helped him get elected as Labour Party leader at the 1922 leadership election.
He served as MacDonald's Parliamentary Private Secretary for the brief 1922 parliament.
Attlee served in the first Labour minority government led by Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, and then joined the Cabinet during MacDonald's second minority (1929–1931).
His first taste of ministerial office came in 1924, when he served as Under-Secretary of State for War in the short-lived first Labour government, led by MacDonald. Attlee opposed the 1926 General Strike, believing that strike action should not be used as a political weapon.
His first taste of ministerial office came in 1924, when he served as Under-Secretary of State for War in the short-lived first Labour government, led by MacDonald. Attlee opposed the 1926 General Strike, believing that strike action should not be used as a political weapon.
The decision was later reversed on appeal, but the financial problems caused by the episode almost forced Attlee out of politics. In 1927, he was appointed a member of the multi-party Simon Commission, a royal commission set up to examine the possibility of granting self-rule to India.
The government also strengthened a Fair Wages Resolution, with a clause that required all employers getting government contracts to recognise the rights of their workers to join trade unions. The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 was repealed, and the Dock Labour Scheme was introduced in 1947 to put an end to the casual system of hiring labour in the docks.
Attlee in 1928–1934 had been a member of the Indian Statutory Commission (otherwise known as the Simon Commission).
Due to the time he needed to devote to the commission, and contrary to a promise MacDonald made to Attlee to induce him to serve on the commission, he was not initially offered a ministerial post in the Second Labour Government, which entered office after the 1929 general election.
He became the British leader most sympathetic to Indian independence (as a dominion), preparing him for his role in deciding on independence in 1947. In May 1930, Labour MP Oswald Mosley left the party after its rejection of his proposals for solving the unemployment problem, and Attlee was given Mosley's post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
He went on to come first in both the first and second ballots, formally being elected Leader of the Labour Party on 3 December 1935. Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the Labour Party's official policy had been to oppose rearmament, instead supporting internationalism and collective security under the League of Nations.
On the contrary, I believe that it is only a clear and bold policy that will attract this support". In the late 1930s, Attlee sponsored a Jewish mother and her two children, enabling them to leave Germany in 1939 and move to the UK.
After retaining his seat in Labour's landslide defeat of 1931, he became the party's Deputy Leader.
In March 1931, he became Postmaster General, a post he held for five months until August, when the Labour government fell, after failing to agree on how to tackle the financial crisis of the Great Depression.
The shock to the Party was very great, especially to the loyal workers of the rank-and-file who had made great sacrifices for these men. ==1930s opposition== ===Deputy Leader=== The 1931 general election held later that year was a disaster for the Labour Party, which lost over 200 seats, returning only 52 MPs to Parliament.
Accordingly, Lansbury was elected Leader unopposed with Attlee as his deputy. Most of the remaining Labour MPs after 1931 were elderly trade union officials who could not contribute much to debates, Lansbury was in his 70s, and Stafford Cripps another main figure of the Labour front bench who had entered Parliament in 1931, was inexperienced.
Labour in Crisis: Clement Attlee & the Labour Party in Opposition, 1931–1940 (2001) Tomlinson, Jim.
By 1933 he argued that British rule was alien to India and was unable to make the social and economic reforms necessary for India's progress.
At the 1934 Labour Party Conference, Attlee declared that, "We have absolutely abandoned any idea of nationalist loyalty.
He became the Labour Party expert on India and by 1934 was committed to granting India the same independent dominion status that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had recently been given.
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor.
Elected Leader of the Labour Party in 1935, and at first advocating pacificism and opposing re-armament, he became a critic of Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler and Mussolini in the lead-up to the Second World War.
He always supported the crown, and as Prime Minister was close to King George VI. ===Leader of the Opposition=== George Lansbury, a committed pacifist, resigned as the Leader of the Labour Party at the 1935 Party Conference on 8 October, after delegates voted in favour of sanctions against Italy for its aggression against Abyssinia.
He went on to come first in both the first and second ballots, formally being elected Leader of the Labour Party on 3 December 1935. Throughout the 1920s and most of the 1930s, the Labour Party's official policy had been to oppose rearmament, instead supporting internationalism and collective security under the League of Nations.
"The Emergence of CR Attlee as Leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1935." Historical Journal 13#2 (1970): 318–332.
"The Attlee Years, 1935–1955." The Labour Party.
Attlee, along with Liberal leader Archibald Sinclair, was eventually consulted with by Baldwin on 24 November 1936, and Attlee agreed with both Baldwin and Sinclair that Edward could not remain on the throne, firmly eliminating any prospect of any alternative government forming were Baldwin to resign. In April 1936, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Neville Chamberlain, introduced a Budget which increased the amount spent on the armed forces.
Attlee made a radio broadcast in opposition to it, saying: In June 1936, the Conservative MP Duff Cooper called for an Anglo-French alliance against possible German aggression and called for all parties to support one.
By 1937, Labour had jettisoned its pacifist position and came to support rearmament and oppose Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. At the end of 1937, Attlee and a party of three Labour MPs visited Spain and visited the British Battalion of the International Brigades fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
Eden in the Munich debate acknowledged that there had been "discrimination, even severe discrimination" against the Sudeten Germans. In 1937, Attlee wrote a book entitled The Labour Party in Perspective that sold fairly well in which he set out some of his views.
As Dalton later acknowledged, Franco skilfully maintained Spanish neutrality, whereas Hitler would have occupied Spain if Franco had lost the Civil War. In 1938, Attlee opposed the Munich Agreement, in which Chamberlain negotiated with Hitler to give Germany the German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland: We all feel relief that war has not come this time.
On the contrary, I believe that it is only a clear and bold policy that will attract this support". In the late 1930s, Attlee sponsored a Jewish mother and her two children, enabling them to leave Germany in 1939 and move to the UK.
On arriving in Britain, Attlee invited one of the children into his home in Stanmore, north-west London, where he stayed for several months. ==Deputy Prime Minister== Attlee remained as Leader of the Opposition when the Second World War broke out in September 1939.
He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor.
Attlee took Labour into the wartime coalition government in 1940 and served under Winston Churchill, initially as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister from 1942. After the end of World War II in Europe, the coalition was dissolved and Attlee led Labour to a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, forming the first Labour majority government.
Consequently, Chamberlain tendered his resignation, and Labour and the Conservatives entered a coalition government led by Winston Churchill on 10 May 1940. Attlee and Churchill quickly agreed that the War Cabinet would consist of three Conservatives (initially Churchill, Chamberlain and Lord Halifax) and two Labour members (initially himself and Arthur Greenwood) and that Labour should have slightly more than one third of the posts in the coalition government.
Attlee and Greenwood played a vital role in supporting Churchill during a series of War Cabinet debates over whether or not to negotiate peace terms with Hitler following the Fall of France in May 1940; both supported Churchill and gave him the majority he needed in the War Cabinet to continue Britain's resistance. Only Attlee and Churchill remained in the War Cabinet from the formation of the Government of National Unity in May 1940 through to the election in May 1945.
He also acted as a concilliator in the government, smoothing over tensions which frequently arose between Labour and Conservative Ministers. Many Labour activists were baffled by the top leadership role for a man they regarded as having little charisma; Beatrice Webb wrote in her diary in early 1940: He looked and spoke like an insignificant elderly clerk, without distinction in the voice, manner or substance of his discourse.
Churchill in 1940–1945 had tightened the hold on India and imprisoned the Congress leadership, with Attlee's approval.
Attlee took Labour into the wartime coalition government in 1940 and served under Winston Churchill, initially as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister from 1942. After the end of World War II in Europe, the coalition was dissolved and Attlee led Labour to a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, forming the first Labour majority government.
Attlee was initially the Lord Privy Seal, before becoming Britain's first ever Deputy Prime Minister in 1942, as well as becoming the Dominions Secretary and the Lord President of the Council. Attlee himself played a generally low key but vital role in the wartime government, working behind the scenes and in committees to ensure the smooth operation of government.
This mood was epitomised in the Beveridge Report of 1942, by the Liberal economist William Beveridge.
He set up the Cripps Mission in 1942, which tried and failed to bring the factions together.
When the Congress called for passive resistance in the "Quit India" movement of 1942–1945, it was Attlee who ordered the arrest and internment for the duration of tens of thousands of Congress leaders and crushed the revolt. Labour's election Manifesto in 1945 called for "the advancement of India to responsible self-government", but did not mention independence.
In 1942 the British Raj tried to enlist all major political parties in support of the war effort.
The Raj immediately responded in 1942 by imprisoning the major national, regional and local Congress leaders for the duration.
As a result of the Attlee government's initiatives in agriculture, there was a 20 per cent increase in output between 1947 and 1952, while Britain adopted one of the most mechanised and efficient farming industries in the world. ====Education==== The Attlee government ensured provisions of the Education Act 1944 were fully implemented, with free secondary education becoming a right for the first time.
Salaries for teachers were also improved, and funds were allocated towards improving existing schools. In 1947 the Arts Council of Great Britain was set up to encourage the arts. The Ministry of Education was established under the 1944 Act, and free County Colleges were set up for the compulsory part-time instruction of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 who were not in full-time education.
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
Attlee took Labour into the wartime coalition government in 1940 and served under Winston Churchill, initially as Lord Privy Seal and then as Deputy Prime Minister from 1942. After the end of World War II in Europe, the coalition was dissolved and Attlee led Labour to a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, forming the first Labour majority government.
Attlee and Greenwood played a vital role in supporting Churchill during a series of War Cabinet debates over whether or not to negotiate peace terms with Hitler following the Fall of France in May 1940; both supported Churchill and gave him the majority he needed in the War Cabinet to continue Britain's resistance. Only Attlee and Churchill remained in the War Cabinet from the formation of the Government of National Unity in May 1940 through to the election in May 1945.
[Prime Minister] is pitiable". ==Prime Minister== ===1945 election=== Following the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of the War in Europe in May 1945, Attlee and Churchill favoured the coalition government remaining in place until Japan had been defeated.
From 1945 to 1948, over 200 public Acts of Parliament were passed, with eight major pieces of legislation placed on the statute book in 1946 alone. ===Domestic policy=== Francis (1995) argues there was consensus both in the Labour's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism that stressed moral improvement as well as material improvement.
Although the Attlee government failed to meet its targets, primarily due to economic constraints, over a million new homes were built between 1945 and 1951 (a significant achievement under the circumstances) which ensured that decent, affordable housing was available to many low-income families for the first time ever. ====Women and children==== A number of reforms were embarked upon to improve conditions for women and children.
These benefits had been legislated for the previous year by Churchill's Family Allowances Act 1945, and was the first measure pushed through parliament by Attlee's government.
Between 1945 and 1951, the quality of rural life was improved by improvements in gas, electricity, and water services, as well as in leisure and public amenities.
Prefabricated classrooms were built and 928 new primary schools were constructed between 1945 and 1950.
An Emergency Training Scheme was also introduced which turned out an extra 25,000 teachers in 1945–1951.
This resulted in strict rationing of food and other essential goods continuing in the post war period to force a reduction in consumption in an effort to limit imports, boost exports, and stabilise the Pound Sterling so that Britain could trade its way out of its financial state. The abrupt end of the American Lend-Lease programme in August 1945 almost caused a crisis.
Some relief was provided by the Anglo-American loan, negotiated in December 1945.
Between August 1945 and December 1951, 1,016,349 new homes were completed in England, Scotland, and Wales. When the Attlee government was voted out of office in 1951, the economy had been improved compared to 1945.
Careful planning after 1945 also ensured that demobilisation was carried out without having a negative impact upon economic recovery, and that unemployment stayed at very low levels.
In addition, the number of motor cars on the roads rose from 3 million to 5 million from 1945 to 1951, and seaside holidays were taken by far more people than ever before.
When the Congress called for passive resistance in the "Quit India" movement of 1942–1945, it was Attlee who ordered the arrest and internment for the duration of tens of thousands of Congress leaders and crushed the revolt. Labour's election Manifesto in 1945 called for "the advancement of India to responsible self-government", but did not mention independence.
Given the demands of the Muslim league, independence implied a partition that set off heavily Muslim Pakistan from the main portion of India. After becoming Prime Minister in 1945 Attlee originally planned to give India Dominion status in 1948, but in the event the Labour government gave full independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
This "new colonialism" worked slowly and had failures such as the Tanganyika groundnut scheme. ===1950 election=== The 1950 election gave Labour a massively reduced majority of five seats compared to the triple-digit majority of 1945.
Ideas and policies under Labour, 1945–1951: building a new Britain (Manchester University Press, 1997). Golant, W.
Austerity Britain, 1945–1951 (2008). Mioni, Michele.
Labour in Power 1945–1951 (1984), 564 pp. Ovendale, R.
ed., The foreign policy of the British Labour governments, 1945–51 (1984) · Pugh, Martin.
Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy: The Attlee Years, 1945–1951 (2002) Excerpt and text search Weiler, Peter.
"British Labour and the cold war: the foreign policy of the Labour governments, 1945–1951." Journal of British Studies 26#1 (1987): 54–82.
To this end, it undertook the nationalisation of public utilities and major industries, and implemented wide-ranging social reforms, including the passing of the National Insurance Act 1946 and National Assistance Act, the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, and the enlargement of public subsidies for council house building.
His government also reformed trade union legislation, working practices and children's services; it created the National Parks system, passed the New Towns Act 1946 and established the town and country planning system. In foreign policy, Attlee delegated to Ernest Bevin, but oversaw the partition of India (1947), the independence of Burma and Ceylon, and the dissolution of the British mandates of Palestine and Transjordan.
From 1945 to 1948, over 200 public Acts of Parliament were passed, with eight major pieces of legislation placed on the statute book in 1946 alone. ===Domestic policy=== Francis (1995) argues there was consensus both in the Labour's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism that stressed moral improvement as well as material improvement.
Among the most important pieces of legislation was the National Insurance Act 1946, in which people in work were required to pay a flat rate of national insurance.
In 1949, unemployment, sickness and maternity benefits were exempted from tax. ====Housing==== The New Towns Act 1946 set up development corporations to construct new towns, while the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 instructed county councils to prepare development plans and also provided compulsory purchase powers.
The Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1946 increased Treasury subsidies for the construction of local authority housing in England and Wales.
In 1946, universal family allowances were introduced to provide financial support to households for raising children.
The National Health Service Act 1946 indicated that domestic help should be provided for households where that help is required "owing to the presence of any person who is ill, lying-in, an expectant mother, mentally defective, aged or a child not over compulsory school age".
Entitlement to sick leave was greatly extended, and sick pay schemes were introduced for local authority administrative, professional and technical workers in 1946 and for various categories of manual workers in 1948.
Worker's compensation was also significantly improved. The Fair Wages Resolution of 1946 required any contractor working on a public project to at least match the pay rates and other employment conditions set in the appropriate collective agreement.
In 1946, purchase tax was removed completely from kitchen fittings and crockery, while the rate was reduced on various gardening items. The Fire Services Act 1947 introduced a new pension scheme for fire-fighters, while the Electricity Act 1947 introduced better retirement benefits for workers in that industry.
The introduction of a Miner's Charter in 1946 instituted a five-day work week for miners and a standardised day wage structure, and in 1948 a Colliery Workers Supplementary Scheme was approved, providing supplementary allowances to disabled coal-workers and their dependants.
The Bank of England and civil aviation were nationalised in 1946.
Grants were also made to meet up to half the cost of supplying water to farm buildings and fields, the government met half the cost of bracken eradication and lime spreading, and grants were paid for bringing hill farming land into use that had previously been considered unfit for farming purposes. In 1946, the National Agricultural Advisory Service was set up to supply agricultural advice and information.
The Hill Farming Act 1946 introduced for upland areas a system of grants for buildings, land improvement, and infrastructural improvements such as roads and electrification.
In addition, the Livestock Rearing Act 1951 extended the provisions of the 1946 Hill Farming Act to the upland store cattle and sheep sector. At a time of world food shortages, it was vital that farmers produced the maximum possible quantities.
The period from 1946 to 1951 saw continuous full employment and steadily rising living standards, which increased by about 10 per cent each year.
Suddenly in January 1947, Attlee reversed his position and agreed with Bevin on a hard-line anti-Soviet policy. In an early "good-will" gesture that was later heavily criticised, the Attlee government allowed the Soviets to purchase, under the terms of a 1946 UK-USSR Trade Agreement, a total of 25 Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines in September 1947 and March 1948.
Attlee retained a fondness for Congress and until 1946, accepted their thesis that they were a non-religious party that accepted Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and everyone else. The Muslim league insisted that it was the only true representative of all of the Muslims of India, and by 1946 Attlee had come to agree with them.
He became the British leader most sympathetic to Indian independence (as a dominion), preparing him for his role in deciding on independence in 1947. In May 1930, Labour MP Oswald Mosley left the party after its rejection of his proposals for solving the unemployment problem, and Attlee was given Mosley's post of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
In 1949, unemployment, sickness and maternity benefits were exempted from tax. ====Housing==== The New Towns Act 1946 set up development corporations to construct new towns, while the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 instructed county councils to prepare development plans and also provided compulsory purchase powers.
In 1946, purchase tax was removed completely from kitchen fittings and crockery, while the rate was reduced on various gardening items. The Fire Services Act 1947 introduced a new pension scheme for fire-fighters, while the Electricity Act 1947 introduced better retirement benefits for workers in that industry.
The government also strengthened a Fair Wages Resolution, with a clause that required all employers getting government contracts to recognise the rights of their workers to join trade unions. The Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act 1927 was repealed, and the Dock Labour Scheme was introduced in 1947 to put an end to the casual system of hiring labour in the docks.
Coal mining, the railways, road haulage, canals and Cable and Wireless were nationalised in 1947, and electricity and gas followed in 1948.
In addition, the 1947 Transport Act improved provision of rural bus services, while the Agriculture Act 1947 established a more generous subsidy system for farmers.
Legislation was also passed in 1947 and 1948 which established a permanent Agricultural Wages Board to fix minimum wages for agricultural workers. Attlee's government made it possible for farm workers to borrow up to 90 per cent of the cost of building their own houses, and received a subsidy of £15 a year for 40 years towards that cost.
As a result of the Attlee government's initiatives in agriculture, there was a 20 per cent increase in output between 1947 and 1952, while Britain adopted one of the most mechanised and efficient farming industries in the world. ====Education==== The Attlee government ensured provisions of the Education Act 1944 were fully implemented, with free secondary education becoming a right for the first time.
Fees in state grammar schools were eliminated, while new, modern secondary schools were constructed. The school leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947, an accomplishment helped brought into fruition by initiatives such as the HORSA ("Huts Operation for Raising the School-leaving Age") scheme and the S.F.O.R.S.A.
Salaries for teachers were also improved, and funds were allocated towards improving existing schools. In 1947 the Arts Council of Great Britain was set up to encourage the arts. The Ministry of Education was established under the 1944 Act, and free County Colleges were set up for the compulsory part-time instruction of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 who were not in full-time education.
In 1947, Regional Advisory Councils were set up to bring together industry and education to find out the needs of young workers "and advise on the provision required, and to secure reasonable economy of provision".
When this was introduced in July 1947, it led to a currency crisis and convertibility had to be suspended after just five weeks.
Suddenly in January 1947, Attlee reversed his position and agreed with Bevin on a hard-line anti-Soviet policy. In an early "good-will" gesture that was later heavily criticised, the Attlee government allowed the Soviets to purchase, under the terms of a 1946 UK-USSR Trade Agreement, a total of 25 Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines in September 1947 and March 1948.
The price was fixed under a commercial contract; a total of 55 jet engines were sold to the USSR in 1947.
In January 1947, fear of both Soviet and American nuclear intentions led to a secret meeting of the Cabinet, where the decision was made to press ahead with the development of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, an issue which later caused a split in the Labour Party.
Attlee became the first high-ranking western politician to meet Mao Zedong. ====India and Pakistan==== Attlee orchestrated the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
Given the demands of the Muslim league, independence implied a partition that set off heavily Muslim Pakistan from the main portion of India. After becoming Prime Minister in 1945 Attlee originally planned to give India Dominion status in 1948, but in the event the Labour government gave full independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
It was Attlee's government that decided Britain should have an independent nuclear weapons programme, and work on it began in 1947. Bevin, Attlee's Foreign Secretary, famously stated that "We've got to have it and it's got to have a bloody Union Jack on it".
In 2004, he was voted the most successful British Prime Minister of the 20th century by a poll of 139 academics organised by Ipsos MORI. A blue plaque unveiled in 1979 commemorates Attlee at 17 Monkhams Avenue, in Woodford Green in the London borough of Redbridge. Attlee was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947.
To this end, it undertook the nationalisation of public utilities and major industries, and implemented wide-ranging social reforms, including the passing of the National Insurance Act 1946 and National Assistance Act, the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948, and the enlargement of public subsidies for council house building.
From 1945 to 1948, over 200 public Acts of Parliament were passed, with eight major pieces of legislation placed on the statute book in 1946 alone. ===Domestic policy=== Francis (1995) argues there was consensus both in the Labour's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism that stressed moral improvement as well as material improvement.
On 5 July 1948, Clement Attlee replied to a letter dated 22 June from James Murray and ten other MPs who raised concerns about West Indians who arrived on board the .
As for the prime minister himself, he was not much focused on economic policy, letting others handle the issues. ====Health==== Attlee's Health Minister, Aneurin Bevan, fought hard against the general disapproval of the medical establishment, including the British Medical Association, by creating the National Health Service (NHS) in 1948.
Under the National Assistance Act 1948 local authorities had a duty "to provide emergency temporary accommodation for families which become homeless through no fault of their own". A large house-building programme was carried out with the intention of providing millions of people with high-quality homes.
The Criminal Justice Act 1948 restricted imprisonment for juveniles and brought improvements to the probation and remand centres systems, while the passage of the Justices of the Peace Act 1949 led to extensive reforms of magistrates' courts.
Entitlement to sick leave was greatly extended, and sick pay schemes were introduced for local authority administrative, professional and technical workers in 1946 and for various categories of manual workers in 1948.
A Workers' Compensation (Supplementation) Act was passed in 1948 that introduced benefits for workers with certain asbestos-related diseases which had occurred before 1948.
The Merchant Shipping Act 1948 and the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949 were passed to improve conditions for seamen.
The introduction of a Miner's Charter in 1946 instituted a five-day work week for miners and a standardised day wage structure, and in 1948 a Colliery Workers Supplementary Scheme was approved, providing supplementary allowances to disabled coal-workers and their dependants.
In 1948, a pension scheme was set up to provide pension benefits for employees of the new NHS, as well as their dependents.
Improvements were also made in farmworkers' wages, and the Agricultural Wages Board in 1948 not only safeguarded wage levels, but also ensured that workers were provided with accommodation. A number of regulations aimed at safeguarding the health and safety of people at work were also introduced during Attlee's time in office.
Coal mining, the railways, road haulage, canals and Cable and Wireless were nationalised in 1947, and electricity and gas followed in 1948.
Legislation was also passed in 1947 and 1948 which established a permanent Agricultural Wages Board to fix minimum wages for agricultural workers. Attlee's government made it possible for farm workers to borrow up to 90 per cent of the cost of building their own houses, and received a subsidy of £15 a year for 40 years towards that cost.
The Agricultural Holdings Act 1948 enabled (in effect) tenant farmers to have lifelong tenancies and made provision for compensation in the event of cessations of tenancies.
The UK benefited from the American Marshall Aid program in 1948, and the economic situation improved significantly.
A Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act was passed in 1948, which allowed for investigations of restrictive practices and monopolies. ====Energy==== 1947 proved a particularly difficult year for the government; an exceptionally cold winter that year caused coal mines to freeze and cease production, creating widespread power cuts and food shortages.
Suddenly in January 1947, Attlee reversed his position and agreed with Bevin on a hard-line anti-Soviet policy. In an early "good-will" gesture that was later heavily criticised, the Attlee government allowed the Soviets to purchase, under the terms of a 1946 UK-USSR Trade Agreement, a total of 25 Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines in September 1947 and March 1948.
Attlee agreed with MI5 that he faced "a very present menace". ====Decolonisation==== Decolonisation was never a major election issue but Attlee gave the matter a great deal of attention and was the chief leader in beginning the process of decolonisation of the British Empire. ====China and Hong Kong==== In August 1948, the Chinese Communists' victories caused Attlee to begin preparing for a Communist takeover of China.
Given the demands of the Muslim league, independence implied a partition that set off heavily Muslim Pakistan from the main portion of India. After becoming Prime Minister in 1945 Attlee originally planned to give India Dominion status in 1948, but in the event the Labour government gave full independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.
Gandhi himself was assassinated by a Hindu activist in January 1948. The final result was two nations consisting of a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan (which incorporated East Pakistan, now Bangladesh).
Both joined the Commonwealth. Attlee also sponsored the peaceful transition to independence in 1948 of Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka). ====Palestine==== One of the most urgent problems concerned the future of the Palestine Mandate.
Attlee was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Queen Mary College on 15 December 1948. ==Statues of Clement Attlee== On 30 November 1988, a bronze statue of Clement Attlee was unveiled by Harold Wilson (the next Labour Prime Minister after Attlee) outside Limehouse Library in Attlee's former constituency.
He supported the Marshall Plan to rebuild Western Europe with American money and, in 1949, promoted the NATO military alliance against the Soviet bloc.
In 1949, unemployment, sickness and maternity benefits were exempted from tax. ====Housing==== The New Towns Act 1946 set up development corporations to construct new towns, while the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 instructed county councils to prepare development plans and also provided compulsory purchase powers.
The Criminal Justice Act 1948 restricted imprisonment for juveniles and brought improvements to the probation and remand centres systems, while the passage of the Justices of the Peace Act 1949 led to extensive reforms of magistrates' courts.
The Merchant Shipping Act 1948 and the Merchant Shipping (Safety Convention) Act 1949 were passed to improve conditions for seamen.
Another balance of payments crisis in 1949 forced Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stafford Cripps, into devaluation of the pound. Despite these problems, one of the main achievements of Attlee's government was the maintenance of near full employment.
Britain's first successful nuclear test, however, did not occur until 1952, one year after Attlee had left office. The London dock strike of July 1949, led by Communists, was suppressed when the Attlee government sent in 13,000 Army troops and passed special legislation to promptly end the strike.
Retaining Hong Kong was especially important to him; although the Chinese Communists promised to not interfere with its rule, Britain reinforced the Hong Kong Garrison during 1949.
When the victorious Chinese Communists government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Chinese Nationalists, Britain became the first western country to formally recognise the People's Republic of China in January 1950. In 1954, a Labour Party delegation including Attlee visited China at the invitation of then Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai.
After leading Labour to a narrow victory at the 1950 general election, he sent British troops to fight in the Korean War. Attlee had inherited a country close to bankruptcy after the Second World War and beset by food, housing and resource shortages; despite his social reforms and economic programme, these problems persisted throughout his premiership, alongside recurrent currency crises and dependence on US aid.
The Shops Act 1950 consolidated previous legislation which provided that no one could be employed in a shop for more than six hours without having a break for at least 20 minutes.
Under the Coal Industry Nationalisation (Superannuation) Regulations 1950, a pension scheme for mineworkers was established.
Prefabricated classrooms were built and 928 new primary schools were constructed between 1945 and 1950.
When the victorious Chinese Communists government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Chinese Nationalists, Britain became the first western country to formally recognise the People's Republic of China in January 1950. In 1954, a Labour Party delegation including Attlee visited China at the invitation of then Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai.
This "new colonialism" worked slowly and had failures such as the Tanganyika groundnut scheme. ===1950 election=== The 1950 election gave Labour a massively reduced majority of five seats compared to the triple-digit majority of 1945.
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor.
His party was narrowly defeated by the Conservatives in the 1951 general election, despite winning the most votes.
Although the Attlee government failed to meet its targets, primarily due to economic constraints, over a million new homes were built between 1945 and 1951 (a significant achievement under the circumstances) which ensured that decent, affordable housing was available to many low-income families for the first time ever. ====Women and children==== A number of reforms were embarked upon to improve conditions for women and children.
The steel industry was nationalised in 1951.
By 1951 about 20 per cent of the British economy had been taken into public ownership. Nationalisation failed to provide workers with a greater say in the running of the industries in which they worked.
Between 1945 and 1951, the quality of rural life was improved by improvements in gas, electricity, and water services, as well as in leisure and public amenities.
In addition, the Livestock Rearing Act 1951 extended the provisions of the 1946 Hill Farming Act to the upland store cattle and sheep sector. At a time of world food shortages, it was vital that farmers produced the maximum possible quantities.
Between August 1945 and December 1951, 1,016,349 new homes were completed in England, Scotland, and Wales. When the Attlee government was voted out of office in 1951, the economy had been improved compared to 1945.
The period from 1946 to 1951 saw continuous full employment and steadily rising living standards, which increased by about 10 per cent each year.
During that same period, the economy grew by 3 per cent a year, and by 1951 the UK had "the best economic performance in Europe, while output per person was increasing faster than in the United States".
In addition, the number of motor cars on the roads rose from 3 million to 5 million from 1945 to 1951, and seaside holidays were taken by far more people than ever before.
Some major reforms were nevertheless passed, particularly regarding industry in urban areas and regulations to limit air and water pollution. ===1951 election=== By 1951, the Attlee government was exhausted, with several of its most senior ministers ailing or ageing, and with a lack of new ideas.
Attlee's record for settling internal differences in the Labour Party fell in April 1951, when there was a damaging split over an austerity Budget brought in by the Chancellor, Hugh Gaitskell, to pay for the cost of Britain's participation in the Korean War.
Thus escalated a battle between the left and right wings of the Party that continues today. Finding it increasingly impossible to govern, Attlee's only chance was to call a snap election in October 1951, in the hope of achieving a more workable majority and to regain authority.
Attlee tendered his resignation as Prime Minister the following day, after six years and three months in office. ==Return to opposition== Following the defeat in 1951, Attlee continued to lead the party as Leader of the Opposition.
Many Labour MPs felt that Attlee should have retired after the 1951 election and allowed a younger man to lead the party.
"The Fall of the Attlee Government, 1951." in Timothy Heppell and Kevin Theakston, eds.
'Home help' therefore included the provision of home-helps for nursing and expectant mothers and for mothers with children under the age of five, and by 1952 some 20,000 women were engaged in this service. ====Planning and development==== Development rights were nationalised while the government attempted to take all development profits for the State.
As a result of the Attlee government's initiatives in agriculture, there was a 20 per cent increase in output between 1947 and 1952, while Britain adopted one of the most mechanised and efficient farming industries in the world. ====Education==== The Attlee government ensured provisions of the Education Act 1944 were fully implemented, with free secondary education becoming a right for the first time.
Britain's first successful nuclear test, however, did not occur until 1952, one year after Attlee had left office. The London dock strike of July 1949, led by Communists, was suppressed when the Attlee government sent in 13,000 Army troops and passed special legislation to promptly end the strike.
The first operational British A Bomb was not detonated until October 1952, about one year after Attlee had left office.
When the victorious Chinese Communists government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Chinese Nationalists, Britain became the first western country to formally recognise the People's Republic of China in January 1950. In 1954, a Labour Party delegation including Attlee visited China at the invitation of then Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai.
Bevan openly called for him to stand down in the summer of 1954.
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
He was Deputy Prime Minister during the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and served twice as Leader of the Opposition from 1935 to 1940 and from 1951 to 1955. Attlee was born into an upper-middle-class family, the son of a wealthy London solicitor.
He continued as Labour leader but retired after losing the 1955 election and was elevated to the House of Lords; he died in 1967.
At one time, Attlee had favoured Aneurin Bevan to succeed him as leader, but this became problematic after Bevan almost irrevocably split the party. In an interview with the News Chronicle columnist Percy Cudlipp in mid-September 1955, Attlee made clear his own thinking together with his preference for the leadership succession, stating: Attlee, now aged 72, contested the 1955 general election against Anthony Eden, which saw Labour lose 18 seats, and the Conservatives increase their majority.
He retired as Leader of the Labour Party on 7 December 1955, having led the party for twenty years, and on 14 December Hugh Gaitskell was elected as his replacement. ==Retirement== He subsequently retired from the House of Commons and was elevated to the peerage to take his seat in the House of Lords as Earl Attlee and Viscount Prestwood on 16 December 1955.
In 1958, he was, along with numerous notables, to establish the Homosexual Law Reform Society.
In May 1961, he travelled to Washington, D.C.
to meet with President Kennedy. In 1962, he spoke twice in the House of Lords against the British government's application for the UK to join the European Economic Community ("Common Market").
He lived to see the Labour Party return to power under Harold Wilson in 1964, but also to see his old constituency of Walthamstow West fall to the Conservatives in a by-election in September 1967. ==Death== Attlee died peacefully in his sleep of pneumonia, at the age of 84 at Westminster Hospital on 8 October 1967.
He also claimed that if Britain was a member, EEC rules would prevent the British government from planning the economy and that Britain's traditional policy had been outward looking rather than Continental. He attended Winston Churchill's funeral in January 1965.
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955.
He continued as Labour leader but retired after losing the 1955 election and was elevated to the House of Lords; he died in 1967.
He lived to see the Labour Party return to power under Harold Wilson in 1964, but also to see his old constituency of Walthamstow West fall to the Conservatives in a by-election in September 1967. ==Death== Attlee died peacefully in his sleep of pneumonia, at the age of 84 at Westminster Hospital on 8 October 1967.
That's why he was so damn good". Thatcher herself wrote in her 1995 memoirs, which charted her beginnings in Grantham to her victory at the 1979 general election, that she admired Attlee, writing: "Of Clement Attlee, however, I was an admirer.
In 2004, he was voted the most successful British Prime Minister of the 20th century by a poll of 139 academics organised by Ipsos MORI. A blue plaque unveiled in 1979 commemorates Attlee at 17 Monkhams Avenue, in Woodford Green in the London borough of Redbridge. Attlee was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947.
The restored statue was unveiled by Peter Mandelson in April 2011, in its new position less than a mile away at the Queen Mary University of London's Mile End campus. There is also a statue of Clement Attlee in the Houses of Parliament that was erected, instead of a bust, by parliamentary vote in 1979.
Attlee was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of Queen Mary College on 15 December 1948. ==Statues of Clement Attlee== On 30 November 1988, a bronze statue of Clement Attlee was unveiled by Harold Wilson (the next Labour Prime Minister after Attlee) outside Limehouse Library in Attlee's former constituency.
Quite contrary to the general tendency of politicians in the 1990s, he was all substance and no show". Attlee's government presided over the successful transition from a wartime economy to peacetime, tackling problems of demobilisation, shortages of foreign currency, and adverse deficits in trade balances and government expenditure.
That's why he was so damn good". Thatcher herself wrote in her 1995 memoirs, which charted her beginnings in Grantham to her victory at the 1979 general election, that she admired Attlee, writing: "Of Clement Attlee, however, I was an admirer.
By then Wilson was the last surviving member of Attlee's cabinet, and the unveiling of the statue would be one of the last public appearances by Wilson, who was by that point in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease; he died at the age of 79 in May 1995. Limehouse Library was closed in 2003, after which the statue was vandalised.
Ideas and policies under Labour, 1945–1951: building a new Britain (Manchester University Press, 1997). Golant, W.
Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2000.
(Politicos Publishing, 2002); Morgan, Kenneth O.
By then Wilson was the last surviving member of Attlee's cabinet, and the unveiling of the statue would be one of the last public appearances by Wilson, who was by that point in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease; he died at the age of 79 in May 1995. Limehouse Library was closed in 2003, after which the statue was vandalised.
In 2004, he was voted the most successful British Prime Minister of the 20th century by a poll of 139 academics organised by Ipsos MORI. A blue plaque unveiled in 1979 commemorates Attlee at 17 Monkhams Avenue, in Woodford Green in the London borough of Redbridge. Attlee was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947.
"Attlee, Clement Richard, first Earl Attlee (1883–1967)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 12 June 2013 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30498 Biographies of his cabinet and associates Rosen, Greg.
The council surrounded it with protective hoarding for four years, before eventually removing it for repair and recasting in 2009.
Attlee: A Life in Politics (IB Tauris, 2010). Whiting, R.
The restored statue was unveiled by Peter Mandelson in April 2011, in its new position less than a mile away at the Queen Mary University of London's Mile End campus. There is also a statue of Clement Attlee in the Houses of Parliament that was erected, instead of a bust, by parliamentary vote in 1979.
Attlee's War: World War II and the Making of a Labour Leader (IB Tauris, 2011). Harris, Kenneth.
"Attlee, Clement Richard, first Earl Attlee (1883–1967)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 12 June 2013 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30498 Biographies of his cabinet and associates Rosen, Greg.
"Attlee, Clement Richard, first Earl Attlee (1883–1967)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011 accessed 12 June 2013 doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/30498 Biographies of his cabinet and associates Rosen, Greg.
How Labour Governments Fall (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2013).
Citizen Clem: A Biography of Attlee, (London: 2016, British edition); Clement Attlee: The Man Who Made Modern Britain (New York: Oxford U.P.
Churchill & Attlee: The Unlikely Allies who Won the War (Biteback Publishing, 2018), popular. Crowcroft, Robert.
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