Labour's election victory

In July 1945 Britain had its first election since 1935. Most people expected Churchill, the Prime Minister who led Britain to victory and leader of the Conservative Party, to win easily. Instead, Clement Atlee's Labour Party won a landslide victory, sweeping aside Churchill and his Conservatives. What were the reasons for this dramatic vote for change?

For one thing, the soldiers' votes ('the khaki vote') went overwhelmingly to Labour. They remembered the bitter lessons learned by their fathers in 1918. They had been promised then a 'land fit for heroes', homes and jobs. Instead they found that their sacrifice had earned them only the same unemployment and slums they had left in 1914. The new generation of soldiers in 1945 was determined that this would not happen again. They wanted the Britain which emerged after the Second World War to be different from the Britain of 1939. A vote for Labour seemed the best way to make sure this happened.

Churchill - out of touch

Labour promised a free and national health service and to nationalise the mines, railways, electricity and gas industries. The state would make sure that these vital industries would be run for the benefit of the nation and not just their private owners. Bevin promised 4 million new council homes - only 1 million had been built between 1919 and 1939. All this matched the mood of a people who wanted change and believed that Labour would deliver these promises. Churchill, a man from a wealthy aristocratic family, was seen as out of touch with the ordinary people.

Neil Demarco: The era of the Second World War; Oxford University Press, 1993/2000, page 65