1951 General Election

• Labour's manifesto made their intentions clear
• Prepared for social reform following Bevridge Report
• Conservatives associated with "Hungry 30s" and depression
• Conservatives also had a weak campaign and no real policy --> focused on war effort
• Churchill's claims of a Labour Gestapo-style police state lost Conservative support
• Conservative's misjudged public --> thought they would want Churchill as a peacetime leader --> many were unsure he would be a good peacetime leader

• Education reforms: didn't go far enough and wasn't what Bevridge recommendations asked for
• Health: introduction of prescription charges due to rearmament/Koren War but also because NHS wasn't paying for itself and becoming increasingly more expensive
• Housing: didn't go far enough --> prefabs only temporary and housing wasn't replaced quickly enough. Werent't enough houses built
• Unemployment benefit: increased but then cut back. Small stepping stone on National Insurance and National Assistance Acts
• Family Allowance: was popular in 1945
• Pension Increases: popular due to lack of increases since 1920

People wanted change in 1945, but by 1951 were unsure that Labour would keep them in place

• Nationalisation: had mixed appeal - saved coal and transport industries from certain collapse, however iron and steel were thriving industries and people were uspet with their nationalisation.
• Devaluation of the pound: popular - increased exports and helped economy - especially when Labour struggled to balance payments.
• Rearmament: caused problems with social reform --> expenditure switched to rearmament --> created internal divisions
• Wage freezes: unpopular, as were wealth taxes with the middle classes
• Balance of payments problem: unpopular --> led to American loan, and the use of wage freezes and rationing to stabilise economy. Cuts in expenditure also caused upset and internal divisions.

• Cripps attempted to oust Attlee and replace him with Bevan in 1947, but then became chancellor
• Expenditure cuts upset left-wing members. These cuts effected the NHS and other parts of the welfare state
• Bevin's resignation in 1951 due to April budget's introduction of prescription charges --> followed by Harold Wilson and John Freeman
• Attlee's failure to reconcile differences within Labour due to re-emerging balance crisis --> calls election in October 1951
• Conservatives attempted to reorganise and modernise in 1951 under Lord Woolton as chairman
• Tory campaign launched by Woolton to increase grassroots support and raise funds. --> Money used to revamp Central Office and regional associations
• Maxwell-Fyfe introduced plan to restrict individual contributions --> influenced possible selection of parliamentary candidates --> Conservatives seen as more democratic
• Reorganisation gathered momentum --> Conservatives ready for office
• Butler published Industrial Charter 1947 --> showed Tory commitment to welfare state
• Liberal supporters without a candidate more inclined to vote Tory