why labour lost the election

The conservatives had already reduced the Labour majority to five seats in the 1950 election. This small majority already made it difficult for labour to pass the new laws they wanted.

Aneurin Bevan and some of his supporters resigned from the goverment in protest at the introduction of prescription charges. 

Labour might have won more support if the election had been delayed. 

The Korean War was coming to an end and so rationing could be relaxed in 1952. Rising wages and the improving situation of British businesses as a result of Labour's devaluation of the pound in 1949 became more noticeable in 1952.

Labour won more votes in the 1951 election however the won fewer parlimentary seats than the conservatives. The 'First past the post' electoral system says that it is the party with the most seats in the house of commons, not the party with the most votes, that wins the election.

Conservative- 13,717,538 votes and 321 seats

Labour- 13,948,605 votes and 295 seats

The welfare reforms of the last six years had made them even more popular with their own working-class supporters. However, many middle-class voters who had voted Labour in 1945 no longer supported them because they were tired of the shortages and rationing that Labour had imposed. The conservatives won over some of these disaffected voters and so won back seats Labour lost in 1945.

Winston Churchill was still very popular and a powerful public speaker. He also allowed younger Conservatives to take the limelight. Many of these became very important in the future, for example Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan both went on to become prime minister. 

Many conservatives now accepted the need to accept many of the popular Labour reforms of the last sis years. In their election manifesto they promised to "maintain and improve the health service" as well as the more traditional conservative promise to "reduce taxation". Churchill promised that 300,000 houses a year would be built whereas Labour could only manage 200,000 a year.

Labour politicians were getting older. In 1950 the average age of the cabinet was 60. Many had been made very ill by the stress of more than a decade in government.

In the minds of many voters in 1951, Labour was still associated with a policy of austerity, rationing and shortages. There were other unpopular, but necessary, policies like devaluation of the pound and high taxation. In te 1951 budget standard income tax was set at 47.5% (it is only 20% today).

Labour also had trouble with some of its more traditional supporters. Trade unions were becoming increasingly angry at the lack of progress on meeting workers' demands. Strikes were on the increase, such as the **** strikes of 1948 and 1949. The gevernment was responding by usuing wartime powers like Order 1305 to imprison strikers. 

There were some vague plans for nationalisation- water supply, cement, sugar refining- even though no clear reasins were given to explain why this was necessary.

The Liberals could only put up 475 candidates in the 1950 election and 109 in the 1951 election as the party had run out of money. More Liberal voters moved to support Conservatives rather than labour in constituencies where there was no Liberal candidate.

The 1948 Reform Act had re-drawn constituency boundaries to keep up with population changes. These changes had not been in Labour's favour. The Act also introduced postal voting, which also favoured conservatives as it meant that more elderly and infirm voters could still take part in elections. Attlee refused to postpone these reforms, and the 1951 election was the first time these boundaries had been used.