Part I: The 1945 General Election
After the surrender of Germany, there was wild celebration in the United Kingdom on VE-Day. They had fought since the start of the conflict, for a while fighting alone with only the Commonwealth supporting them, and came out triumphant. Meanwhile, inside the Government, disagreements were emerging within the Coalition which had governed the UK during the war over the date of the next general election. Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Conservatives wished to maintain the Coalition Government until Japan surrendered, while Deputy PM Clement Attlee and Labour wished to hold an immediate general election. Eventually, the two parties compromised on holding a general election in October, and until then the Coalition Government would remain in place.
On September the 2nd 1945, Churchill was able to announce to the British people, via the radio, that Japan had surrendered – finally, the Second World War had come to an end in an Allied victory. Once again, there was jubilation on the streets of London. However, it was at this point that Attlee and Labour demanded that a general election should be held. So, Churchill agreed to dissolve Parliament and set the date for the general election – September the 27th.
And so, the campaign began. In the time between May and September, the Conservatives had re-built their organisation on the constituency level, meaning that the Party was more prepared for a general election than they would have been if one was called shortly after VE Day. Meanwhile, Churchill utilised the oratory that had inspired Britons during the war to encourage the British people to re-elect his Government. However, an opportunity came for both the Conservatives and Labour when proposals emerged to broadcast a debate between Churchill and Attlee via the Radio.
Both men accepted the invitation, and so, one week before polling day, the two men went head-to-head. Millions of people tuned into their radios to hear a major development, not only in broadcasting but also in election campaigns all together. For many people, the highlight of the radio debate came towards the end. It started when Attlee claimed that the Conservatives would not implement the Beveridge Report. Churchill immediately responded with:
‘Mr. Attlee, if you checked the Conservative Party Manifesto, then you would know that we are wholly committed to implementing the recommendations of the Beveridge Report – one would think a potential Prime Minister would do his research!’
This caught Attlee off guard and the Labour leader, before thinking about what he was going to say, stated that Churchill’s Manifesto would take ‘some kind of Gestapo’ to implement. This shocked not only Churchill and the other men in the room, but also the listeners at home. It was outrageous to make such a comparison. In opinion polls conducted after the debate (for there were a few), Churchill was considered the clear winner, with 74% of people believing so. Churchill and the Conservatives were now confident of re-election, and ‘landslide’ was a word on the lips of some Conservatives.
Eventually, polling day, September the 27th, arrived and the people cast their ballots. However, the ballots of the British soldiers still serving overseas still needed to be transferred back to the UK, and so the counting did not start immediately. Eventually, however, in early October, the counting of votes began, and soon the party leaders began to hear the individual results of constituencies.
By the time half of the seats had declared, there was jubilation in Conservative Party Headquarters – the Conservatives were not only holding seats, but were actually making gains. Once every constituency had declared, it was clear that Churchill and the Conservatives had won a significant victory.
Soon, Churchill was called to Buckingham Palace, where King George VI invited Churchill to form his second Government. And so, Churchill, the man who had won the war, would now lead the UK into a new age.
