1945–1951 : Labour’s First Term

Abstract

The Labour government came into power on 26 July 1945. The British electorate who had granted them an overwhelming victory were in a situation unprecedented in the history of these islands. The war which had started with a series of defeats, temporarily stalemated by the Battle of Britain, had gone on to involve nearly all the world. Victory in Europe after a series of advances on all fronts was less than three weeks behind, and successive naval and land victories in the Pacific spelt out the inevitable defeat of Japan. Also unprecedented was Labour’s sweeping victory, giving them for the first time an absolute majority in the House of Commons of 146 over the Conservatives, Liberals and all others combined. This gave Labour power to do anything a British government of the time could do. The limitations on its power were not in the House, but in the external world. During the war Britain had lost something like a quarter of its wealth, amounting to about £7 billion. Having exhausted its foreign exchange early on, the funding of the British war machine and the feeding of its citizens had been largely financed by American lease-lend, which came to an abrupt end in August 1945.