with problems about food rationing. His obituary in The Glasgow Herald noted he had introduced bread rationing almost as soon as he took up his new office and that although he defended the policy as being "forced on him by world shortage", this was deeply unpopular; from then on he and his junior minister Dr Edith Summerskill were faced with "constant criticism which would have tried spirits more patient than those of Strachey". Another issue with which he had to deal was the Tanganyika groundnut scheme. The same obituarist opined that Strachey's defence of the "ill-fated groundnuts scheme" was "more notable for loyalty than discretion". On the division of the Dundee constituency, he was elected as Labour MP for Dundee West in February 1950, holding the seat until his death in 1963. He succeeded Manny Shinwell as Secretary of State for War (1950–51). This was not a Cabinet post at the time. His Glasgow Herald obituary commented that the move to the War Office "was, therefore, no surprise" after his unpopularity at the Food Ministry. Strachey was subjected to press attack after the Klaus Fuchs Affair (March 1950) as he was known to have been a communist sympathiser. He then denounced the Schuman Plan, which did not help his reputation. He had doubts about the Korean War but unlike Aneurin Bevan did not resign in April 1951. During the Labour Party's civil war of the early 1950s Strachey tried to be an "insider", neither Bevanite nor Gaitskellite. He supported Hugh Gaitskell as successor to Clement Attlee as Labour Party leader in the 1955 leadership election. In the 1950s Strachey devoted much of his time to writing studies of British society from a social democratic viewpoint. Strachey was an opponent of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1963 he supported George Brown for the party leadership; the victorious candidate, Harold Wilson, appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs. Death Strachey died in Marylebone, London, on 15 July 1963, after a spinal operation, aged 61. His wealth at death was £50,157 and 1s (). Publications Revolution by Reason (1925) Workers' Control in the Russian Mining Industry, (1928) The Coming Struggle for Power (1932) – in which he advocated reason, science and culture Unstable Money, John Day (1933) The Menace of Fascism (1933) – calling for militant resistance and arguing that fascism was based on the defence of private property The