Title: How Winston Churchill Lost the 1945 British General Election
Headings: Articles
Articles
How Winston Churchill Lost the 1945 British General Election
May 1945
July 1945
A watershed election
How Churchill lost
1. The Conservative campaign
2. The Labour alternative
3. The Tories’ poor image
“The bug seems to have caught my truculence”
Epilogue
The author

Content: The Labour alternative
The Labour Party’s platform for Britain’s future had been carefully worked out. It promised government-supported full employment, a free National Health Service. The Labour manifesto included nationalizing key industries: steel, coal, electricity, railways, the Bank of England, civil aviation and road transport. These were new and bright ideas in the eyes of many voters. At least, they thought, Labour had a plan! By comparison, the Tories offered nothing as comprehensive. Labour also seemed to know how to accomplish all it promised. They were not without experience: Churchill himself had placed many senior Labour leaders in charge of economic ministries during the war.