Aneurin Bevan: 1955 – 1959 (Labour)
In contrast to his predecessor Aneurin “Nye” Bevan constantly ranks as one of the greatest of the post-war Prime Ministers, though how much that has to do with how his term ended is a constant matter of discussion among political historians.
However not only was Bevan very different compared to Oliver Lyttelton, he also bore very little resemblance to the previous Labour Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison. Morrison had continued on as Leader of the Opposition into 1953, before being finally persuaded to retire. In the bruising leadership election that followed Bevan won out over the Morrisonian candidate Hugh Gaitskell and immediately began putting his own stamp upon the party.
While both of them came from working class backgrounds, (Morrison was the son of a police constable) Bevan’s background was by far the more impoverished being one of ten children of a Welsh miner. While Morrison came to parliament through local government, Bevan (who had begun work in the colliery at the age of thirteen) came to politics through the trade union movement and always had a stronger belief in Labour’s nationalisation program than Morrison. At one point during the Morrison government he had almost been tempted to resign over its views on prescription charges, but was persuaded by Clem Attlee to stay and wait for his moment.
Winning the 1955 election, with a twenty five seat majority over the Tories, Bevan’s first task was to correct most of the mistakes of the Lyttelton period, those that he had not corrected himself. Restoring power to the unions, Bevan (aware as only a former union official could be of the terrifying power of the unions when they were roused and angry) next set about setting up arbitration boards, which the trade unions and employers were required by law to sit down with, for a minimum of one month before any strikes could be called. Attempts to convince the trade union leaders to outlaw wild cat strikes and implement a voting threshold to for strike votes however came to naught.
Forced to shelve his desire to nationalise the health service, due to the popularity of LHS, Bevan instead focused on two other pillars of the Labour manifesto, infrastructure and economic planning. With regards to infrastructure, Bevan focused not only on the need to build more houses (which had begun under Morrison but had slowed during Lyttelton’s tenure) but also to build up the surrounding areas. Bevan understood that houses alone did not make a community, but that houses and shops were important too. During Bevan’s time in office an ambitious town building program was begun that under his two successors saw at least fifty small towns spring up around the country, (though of course plenty of land was saved for conservation, not to mention many public parks founded).
On top of the town building program, Bevan also initiated a long term travel plan, funding the construction of a whole spate of new motorways to ferry people back and forth across the country, while at the same time diverting money to the railways, saving many of the smaller local railways from falling into disrepair.
Bevan also resurrected Morrison’s plans for a Department of Economic Affairs. The responsibilities of the Treasury split in two the DEA was given the responsibility for long term economic planning, including all that related to industry. George Brown was moved from his position at the Home Office to head up the DEA, while Hugh Gaitskell, remained Chancellor of the Exchequer. Members of the Tory backbenches referred to the DEA derisively as the “Department for the Five Year Plan” but Bevan who always delighted in parliamentary discourse, argued that “a five year plan was better than planning to set the country back ten years.”
Following Lyttelton’s lack of interest in the international scene, Bevan (who had spent a brief period as Shadow Foreign Secretary) decided to make it his job to take Britain back out into the world. One of the first acts of his premiership however was actually to defund Lyttelton’s nuclear deterrent program. Bevan had no time for nuclear weapons and preferred that the countries money be spent on something that would benefit the country at large. He did however agree to start development of a joint Anglo-American deterrent.
When it comes to foreign affairs Bevan is principle remembered for two things. Firstly Bevan as a man solidly of the left was able to improve the UK’s relationship with the Soviets. While the relationship between Bevan and Khrushchev were far from friendly, they were at least cordial and the UK became a significant go-between in American-Soviet relations. Secondly and most importantly Bevan is remembered as the man who reformed the Empire. Realising that it was no longer practical for the UK to possess an empire, but aware that simple independence could cause more harm than good, he called a one week conference of all empire heads of state. Alongside his foreign secretary, Harold Wilson, through cajoling and a good cop, bad cop routine, Bevan reformed the Empire into the Commonwealth Federation we had today. Independence would be slow and moderated by the Commonwealth Commission which would be comprised of commissioners comprised of every member state. This would also allow the former empire to speak with one voice through the commission, though separate seats were maintained on bodies such as the UN. The creation of the Federation is widely and correctly recognised as the crowning achievement of Bevan’s premiership.
However no record of Bevan’s time in office is complete without discussion of how it ended. While preparing to campaign for re-election in 1959, Bevan checked himself into hospital with severe stomach pains. An exploratory operation revealed malignant stomach cancer. Aware how rigorous and exhausting treatment would be, he immediately tendered his resignation to the Queen, Labour’s deputy leader quickly being elected to succeed him. Bevan also resigned from the House of Commons retiring to his home in Chesham where he died the following year.