WI: 1940 General Election goes ahead?

What if Winston Churchill had decided against a National Government and instead went ahead with a General Election in 1940. Who would have led the Tories? Would Labour make gains? Could the Conservatives ride on the "Dunkirk Spirit" and win a huge majority, or would they suffer due to the Appeasement Policy? What would the end result be?
 
Wouldn't organizing elections and campaigning under the German bombs be tough proposal, even for the British?
 

Thande

Donor
Wouldn't organizing elections and campaigning under the German bombs be tough proposal, even for the British?
We held by-elections during that parliament. It would be doable, they would probably just have to do it in staggered waves of voting (like modern India) rather than all on one day. Which wouldn't be that controversial, as the last election when voting had been spread over two weeks (Second 1910) was still in living memory.

What if Winston Churchill had decided against a National Government and instead went ahead with a General Election in 1940. Who would have led the Tories? Would Labour make gains? Could the Conservatives ride on the "Dunkirk Spirit" and win a huge majority, or would they suffer due to the Appeasement Policy? What would the end result be?

Remember that the National Government was not a new thing, it had existed since the Great Depression. The Conservatives did not campaign as a party in 1945 OTL but as the National Government which Labour had just decided to leave, as seen on the 1945 election posters below.

1945_british_election.jpg
 
Presuming the election woul be held around October, Guilty Men as already been published and presuming Churchill hasn't formed a coalition, many of the guilty will still be in Government, Chamberlian will also be at deaths door if he's leading the Government. Expect Major Attlee's Labour party to win by a margin similar to 1945.
 

Cook

Banned
Remember that the National Government was not a new thing, it had existed since the Great Depression. The Conservatives did not campaign as a party in 1945 OTL but as the National Government which Labour had just decided to leave, as seen on the 1945 election posters below.
Despite the same name, the pre-war 'National Government' in no way resembled the national government of the war years. Chamberlain’s government was a coalition of the Conservatives plus the Liberal Nationals and National Labour. Neither of the minor parties was actually necessary; the Conservatives had held a solid majority in the House since 1931. You’ll note that in the photo, in addition to the Labour banners and Churchill’s, there is also a Liberal banner, the liberal’s had remained outside the National government despite being invited into it and Churchill even offering them a cabinet seat if they’d joined.

Considering that the last election was in 1935, I am surprised Chamberlain didn’t call an election in 1939 while the country was still at peace.
 

Thande

Donor
Despite the same name, the pre-war 'National Government' in no way resembled the national government of the war years.


The one succeeded the other. The pre-war National Government was Conservative+Liberal National+National Labour, and as you correctly say the Conservatives didn't actually need the other parties, they had a majority alone. The war government consisted of Labour and the Liberals joining the existing National Government to make an even more National Government. Then in 1945 Labour and the Liberals left to contest the election as separate parties, while the pre-war National Government fought the election under that name, as seen above.
 


Considering that the last election was in 1935, I am surprised Chamberlain didn’t call an election in 1939 while the country was still at peace.


He couldn't, at least not after the Germans took the rest of Czechoslovakia despite the Munich agreement, it would have been electoral suicide. Before then it was just a bit too soon and he would rightly have been accused of cashing in on the positive feelings after the agreement. Feelings that were already turning to disgust.
 
Wouldn't organizing elections and campaigning under the German bombs be tough proposal, even for the British?
The stiffness of the british upper lip is almost as lengendary as the manlyness of the hair that grows on the sniffest of british upper lips of legend. True fact.
 
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