Morrison and Nationalisation

Abstract

We have seen that Morrison’s claims to the party leadership were thwarted both in 1935 and in 1945. Nevertheless his work for the party was such as to give him a strong claim to be given a place in the Government second only to that of the Prime Minister. He was not obviously suited to be either Chancellor of the Exchequer or Foreign Secretary, and Attlee was wise in making him Lord President of the Council — a post the importance of which had developed rapidly during the war. The Lord President’s Committee in 1940–45 had been the most important of the Cabinet Committees, responsible for controlling the allocation of manpower between the Services and industry. The Civil Service head of the Lord President’s Office was Max Nicholson, who before the war had been the secretary of PEP (Political and Economic Planning, an unofficial body set up by some of those who believed in planning rather more than the National Government did, and which has now been absorbed into the Policy Studies Institute).1 Morrison was also to be Leader of the House of Commons, and in that capacity he took charge of the legislative programme — a very substantial commitment in the new, reforming Government. In addition, he retained close links with the extra-parliamentary party, being an elected member of the National Executive (on the constituency side), and Chairman of its Policy Committee.