Rethinking a progressive moment: the Liberal and Labour parties in the 1945 general election

Abstract

Revisionist writing on the 1945 general election has suggested that the Labour victory largely reflected voters' hostility to the Conservative party, and a general enthusiasm for social reforms such as the Beveridge scheme, rather than widespread support for Labour's socialist agenda. This article argues that the Liberal party's poor performance in the 1945 election, and the low incidence of tactical voting against Conservative candidates, suggest that 1945 was more than just a reaction against Conservative rule. Instead, many voters appear to have been positively attracted to the identity which Labour projected, as the only party which grounded its promises of social reform in a vision of a planned economy.