The Labour Government and the House of Commons

Abstract

URING THE YEARS 1945-51, the British Labour party was for the first time in power as well as in office. The new House of Commons elected in 1945 replaced that of a ten-year-old Parliament, and though its new Labour majority had sought no mandate to reshape the House of Commons, given the reformist inclinations and promises of the Labour party, the electorate's importunate demand for greater governmental efficiency and responsiveness, the huge legislative tasks imposed by the reconstruction program, and even, indeed, the wartime physical destruction of the House of Commons' meeting place, it was inevitable that in the following six years when so many British institutions faced alteration the House of Commons would also undergo change. To be sure, there were fears in some quarters for the future of parliamentary government under Labour domination; many Conservatives were disposed to argue that the Labour victory would put the Government in the hands of a party executive entirely beyond the control of the House. When the Parliament assembled at the opening of the 1945 session, however, Mr. Churchill was moved to pay graceful tribute to the House and the Labour majority now opposed to him, saying, in part: