Editing Clement Attlee (section)

==Prime Minister<!-- linked from redirects [[Premiership of Clement Attlee]], [[Prime ministership of Clement Attlee]] -->==
{{Main|Attlee ministry}}{{see also|Post-war Britain (1945–1979)
}}
{{Infobox administration
| image = Clement Attlee.jpg
| caption = Attlee in 1950
| name = Premiership of Clement Attlee
| term_start = 26 July 1945
| term_end = 26 October 1951
| cabinet = [[Attlee ministry]]
| party = [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]]
| election = {{hlist|[[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]]|[[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]}}
| monarch = [[George VI]]
| seat = [[10 Downing Street]]
| predecessor = [[First premiership of Winston Churchill|Winston Churchill]]
| successor = [[Second premiership of Winston Churchill|Winston Churchill]]
|seal=Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government, 1901-1952).svg|seal_caption=Coat of Arms of HM Government}}

===Domestic policy===
Francis (1995) argues there was consensus both in the Labour's national executive committee and at party conferences on a definition of socialism that stressed moral improvement as well as material improvement. The Attlee government was committed to rebuilding British society as an ethical commonwealth, using public ownership and controls to abolish extremes of wealth and poverty. Labour's ideology contrasted sharply with the contemporary Conservative Party's defence of individualism, inherited privileges, and income inequality.<ref>Francis, Martin. "[https://academic.oup.com/tcbh/article-abstract/6/2/220/1665829?redirectedFrom=fulltext Economics and Ethics: The Nature of Labour's Socialism, 1945–1951] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519035036/https://academic.oup.com/tcbh/article-abstract/6/2/220/1665829?redirectedFrom=fulltext |date=19 May 2023 }}", ''Twentieth Century British History'' (1995) 6#2, pp.&nbsp;220–43.<!--publisher, ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> On 5 July 1948, Clement Attlee replied to a letter dated 22 June from [[James Murray (Durham politician)|James Murray]] and ten other MPs who raised concerns about West Indians who arrived on board the {{HMT|Empire Windrush}}.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/attlees-britain/empire-windrush-2/ | title=The National Archives – Homepage | work=The National Archives | access-date=10 May 2018 | archive-date=11 May 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180511085255/http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/attlees-britain/empire-windrush-2/ | url-status=live }}</ref> As for the prime minister himself, he was not much focused on economic policy, letting others handle the issues.<ref>{{cite book|author=Alec Cairncross|title=Years of Recovery: British Economic Policy 1945–51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UWj_AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA49|year=2013|page=49|publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781136597701}}</ref>

====Nationalisation====
Attlee's government also carried out their manifesto commitment for [[nationalisation]] of basic industries and public utilities. The [[Bank of England]] and civil aviation were nationalised in 1946. [[National Coal Board|Coal mining]], the [[British Rail|railways]], road haulage, canals and [[Cable & Wireless plc|Cable and Wireless]] were nationalised in 1947, and electricity and gas followed in 1948. The [[Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain|steel industry]] was nationalised in 1951. By 1951 about 20 per cent of the British economy had been taken into [[public ownership]].<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/>

Nationalisation failed to provide workers with a greater say in the running of the industries in which they worked. It did, however, bring about significant material gains for workers in the form of higher wages, reduced working hours,<ref>{{cite book |last=Pelling |first=Henry |title=The Labour Governments, 1945–51}}<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> and improvements in working conditions, especially in regards to safety.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cawood |first=Ian |title=Britain in the Twentieth Century}}<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref> As historian Eric Shaw noted of the years following nationalisation, the electricity and gas supply companies became "impressive models of public enterprise" in terms of efficiency, and the [[National Coal Board]] was not only profitable, but working conditions for miners had significantly improved as well.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book |last=Shaw |first=Eric |title=The Labour Party since 1945}}<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

Within a few years of nationalisation, a number of progressive measures had been carried out which did much to improve conditions in the mines, including better pay, a five-day working week, a national safety scheme (with proper standards at all the collieries), a ban on boys under the age of 16 going underground, the introduction of training for newcomers before going down to the coalface, and the making of pithead baths into a standard facility.<ref>Kynaston, David. ''Austerity Britain 1945–1951''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>

The newly established National Coal Board offered sick pay and holiday pay to miners.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/intermediate2/history/cradle_to_the_grave/welfare_state/revision/11|title=The Labour Government 1945–51 – The Welfare State: Revision, Page 11|access-date=25 March 2016|work=bbc.co.uk|archive-date=28 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328121655/http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/intermediate2/history/cradle_to_the_grave/welfare_state/revision/11/|url-status=dead}}</ref> As noted by [[Martin Francis]]:
<blockquote>Union leaders saw nationalisation as a means to pursue a more advantageous position within a framework of continued conflict, rather than as an opportunity to replace the old adversarial form of industrial relations. Moreover, most workers in nationalised industries exhibited an essentially instrumentalist attitude, favouring public ownership because it secured job security and improved wages rather than because it promised the creation of a new set of socialist relationships in the workplace.<ref name="autogenerated5">Francis, Martin. ''Ideas and Policies Under Labour, 1945–1951''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</blockquote>

====Health====
[[File:Trafford General Hospital - geograph.org.uk - 21987.jpg|thumb|right|[[Trafford General Hospital]], known as the birthplace of the NHS]]
Attlee's [[Secretary of State for Health|Health Minister]], [[Aneurin Bevan]], fought hard against the general disapproval of the medical establishment, including the [[British Medical Association]], by creating the National Health Service in 1948. This was a [[publicly funded healthcare]] system, which offered treatment for all, regardless of income, free of charge at the point of use. Reflecting pent-up demand that had long existed for medical services, the NHS treated some 8.5 million dental patients and dispensed more than 5 million pairs of spectacles during its first year of operation.{{sfn|Jefferys|2014}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

Consultants benefited from the new system by being paid salaries that provided an acceptable standard of living without the need for them to resort to private practice.<ref>Timmins, Nicholas. ''The Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} The NHS brought major improvements in the health of working-class people, with deaths from diphtheria, pneumonia, and tuberculosis significantly reduced.<ref name="autogenerated3">Lowe, Norman. ''Mastering Modern World History'' (second edition)<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Although there were often disputes about its organisation and funding, British political parties continued to voice their general support for the NHS in order to remain electable.<ref name="healthaffairs">{{cite journal |url=http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/reprint/8/4/52.pdf |title=British public opinion on National Health Service reform|author=Blendon, R.J. & K. Donelan |journal=Health Affairs |volume=8 |issue=4 |year=1989 |pages=52–62 |pmid=2606439 |access-date=5 October 2014 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.8.4.52}}</ref>

In the field of health care, funds were allocated to modernisation and extension schemes aimed at improving administrative efficiency. Improvements were made in nursing accommodation in order to recruit more nurses and reduce labour shortages which were keeping 60,000 beds out of use, and efforts were made to reduce the imbalance "between an excess of fever and tuberculosis (TB) beds and a shortage of maternity beds".<ref>Chick, Martin. ''Industrial Policy in Britain 1945–1951: Economic Planning, Nationalisation and the Labour Governments''<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

[[BCG vaccinations]] were introduced for the protection of medical students, midwives, nurses, and contacts of patients with tuberculosis,<ref>Poverty, inequality and health in Britain, 1800–2000: a reader edited by George Davey Smith, Daniel Dorling, and Mary Shaw</ref> a pension scheme was set up for employees of the newly established NHS,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mbv_YPJTKy8C&q=NHS+pension+scheme+1948&pg=PA179 |title=Issues in Healthcare Risk Management |editor1=Emslie, Stuart |editor2=Hancock, Charles |publisher=Healthcare Governance Limited |location=Oxford |date=30 July 2008 |page=179 |access-date=21 July 2012 |isbn=9780955852602}}</ref> The National Health Service (Superannuation) Regulations 1947 laid down a number of provisions for beneficiaries including an officer's pension and retiring allowance, an injury allowance,  a short service gratuity,  a death gratuity, a widow's pension, and supplementary payments in the case of special classes of officers. Provision was also made for the allocation of part of pension or injury allowance to spouse of dependent.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=zDHyAAAAMAAJ&dq=national+health+service+superannuation+regulations+1947+No.++1755&pg=PA1373 Statutory Rules and Orders Other Than Those of a Local, Personal Or Temporary Character (varies Slightly).Volume 1, Part, By Great Britain. Laws, statutes, etc · 1948, p.&nbsp;1373]</ref>

The Radioactive Substances Act 1948 set out general provisions to control radioactive substances.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rees |first1=Naomi |last2=Watson |first2=David |title=International Standards for Food Safety |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FWjmJqPecHAC&q=united+kingdom+radioactive+substances+act+1948&pg=PA251 |date=30 April 2000 |publisher=Springer |access-date=9 January 2016 |isbn=9780834217683}}</ref> Numerous lesser reforms were also introduced, some of which were of great benefit to certain segments of British society, such as the mentally deficient and the blind.<ref name="autogenerated1964">Hill, C.&nbsp;P. ''British Economic and Social History, 1700–1964''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Between 1948 and 1951, Attlee's government increased spending on health from £6 billion to £11 billion: an increase of over 80%, and from 2.1% to 3.6% of GDP.<ref name="autogenerated4">''Ten Years of New Labour'' (edited by Matt Beech and Simon Lee)<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed-->{{page needed|date=May 2024}}</ref>

====Welfare====
The government set about implementing the Wartime plans of  [[William Beveridge]]'s plans for the creation of a 'cradle to grave' [[welfare state]], and set in place an entirely new system of [[social security]]. Among the most important pieces of legislation was the [[National Insurance Act 1946]], in which people in work paid a flat rate of [[national insurance]]. In return, they (and the wives of male contributors) were eligible for flat-rate pensions, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, and funeral benefit.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party">Thorpe, Andrew. (2001) ''A History of the British Labour Party'', Palgrave; {{ISBN|0-333-92908-X}}</ref> Various provisions were included in the [[National Insurance Act 1946]] including unemployment and sickness benefit, maternity grant and attendance allowance, maternity allowance, widow's benefit, widow's pensions in special cases,  guardian's allowance, retirement pension, and death grant.<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3SZLAQAAIAAJ&dq=National+Insurance+Act+1946+widows+allowance+widowed+mother%27s+allowance&pg=PA807 |chapter=National Insurance Act, 1946 |title=Compendious Abstract of Public General Acts |p=710 |via=Google Books |publisher=HMSO}}</ref>

Various other pieces of legislation provided for [[child benefit]] and support for people with no other source of income.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/> In 1949, unemployment, sickness and maternity benefits were exempted from taxation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/101481 |title=HC S Budget Resolution and Economic Situation |publisher=Margaret Thatcher Foundation |date=5 May 1966 |access-date=20 March 2013}}</ref>

A block grant introduced in 1948 helped the social services provided by local authorities.<ref name="ReferenceC">[[Morgan, Kenneth O.]] ''Labour in Power, 1945–1951''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Personal Social Services or welfare services were developed in 1948 for individual and families in general, particularly special groups such as the mentally disordered, deprived children, the elderly, and the handicapped.<ref>Byrne, Tony & Colin F. Padfield. ''Social Services: Made Simple''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

The Attlee Government increased pensions and other benefits, with pensions raised to become more of a living income than they had ever been. War pensions and allowances (for both World Wars) were increased by an act of 1946{{which|date=February 2024}} which gave the wounded man with an allowance for his wife and children if he married after he had been wounded, thereby removing a grievance of more than twenty years standing.<ref name="SocialismThe">''Socialism: The British Way'' (edited by Donald Munro).<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Other improvements were made in war pensions during Attlee's tenure as prime minister. A Constant Attendance Allowance was tripled, an Unemployability Allowance was tripled from 10s to 30s a week, and a special hardship allowance of up to £1 a week was introduced. In addition, the 1951 Budget made further improvements in the supplementary allowances for many war pensioners. From 1945 onwards, three out of every four pension claims had been successful, whilst after the First World War only one pension claim in three was allowed.<ref name="auto">''Fifty Facts for Labour'', published by the Labour Party, Transport House, Smith Square, London, SW1, October 1951.</ref> Under the Superannuation (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948, employees of a body representative of local authorities or of the officers of local authorities could be admitted "on suitable terms to the superannuation fund of a local authority".<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PX0oAAAAQBAJ&q=united+kingdom+Superannuation+%28Miscellaneous+Provisions%29+Act+1948&pg=PA210|title=Pension and Widows' and Orphans' Funds|isbn=9781107621749|access-date=9 January 2016| last1=Crabbe|first1=R. J. W.|last2=Poyser|first2=C. A.|date=22 August 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> In 1951, a comforts allowance was introduced that was automatically paid to war pensioners "receiving unemployability supplement and constant attendance allowance".<ref>''Welfare Policy Under the Conservatives, 1951–1964: A Guide to Documents in the Public Record Office'' by Paul Bridgen and Rodney Lowe</ref>

The Personal injuries (Civilians) Scheme of 1947 included various benefits such as  an exceptional maximum rate of constant attendance allowance of 40s a week, and an allowance for wear and tear of clothing caused by the use of artificial limbs and appliances. In addition, allowances payable while a pensioner underwent inpatient treatment "are normally no longer subject to a deduction in respect of decreased home expenditure." Various changes were also made in respect of gainfully employed persons who sustained war injuries and civil defence volunteers who war service injuries. These included the provision of allowances for the wife and children for injured persons receiving injury allowance or disablement pension, amendments to the provisions for an allowance to a pensioner deemed unemployable by reason of his pensioned disablement "to secure that he receives in the aggregate by way of unemployability allowance and any social service benefits for which he is eligible at least 20s. a week in addition to his pension," increases in the allowance payable for a wife of a person receiving treatment allowance, unemployability allowance or injury allowance under certain conditions and "if no allowance is payable for a wife, an allowance may be granted for a dependant adult," and  a social hardship allowance for partially disabled men "who, though not unemployable, is prevented by his pensioned disablement from resuming his former occupation or taking up one of equivalent standard." Also, "Where a man dies as the direct result of a qualifying injury his widow may be awarded a pension (with allowances for his children) without regard to the date of marriage."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYRQAQAAIAAJ&dq=United+kingdom+personal+injury+civilian+scheme+1946&pg=PA1595 |title=Statutory Rules and Orders Other Than Those of a Local, Personal, Or Temporary Character 1947 |pages=1589-1638}}</ref>

A more extensive system of social welfare benefits<ref>{{cite book |url=https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Clement_Attlee/Tn27AAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Clement+Attlee+National+Insurance+Act+1946&pg=PA79&printsec=frontcover |title=Clement Attlee |first= Jerry |last=Hardman Brookshire |year= 1995 |p=79}}</ref><ref>[https://www.historyisnowmagazine.com/blog/2024/10/18/the-british-labour-party-and-welfare-the-legacies-of-the-attlee-and-wilson-governments ''The British Labour Party and Welfare: The Legacies of the Attlee and Wilson Governments'' By Vittorio Trevitt, Published by History Is Now, October 20, 2024]</ref><ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Ideas_and_Economic_Crises_in_Britain_fro/KoRCAdfkAfEC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Clement+Attlee+National+Insurance+Act+1946&pg=PA62&printsec=frontcover ''Ideas and Economic Crises in Britain from Attlee to Blair (1945-2005)'' By Matthias Matthijs, 2012, P.62]</ref> had been established by the Attlee Government, which did much to reduce acute social deprivation. The cumulative impact of the Attlee's Government's health and welfare policies was such that all the indices of health (such as statistics of school medical or dental officers, or of medical officers of health) showed signs of improvement, with continual improvements in survival rates for infants and increased life expectancy for the elderly.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> The success of the Attlee Government's welfare legislation in reducing poverty was such that, in the general election of 1950, according to one study, "Labour propaganda could make much of the claim that social security had eradicated the most abject destitution of the 1930s".{{sfn|Jefferys|2014}}{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

====Education====
The Attlee government ensured provisions of the [[Education Act 1944]] were fully implemented, with free secondary education becoming a right for the first time. Fees in state grammar schools were eliminated, while new, modern secondary schools were constructed.<ref>Hopkins, Eric. ''Industrialisation and Society: A Social History, 1830–1951''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

The school leaving age was raised to 15 in 1947, an accomplishment helped brought into fruition by initiatives such as the [[HORSA]] ("Huts Operation for Raising the School-leaving Age") scheme and the S.F.O.R.S.A. (furniture) scheme.<ref name="lib-161.lse.ac.uk">{{cite web|url=https://digital.library.lse.ac.uk/Documents/Detail/next-steps-in-education-a-discussion-pamphlet-based-on-a-report-to-the-fabian-education-group-1949/101438 |title=Next Steps in Education}}</ref> University scholarships were introduced to ensure that no one who was qualified "should be deprived of a university education for financial reasons",<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqHbQYSsGvUC&q=ellen+wilkinson+free+school+meals&pg=PA21|title=Education Policy|access-date=9 January 2016|isbn=9781446271568|last1=Abbott|first1=Ian|last2=Rathbone|first2=Michael|last3=Whitehead|first3=Phillip|date=12 November 2012|archive-date=24 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224170009/https://books.google.com/books?id=SqHbQYSsGvUC&q=ellen+wilkinson+free+school+meals&pg=PA21#v=snippet&q=ellen%20wilkinson%20free%20school%20meals&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> while a large school building programme was organised.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mSpBQAAQBAJ&q=ellen+wilkinson+university+scholarships&pg=PA120|title=The Home Front in Britain|access-date=9 January 2016|isbn=9781137348999|last1=Lomas|first1=Janis|date=29 October 2014|publisher=Springer|archive-date=24 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224170025/https://books.google.com/books?id=0mSpBQAAQBAJ&q=ellen+wilkinson+university+scholarships&pg=PA120#v=snippet&q=ellen%20wilkinson%20university%20scholarships&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> A rapid increase in the number of trained teachers took place, and the number of new school places was increased.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SqHbQYSsGvUC&q=Tomlinson+was+successful+in+increasing+the+number+of+new+school+places&pg=PA22|title=Education Policy|access-date=9 January 2016|isbn=9781446271568|last1=Abbott|first1=Ian|last2=Rathbone|first2=Michael|last3=Whitehead|first3=Phillip|date=12 November 2012}}</ref> Under the Education Act of 1946<ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/9-10/50/enacted#:~:text=1946%20CHAPTER%2050,Libraries%20Acts%2C%201892%20to%201919 Education Act 1946 1946 CHAPTER 50]</ref> and the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948,<ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/11-12/40/enacted Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1948 1948 CHAPTER 40]</ref> local authorities were empowered to provide clothing to pupils.

Increased Treasury funds were made available for education, particularly for upgrading school buildings suffering from years of neglect and war damage.<ref name="autogenerated2">Jefferys, Kevin. ''The Labour Party since 1945''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Prefabricated classrooms were built, and 928 new primary schools were constructed between 1945 and 1950. The provision of free school meals was expanded, and opportunities for university entrants were increased.<ref>Hartley, Cathy. ''A Historical Dictionary of British Women''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} State scholarships to universities were increased,<ref>Pelling, Henry & Alastair J. Reid. ''A Short History of the Labour Party''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} and the government adopted a policy of supplementing university scholarships awards to a level sufficient to cover fees plus maintenance.<ref name="lib-161.lse.ac.uk"/>

Many thousands of ex-servicemen were assisted to go through college who could never have contemplated it before the war.{{sfn|Munro|1948}} Free milk was also made available to all schoolchildren for the first time.<ref>Oddy, Derek J. ''From Plain Fare to Fusion Food: British Diet from the 1890s to the 1990s''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} In addition, spending on technical education rose, and the number of nursery schools was increased.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zaD1Gn0Wls0C&q=labour+government+1945-1951+nursery+schools+increased&pg=PA244|title=Democratic Socialism and Economic Policy: The Attlee Years, 1945–1951|author=Tomlinson, Jim|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge, UK|page=244|year=1997|access-date=21 July 2012|isbn=9780521892599|archive-date=24 February 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240224170007/https://books.google.com/books?id=zaD1Gn0Wls0C&q=labour+government+1945-1951+nursery+schools+increased&pg=PA244#v=snippet&q=labour%20government%201945-1951%20nursery%20schools%20increased&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Salaries for teachers were also improved, and funds were allocated towards improving existing schools.<ref name="autogenerated1945">Pritt, Denis Nowell. ''The Labour Government 1945–51''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

In 1947 the [[Arts Council of Great Britain]] was set up to encourage the arts.<ref name="google7">{{cite book|title=Freedom and Faith: A Question of Scottish Identity|author=Smith, D.|date=2013|publisher=St. Andrew Press, Ltd|isbn=9780861538133|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYb-AQAAQBAJ|page=54|access-date=5 October 2014}}</ref>

The [[Ministry of Education (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Education]] was established under the 1944 Act, and free County Colleges were set up for the compulsory part-time instruction of teenagers between the ages of 15 and 18 who were not in full-time education.<ref>Hodge, B. & W.&nbsp;L. Mellor. ''Higher School Certificate History''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} An Emergency Training Scheme was also introduced which turned out an extra 25,000 teachers in 1945–1951.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:YdHEFfT32noJ:campbeltowngrammar.org.uk/downloads/history/5_year/british_higher/labour-reforms/i-assessment/1945-1951_labour_government.doc+%E2%80%9CPrefab%E2%80%9D+classrooms+were+also+built+and+928+new+primary+schools+were+constructed+between+1945+and+1950&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgaOtfB49c9TMEFcKCx0vUvwvLMyzSWQ9JMXlhiobC4Nc_-tDp2dZDqxDPSU6ylDlCONx_3vjFQ7Fc3VaJMijATeUPQ9lRI_EbAVSjjKj4Wb-s5sWyh0gIQ-oyKgx9L9VZIEDfB&sig=AHIEtbTl0DuRvchpzLCqCLa8NHX25FRRPA|title=Powered by Google Docs|access-date=2 October 2011|archive-date=12 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112212628/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:YdHEFfT32noJ:campbeltowngrammar.org.uk/downloads/history/5_year/british_higher/labour-reforms/i-assessment/1945-1951_labour_government.doc+%E2%80%9CPrefab%E2%80%9D+classrooms+were+also+built+and+928+new+primary+schools+were+constructed+between+1945+and+1950&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgaOtfB49c9TMEFcKCx0vUvwvLMyzSWQ9JMXlhiobC4Nc_-tDp2dZDqxDPSU6ylDlCONx_3vjFQ7Fc3VaJMijATeUPQ9lRI_EbAVSjjKj4Wb-s5sWyh0gIQ-oyKgx9L9VZIEDfB&sig=AHIEtbTl0DuRvchpzLCqCLa8NHX25FRRPA|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1947, Regional Advisory Councils were set up to bring together industry and education to find out the needs of young workers "and advise on the provision required, and to secure reasonable economy of provision".<ref>''Whitaker's Almanack'', J. Whitaker & Sons, 1987<!--page(s); ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} That same year, thirteen Area Training Organisations were set up in England and one in Wales to coordinate teacher training.<ref name="educationengland">{{cite web|url=https://education-uk.org/history/timeline.html|title=Education in England – Timeline|author=Gillard, Derek|publisher=educationengland.org.uk|access-date=5 October 2014|archive-date=19 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819075553/http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/timeline.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Attlee's government, however, failed to introduce the [[comprehensive education]] for which many socialists had hoped. This reform was eventually carried out by [[Harold Wilson]]'s government. During its time in office, the Attlee government increased spending on education by over 50 per cent, from £6.5&nbsp;billion to £10&nbsp;billion.{{sfn|Beech|Lee|2008}}

====Economy====
[[File:Overzicht van de markt, Bestanddeelnr 191-0944.jpg|thumb|[[Petticoat Lane Market]] in London, 1947]]
The most significant problem facing Attlee and his ministers remained the economy, as the [[war effort]] had left Britain nearly bankrupt.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | last = Gilbert | first = Bentley Brinkerhoff | title = Britain since 1945 Labour and the welfare state (1945–51) | encyclopedia = Britannica | url = https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945 | date = 2021 | access-date = 26 October 2021 | archive-date = 19 January 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240119232557/https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom/Britain-since-1945 | url-status = live }}</ref> Overseas investments had been used up to pay for the war. The transition to a peacetime economy, and the maintaining of strategic military commitments abroad led to continuous and severe problems with the [[balance of trade]]. This resulted in strict [[rationing]] of food and other essential goods continuing in the post war period to force a reduction in consumption in an effort to limit imports, boost exports, and stabilise the Pound Sterling so that Britain could trade its way out of its financial state.<ref name="Cowcroft Theakston">{{cite book |last1=Cowcroft |first1=Robert |last2=Theakston |first2=Kevin |editor1-last=Heppell |editor1-first=T |editor2-last=Theakston |editor2-first=Kevin |title=How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay Macdonald to Gordon Brown |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-230-36180-5 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/85710/2/Fall%20of%20Attlee%20Govt.pdf |access-date=5 December 2023 |chapter=The Fall of the Attlee Government, 1951 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |archive-date=14 January 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240114172944/https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/85710/2/Fall%20of%20Attlee%20Govt.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

The abrupt end of the American [[Lend-Lease]] programme in August 1945 almost caused a crisis. Some relief was provided by the [[Anglo-American loan]], negotiated in December 1945. The conditions attached to the loan included making the [[pound sterling|pound]] fully [[convertibility|convertible]] to the US dollar. When this was introduced in July 1947, it led to a [[currency crisis]] and convertibility had to be suspended after just five weeks.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/> The UK benefited from the American [[Marshall Aid]] program in 1948, and the economic situation improved significantly. Another balance of payments crisis in 1949 forced Chancellor of the Exchequer, [[Stafford Cripps]], into devaluation of the pound.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/>

Despite these problems, one of the main achievements of Attlee's government was the maintenance of near [[full employment]]. The government maintained most of the wartime controls over the economy, including control over the allocation of materials and manpower, and unemployment rarely rose above 500,000, or 3 per cent of the total workforce.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/> Labour shortages proved a more frequent problem. The inflation rate was also kept low during his term.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> The rate of unemployment rarely rose above 2 per cent during Attlee's time in office, whilst there was no hard-core of long-term unemployed. Both production and productivity rose as a result of new equipment, while the average working week was shortened.<ref>Thompson, David. ''England in the Twentieth Century (1914–63)''.<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}}

The government was less successful in housing, which was the responsibility of [[Aneurin Bevan]]. The government had a target to build 400,000 new houses a year to replace those which had been destroyed in the war, but shortages of materials and manpower meant that less than half this number were built. Nevertheless, millions of people were rehoused as a result of the Attlee government's housing policies. Between August 1945 and December 1951, 1,016,349 new homes were completed in England, Scotland, and Wales.{{sfn|Morgan|1984}}

When the Attlee government was voted out of office in 1951, the economy had been improved compared to 1945. The period from 1946 to 1951 saw continuous full employment and steadily rising living standards, which increased by about 10 per cent each year. During that same period, the economy grew by 3 per cent a year, and by 1951 the UK had "the best economic performance in Europe, while output per person was increasing faster than in the United States".<ref>''Ten Years of New Labour'' (edited by Matt Beech and Simon Lee)<!--publisher, page(s), ISSN/ISBN needed--></ref>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} Careful planning after 1945 also ensured that demobilisation was carried out without having a negative impact upon economic recovery, and that unemployment stayed at very low levels.<ref name="autogenerated2"/>{{page needed|date=May 2024}} In addition, the number of motor cars on the roads rose from 3&nbsp;million to 5&nbsp;million from 1945 to 1951, and seaside holidays were taken by far more people than ever before.{{sfn|Hill|1970}} A Monopolies and Restrictive Practices (Inquiry and Control) Act was passed in 1948, which allowed for investigations of restrictive practices and monopolies.<ref name="books.google.co.uk" /> However, some economic historians have argued that the UK failed to develop economically after the war, with failure to support industry leaving the economy not recovering as effectively as Germany.<ref name="Cowcroft Theakston" /><ref>{{cite news |last1=Brown |first1=Derek |title=1945–51: Labour and the creation of the welfare state |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education |access-date=5 December 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=14 March 2001 |archive-date=30 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130202217/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/mar/14/past.education |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Myers |first1=John |title=The plot against Mercia |url=https://unherd.com/2020/09/the-plot-against-mercia/ |website=[[UnHerd]] |access-date=5 December 2023 |date=13 September 2020 |archive-date=5 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231205225402/https://unherd.com/2020/09/the-plot-against-mercia/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Barnett |first1=Correlli |author-link=Correlli Barnett|title=The Lost Victory: British Dreams and British Realities |date=1995 |publisher=Macmillan|pages=170–171}}</ref>

====Energy====
1947 proved a particularly difficult year for the government; an [[Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom|exceptionally cold winter]] that year caused coal mines to freeze and cease production, creating widespread [[power cuts]] and food shortages. The [[Minister of Fuel and Power]], [[Emanuel Shinwell]] was widely blamed for failing to ensure adequate coal stocks, and soon resigned from his post. The Conservatives capitalised on the crisis with the slogan 'Starve with Strachey and shiver with Shinwell' (referring to the Minister of Food [[John Strachey (politician)|John Strachey]]).<ref>{{cite web |last=Sandbrook |first=Dominic |author-link=Dominic Sandbrook |title=Winter of 1947 |url=http://www.jubileeriver.co.uk/100110%20-%20winter%20of%201947.htm |url-status=dead |publisher=Jubileeriver.co.uk |date=9 January 2010 |access-date=20 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728181223/http://www.jubileeriver.co.uk/100110%20-%20winter%20of%201947.htm |archive-date=28 July 2011}}</ref>

The crisis led to an unsuccessful plot by [[Hugh Dalton]] to replace Attlee as Prime Minister with [[Ernest Bevin]]. Later that year [[Stafford Cripps]] tried to persuade Attlee to stand aside for Bevin. These plots petered out after Bevin refused to cooperate. Later that year, Dalton resigned as Chancellor after inadvertently leaking details of the budget to a journalist. He was replaced by Cripps.<ref>{{cite book |last=Foot |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Foot |title=Aneurin Bevan: A Biography: Volume 2: 1945–1960 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0jeyDZ_1h1cC&pg=PT75 |publisher=Faber & Faber |year=2011 |page=75 |isbn=9780571280858}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
In foreign affairs, the Attlee government was concerned with four main issues: post-war Europe, the onset of the Cold War, the establishment of the United Nations, and decolonisation. The first two were closely related, and Attlee was assisted by [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|Foreign Secretary]] [[Ernest Bevin]]. Attlee also attended the later stages of the [[Potsdam Conference]], where he negotiated with President [[Harry S. Truman]] and [[Joseph Stalin]].[[File:Photograph of British Prime Minister Clement Attlee shaking hands with Secretary of State James Byrnes upon his... - NARA - 199245.jpg|thumb|Attlee shaking hands with US Secretary of State [[James F. Byrnes]] upon his arrival at National Airport in Washington, 1945]][[File:Potsdam big three.jpg|thumb|Attlee with [[Harry S. Truman]] and [[Joseph Stalin]] at the [[Potsdam Conference]], 1945]]In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Government faced the challenge of managing relations with Britain's former war-time ally, Stalin and the [[Soviet Union]]. Ernest Bevin was a passionate [[anti-communist]], based largely on his experience of fighting communist influence in the trade union movement. Bevin's initial approach to the USSR as Foreign Secretary was "wary and suspicious, but not automatically hostile".{{sfn|Morgan|1984}} Attlee himself sought warm relations with Stalin. He put his trust in the United Nations, rejected notions that the Soviet Union was bent on world conquest, and warned that treating Moscow as an enemy would turn it into one. This put Attlee at sword's point with his foreign minister, the Foreign Office, and the military who all saw the Soviets as a growing threat to Britain's role in the Middle East. Suddenly in January 1947, Attlee reversed his position and agreed with Bevin on a hardline anti-Soviet policy.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Smith Raymond, Zametica John |title=The Cold Warrior: Clement Attlee reconsidered, 1945–7 |journal=International Affairs |volume=61 |issue=2 |pages=237–252 |year=1985 |jstor=2617482 |doi=10.2307/2617482}}</ref>

In an early "good-will" gesture that was later heavily criticised, the Attlee government allowed the Soviets to purchase, under the terms of a 1946 UK-USSR [[Trade agreement]], a total of 25 [[Rolls-Royce Nene]] [[jet engine]]s in September 1947 and March 1948. The agreement included an agreement not to use them for military purposes. The price was fixed under a commercial contract; a total of 55 jet engines were sold to the USSR in 1947.<ref>{{Hansard|1948/nov/22/jet-engines-foreign-sales|access-date=28 April 2020}}</ref> However, the [[Cold War]] intensified during this period and the Soviets, who at the time were well behind the West in jet technology, [[reverse-engineered]] the Nene and installed their own version in the [[MiG-15]] interceptor. This was used to good effect against US-UK forces in the subsequent [[Korean War]], as well as in several later MiG models.<ref>Gordon, Yefim. ''Mikoyan–Gurevich MIG-15: The Soviet Union's Long-Lived Korean War Fighter'', Midland Press (2001), {{ISBN|978-1857801057}}.</ref>

After Stalin took political control of most of Eastern Europe, and began to subvert other governments in the Balkans, Attlee's and Bevin's worst fears of Soviet intentions were realised. The Attlee government then became instrumental in the creation of the successful [[NATO]] defence alliance to protect Western Europe against any Soviet expansion.{{sfnm |1a1=Morgan |1y=1984 |1loc=ch.&nbsp;6 |2a1=Thomas-Symonds |2y=2012 |2pp=2–4, 127}} In a crucial contribution to the economic stability of post-war Europe, Attlee's Cabinet was instrumental in promoting the American [[Marshall Plan]] for the economic recovery of Europe. He called it one of the "most bold, enlightened and good-natured acts in the history of nations".<ref>{{cite book |last=Field |first=Frank |author-link=Frank Field, Baron Field of Birkenhead |title=Attlee's Great Contemporaries: The Politics of Character |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-5-6BwAAQBAJ&pg=PR38 |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2009 |page=38 |isbn=9781441129444}}</ref>

A group of Labour MPs, organised under the banner of "[[Keep Left (pamphlet)|Keep Left]]", urged the government to steer a middle way between the two emerging superpowers, and advocated the creation of a "third force" of European powers to stand between the US and USSR. However, deteriorating relations between Britain and the USSR, as well as Britain's economic reliance on America following the Marshall Plan, steered policy towards supporting the US.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/> In January 1947, fear of both Soviet and American nuclear intentions led to a secret meeting of the Cabinet, where the decision was made to press ahead with the development of Britain's independent [[nuclear deterrent]], an issue which later caused a split in the Labour Party. Britain's first successful nuclear test, however, did not occur until 1952, one year after Attlee had left office.<ref name="A History of the British Labour Party"/>

The London dock strike of July 1949, led by Communists, was suppressed when the Attlee government sent in 13,000 Army troops and passed special legislation to promptly end the strike. His response reveals Attlee's growing concern that Soviet expansionism, supported by the British Communist Party, was a genuine threat to national security, and that the docks were highly vulnerable to sabotage ordered by Moscow. He noted that the strike was caused not by local grievances, but to help communist unions who were on strike in Canada. Attlee agreed with MI5 that he faced "a very present menace".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Deery |first=Phillip |title='A Very Present Menace'? Attlee, Communism and the Cold War |journal=Australian Journal of Politics and History |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=69–93 |year=1998 |doi=10.1111/1467-8497.00005}}</ref>

[[File:Bevin Attlee H 42138.jpg|thumb|Foreign Secretary [[Ernest Bevin]] (left) with Attlee in 1945]]

====Decolonisation====
Decolonisation was never a major election issue, but Attlee gave the matter a great deal of attention and was the chief leader in beginning the process of [[decolonisation]] of the [[British Empire]].<ref>{{cite book|author=David Wilsford|title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils|url-access=registration|year=1995|page=[https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils/page/21 21]|isbn=9780313286230}}</ref><ref>Nicholas Owen, "Attlee governments: The end of empire 1945–51". ''Contemporary British History'' 3#4 (1990): 12–16.</ref>

===== East Asia =====
In August 1948, the Chinese Communists' victories caused Attlee to begin preparing for a Communist takeover of China. It kept open consulates in Communist-controlled areas and rejected the Chinese Nationalists' requests that British citizens assist in the defence of Shanghai. By December, the government concluded that although British property in China would likely be nationalised, British traders would benefit in the long run from a stable, industrialising Communist China. Retaining Hong Kong was especially important to him; although the Chinese Communists promised to not interfere with its rule, Britain reinforced the [[Hong Kong Garrison]] during 1949. When the victorious Chinese Communists government declared on 1 October 1949 that it would exchange diplomats with any country that ended relations with the Chinese Nationalists, Britain became the first western country to formally recognise the People's Republic of China in January 1950.<ref name="jstor260389">{{cite journal |last=Wolf |first=David C. |title='To Secure a Convenience': Britain Recognizes China – 1950 |journal=Journal of Contemporary History |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=299–326 |year=1983 |s2cid=162218504 |jstor=260389 |doi=10.1177/002200948301800207}}</ref> In 1954, a Labour Party delegation including Attlee visited China at the invitation of then Foreign Minister [[Zhou Enlai]]. Attlee became the first high-ranking western politician to meet [[Mao Zedong]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Letter from Mao Zedong to Clement Attlee sells for £605,000 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/15/mao-zedong-clement-attlee-letter-sothebys-auction |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=15 December 2015 |access-date=5 January 2020 |archive-date=28 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728170126/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/15/mao-zedong-clement-attlee-letter-sothebys-auction |url-status=live }}</ref>

===== South Asia =====
Attlee orchestrated [[Partition of India|the granting of independence to India and Pakistan]] in 1947. Attlee in 1928–1934 had been a member of the [[Indian Statutory Commission]] (otherwise known as the Simon Commission). He became the Labour Party expert on India and by 1934 was committed to granting India the same independent dominion status that Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had recently been given.{{sfn|Bew|2017|pp=186–187}} He faced strong resistance from the die-hard Conservative imperialists, led by Churchill, who opposed both independence and efforts led by Prime Minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] to set up a system of limited local control by Indians themselves.<ref>{{cite book |last=Herman |first=Arthur |title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age |year=2008 |pages=321–325}}</ref> Attlee and the Labour leadership were sympathetic to both the Congress led by [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and the Pakistan movement led by [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]]. During the Second World War, Attlee was in charge of Indian affairs. He set up the [[Cripps Mission]] in 1942, which tried and failed to bring the factions together. When Congress called for passive resistance in the [[Quit India]] movement of 1942–1945, it was the British regime ordered the widespread arrest and internment for the duration of tens of thousands of Congress leaders as part of its efforts to crush the revolt.{{sfn|Bew|2017|p=433}}
Labour's election Manifesto in 1945 called for "the advancement of India to responsible self-government".<ref>{{cite book |last=Craig |first=F. W. S. | author-link = F. W. S. Craig |title=British General Election Manifestos: 1918–1966 |year=1970 |page=105}}</ref> In 1942 the [[British Raj]] tried to enlist all major political parties in support of the war effort. Congress, led by Nehru and [[Gandhi]], demanded immediate independence and full control by Congress of all of India. That demand was rejected by the British, and Congress opposed the war effort with its "[[Quit India]]" campaign. The Raj immediately responded in 1942 by imprisoning the major national, regional and local Congress leaders for the duration. Attlee did not object.<ref>Herman, ''Gandhi & Churchill'' (2008) pp.&nbsp;486-95.</ref> By contrast, the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]], led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, strongly supported the war effort. They greatly enlarged their membership and won favour from London for their decision. Attlee retained a fondness for Congress and until 1946, accepted their thesis that they were a non-religious party that accepted Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and everyone else.<ref>Kenneth Harris, ''Attlee'' (1982) pp.&nbsp;362–64</ref> Nevertheless, this difference in opinion between the Congress and the Muslim League towards the British war effort encouraged Attlee and his government to consider further negotiations with the Muslim League.

The Muslim League insisted that it was the only true representative of all of the Muslims of India. With violence escalating in India after the war, but with British financial power at a low ebb, large-scale military involvement was impossible. Viceroy Wavell said he needed a further seven army divisions to prevent communal violence if independence negotiations failed. No divisions were available; independence was the only option.<ref>David Chandler, ''The Oxford Illustrated History of the British Army'' (1994) p. 331</ref> Given the increasing demands of the Muslim League, independence implied a partition that set off heavily Muslim Pakistan from the main portion of India.<ref>Harris, ''Attlee'' (1982) pp.&nbsp;367–69.</ref> After becoming Prime Minister in 1945 Attlee originally planned to give India Dominion status in 1948.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-136/churchill-and-india-again-a-again-a-again-a-again/|title=Churchill and India: Again & Again & Again & Again|date=4 July 2013|website=International Churchill Society|access-date=17 May 2021|archive-date=17 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517132627/https://winstonchurchill.org/publications/finest-hour/finest-hour-136/churchill-and-india-again-a-again-a-again-a-again/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Attlee suggested in his memoirs that "traditional" colonial rule in Asia was no longer viable. He said that he expected it to meet renewed opposition after the war both by local national movements as well as by the United States.<ref>{{cite book| author=Attlee, Clement|title=As It Happened|publisher=Viking Press|date=1954|page=254 }}</ref> The prime minister's biographer John Bew says that Attlee hoped for a transition to a multilateral world order and a Commonwealth, and that the old British empire "should not be supported beyond its natural lifespan" and instead be ended "on the right note." His exchequer Hugh Dalton meanwhile feared that post-war Britain could no longer afford to garrison its empire.<ref>{{cite book| author=Bew, John|title=Citizen Clem|publisher=Quercus Editions Limited|date=2016|page=414 }}</ref>

Ultimately the Labour government gave full independence to India and Pakistan in 1947 through the [[Indian Independence Act 1947|Indian Independence Act]]. This involved creating a demarcation between the two regions which was known as the [[Radcliffe Line]]. The boundary between the newly created states of Pakistan and India involved the widespread resettlement of millions of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Almost immediately, extreme anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh violence ensued in [[Lahore]], [[Multan]] and [[Dacca]] when the [[Punjab Province (British India)|Punjab]] province and the Bengal province were split in the [[Partition of India]]. This was followed by a rapid increase in widespread anti-Muslim violence in several areas including [[Amritsar]], [[Rajkot]], [[Jaipur]], [[Calcutta]] and [[New Delhi|Delhi]]. Historian Yasmin Khan estimates that over a million people were killed of which several were women and children.<ref>Yasmin Khan, ''The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan'' (Yale UP, 2005) pp.&nbsp;6, 83–103, 211.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Peter Lyon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLwOck15eboC&pg=PA19 |title=Conflict Between India and Pakistan: An Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2008 |isbn=9781576077122 |page=19}}</ref> Gandhi himself was [[Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|assassinated]] in January 1948.<ref>"Gandhi Is Killed By A Hindu; India Shaken, World Mourns; 15 Die In Rioting In Bombay Three Shots Fired" [https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0130.html ''New York Times'' 30 January 1948] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207115225/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/0130.html |date=7 February 2017 }}</ref> Attlee remarked Gandhi as the "greatest citizen" of India and added, "this one man has been the major factor in every consideration of the Indian problem. He had become the expression of the aspirations of the Indian people for independence".<ref name="British Broadcasting">{{cite book | author=British Broadcasting Corporation | title=London Calling | publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation | issue=nos. 432–457 | year=1948 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_h_HxjR8uz8C | access-date=2023-05-19 | page=4 | archive-date=19 May 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230519013201/https://books.google.com/books?id=_h_HxjR8uz8C | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first1 = H. S. L. | last1 = Polak | author1-link = Henry Polak | first2 = H. N. | last2 = Brailsford | author2-link = H. N. Brailsford | first3 = Frederick | last3 = Pethick-Lawrence | author3-link = Frederick Pethick-Lawrence, 1st Baron Pethick-Lawrence | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=YGQfAAAAMAAJ | title = Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Modern India | publisher = Anmol Publications | year = 1986 | page = 303 | access-date = 26 March 2023 | archive-date = 26 March 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230326070005/https://books.google.com/books?id=YGQfAAAAMAAJ | url-status = live }}</ref>{{sfn|Bew|2017|p=441}}

Historian Andrew Roberts says the independence of India was a "national humiliation" but it was necessitated by urgent financial, administrative, strategic and political needs.<ref>Andrew Roberts, ''Eminent Churchillians'' (1994) p.&nbsp;78.</ref> Churchill in 1940–1945 had tightened the hold on India and imprisoned the Congress leadership, with Attlee's approval. Labour had looked forward to making it a fully independent dominion like Canada or Australia. Many of the Congress leaders in the India had studied in England, and were highly regarded as fellow idealistic socialists by Labour leaders. Attlee was the Labour expert on India and took special charge of decolonisation.<ref>Kenneth Harris, ''Attlee'' (1982) pp.&nbsp;362–387.</ref> Attlee found that Churchill's viceroy, [[Field Marshal Wavell]], was too imperialistic, too keen on military solutions, and too neglectful of Indian political alignments.<ref>Irial Glynn, "'An Untouchable in the Presence of Brahmins' Lord Wavell's Disastrous Relationship with Whitehall During His Time as Viceroy to India, 1943–7". ''Modern Asian Studies'' 41#3 (2007): 639–663.</ref> The eventual appointee for new Viceroy, [[Lord Mountbatten]], the dashing war hero and a cousin of the King, was put forward by [[V. K. Krishna Menon]] as a candidate acceptable to all, in a series of clandestine meetings with Sir Stafford Scripps, and with Attlee.<ref>{{Citation |title=Aminossehe, Sherin, ( born 26 Nov. 1976), Director, Infrastructure, since 2019, and Race Champion, Ministry of Defence |date=2022-12-01 |work=Who's Who |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u294527 |access-date=2024-03-13 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u294527 |isbn=978-0-19-954088-4}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Moore R. J. | year = 1981 | title = Mountbatten, India, and the Commonwealth | journal = Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics | volume = 19 | issue = 1| pages = 5–43 | doi=10.1080/14662048108447372| doi-access =  }}</ref>

Attlee also sponsored the peaceful transition to independence in 1948 of Burma (Myanmar) and [[Ceylon]] (Sri Lanka).<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul H. Kratoska|title=South East Asia, Colonial History: Peaceful transitions to independence (1945–1963)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yookbQZ-0yUC|year=2001|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9780415247849}}</ref>

===== Palestine =====
[[File:VE day Jerusalem 1945.jpg|thumb|right|[[VE Day]] celebrations in British-controlled [[Jerusalem]] (1945)]]
One of the most urgent problems facing Attlee concerned the future of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British mandate in Palestine]], which had become too troublesome and expensive to handle. British policies in Palestine were perceived by the [[Zionist movement]] and the Truman administration to be pro-Arab and anti-Jewish, and Britain soon found itself unable to maintain public order in the face of a [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|Jewish insurgency]] and a [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|civil war]].

During this period, 70,000 Holocaust survivors attempted to reach Palestine as part of the [[Aliyah Bet]] refugee movement. Attlee's government tried several tactics to prevent the migration.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Cyprus Detention Camps |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/cyprus-detention-camps |access-date=2023-02-08 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208005330/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/cyprus-detention-camps |url-status=live }}</ref> Five ships were bombed by the [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (though with no casualties) with a fake Palestinian group created to take responsibility.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Operation Embarrass? You bet: Britain's secret war on the Jews – The Jewish Chronicle |url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/operation-embarrass-you-bet-britain-s-secret-war-on-the-jews-1.18403 |access-date=2023-02-08 |website=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |date=21 September 2010 |archive-date=8 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208005330/https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/operation-embarrass-you-bet-britain-s-secret-war-on-the-jews-1.18403 |url-status=live }}</ref> The navy apprehended over 50,000 refugees en route, interning them in [[Cyprus internment camps|detention camps in Cyprus]]. Conditions in the camps were harsh and faced global criticism. Later, the refugee ship [[Exodus 1947]] would be sent back to mainland Europe, instead of being taken to Cyprus.<ref name=":0" />

In response to the increasingly unpopular mandate, Attlee ordered the evacuation of all British military personnel and handed over the issue to the United Nations, a decision which was widely supported by the general public in Britain.<ref>Ellen Jenny Ravndal, "Exit Britain: British Withdrawal From the Palestine Mandate in the Early Cold War, 1947–1948". ''Diplomacy & Statecraft'' 21#3 (2010): 416–433.</ref> With the establishment of the state of [[Israel]] in 1948, the camps in Cyprus were eventually closed, with their former occupants finally completing their journey to the new country.<ref name=":0" />

Attlee remained hostile to Israel years after its establishment. In 1958, describing the Israelis as extremely aggressive against the neighbouring Arab states and describing the [[Balfour Declaration]] as a mistake.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=Lord Attlee, British Ex-premier, Attacks Israel in House of Lords |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/lord-attlee-british-ex-premier-attacks-israel-in-house-of-lords |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-03-20 |title=Attlee Explains Why He Thought the Balfour Declaration a "mistake" |url=https://www.jta.org/archive/attlee-explains-why-he-thought-the-balfour-declaration-a-mistake |access-date=2024-12-09 |website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency |language=en-US}}</ref>

===== Africa =====
The government's policies with regard to the other colonies, particularly those in Africa, focused on keeping them as strategic Cold War assets while modernising their economies. The Labour Party had long attracted aspiring leaders from Africa and had developed elaborate plans before the war. Implementing them overnight with an empty treasury proved too challenging.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Kelemen |first=Paul |title=Planning for Africa: The British Labour Party's Colonial Development Policy, 1920–1964 |journal=Journal of Agrarian Change |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=76–98 |year=2007 |doi=10.1111/j.1471-0366.2007.00140.x|doi-access=free |bibcode=2007JAgrC...7...76K }}</ref> A major military base was built in Kenya, and the African colonies came under an unprecedented degree of direct control from London. Development schemes were implemented to help solve Britain's post-war [[balance of payments]] crisis and raise African living standards. This "new colonialism" worked slowly, and had failures such as the [[Tanganyika groundnut scheme]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Hyam |first=Ronald |title=Africa and the Labour government, 1945–1951 |journal=Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=148–172 |year=1988 |doi=10.1080/03086538808582773}}</ref>

===Elections===
The [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950 election]] gave Labour a massively reduced majority of five seats compared to the triple-digit majority of 1945. Although re-elected, the result was seen by Attlee as very disappointing, and was widely attributed to the effects of post-war austerity denting Labour's appeal to middle-class voters.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/basics/4393273.stm|work=BBC News|title=1950: Labour majority slashed|date=5 April 2005|access-date=26 April 2012|archive-date=30 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170730074913/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/basics/4393273.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> With such a small majority leaving him dependent on a small number of MPs to govern, Attlee's second term was much tamer than his first. Some major reforms were nevertheless passed, particularly regarding industry in urban areas and regulations to limit air and water pollution.{{sfn|Morgan|1984|pp=409–461}}<ref>H. G. Nicholas, ''The British general election of 1950'' (1999).</ref>

By 1951, the Attlee government was exhausted, with several of its most senior ministers ailing or ageing, and with a lack of new ideas.{{sfn|Morgan|1984|p=460}} Attlee's record for settling internal differences in the Labour Party fell in April 1951, when there was a damaging split over an austerity Budget brought in by the Chancellor, [[Hugh Gaitskell]], to pay for the cost of Britain's participation in the [[Korean War]]. [[Aneurin Bevan]] resigned to protest against the new charges for "teeth and spectacles" in the National Health Service introduced by that Budget, and was joined in this action by several senior ministers, including the future Prime Minister [[Harold Wilson]], then the [[President of the Board of Trade]]. Thus escalated a battle between the left and right wings of the Party that continues today.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Leach|title=British Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l6McBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA129|year=2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|page=129|display-authors=etal|isbn=9780230344228}}{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Finding it increasingly impossible to govern, Attlee's only chance was to call [[1951 United Kingdom general election|a snap election]] in October 1951, in the hope of achieving a more workable majority and to regain authority.<ref>Robert Pearce, "The 1950 and 1951 General Elections in Britain: Robert Pearce Asks Why Labour's Period in Office under Clement Attlee Came to an End" ''History Review'' (March 2008) v 60 [https://www.questia.com/article/1G1-175181454/the-1950-and-1951-general-elections-in-britain-robert online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151019034952/https://www.questia.com/article/1G1-175181454/the-1950-and-1951-general-elections-in-britain-robert |date=19 October 2015 }}</ref> The gamble failed: Labour narrowly lost to the Conservative Party, despite winning considerably more votes (achieving the largest Labour vote in electoral history). Attlee tendered his resignation as Prime Minister the following day, after six years and three months in office.<ref>Robert Crowcroft and Kevin Theakston. "The Fall of the Attlee Government, 1951". in Timothy Heppell and Kevin Theakston, eds. ''How Labour Governments Fall'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). pp.&nbsp;61–82.</ref>