Editing Hugh Gaitskell (section)

== Opposition: the Bevanite split 1951–55 ==

=== 1951–52 ===
In opposition, Gaitskell's house at [[Frognal]] Gardens, [[Hampstead]], became a centre for political intrigue. At first Herbert Morrison still seemed likely to succeed Attlee as leader. This period was characterised by factional infighting between the '[[Bevanism|Bevanite]]' left of the Labour party led by [[Aneurin Bevan]], whose strength lay mainly in the constituency Labour Parties ("CLP"s) and the '[[Gaitskellism|Gaitskellite]]' right who had the upper hand in the Parliamentary Party (Labour MPs – known collectively as the "PLP").<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" />

In February 1952 Bevan led a rebellion of 56 other Labour MPs to vote against the Conservatives' defence spending plans (the official Labour position was to abstain). Dalton recorded (11 March) that Gaitskell was, behind the scenes, keen for a showdown with Bevan. At the party meeting Bevan refused to agree to toe the party line, but the issue was defused by a conciliatory motion by the centrist "Keep Calm" group, passed against the wishes of the platform.<ref>Campbell 2010, p218-9</ref> Bevan at this time thought that Gaitskell should be reduced to "a junior clerk" in the next Labour Government. On 1 August 1952, when Gaitskell had succeeded in putting Churchill (Prime Minister at the time) on the ropes in a House of Commons debate, Bevan intervened to attack Gaitskell, an event greeted with Tory relief and according to [[Richard Crossman|Crossman]] "icy silence" on the Labour benches.<ref>Campbell 2010, p219</ref>

Dalton (30 September 1952) thought the [[Morecambe]] Party Conference "the worst ... for bad temper and general hatred, since 1926" whilst [[Michael Foot]] thought it "rowdy, convulsive, vulgar, splenetic". A series of left-wing motions were passed. Bevanites took over the constituency section of Labour's National Executive Committee (the "NEC"): Bevan, [[Barbara Castle]], [[Tom Driberg]], [[Ian Mikardo]] and [[Harold Wilson]] took the top five places with Crossman seventh. Veteran right-wingers such as [[Herbert Morrison]] and [[Hugh Dalton]] were voted off, with [[Jim Griffiths]] in sixth place the only member of the Old Guard to survive; Shinwell, who as Minister of Defence was seen as responsible for the rearmament programme, had been voted off the previous year.<ref name="Campbell 2010, p219-21">Campbell 2010, p219-21</ref>

In a speech at [[Stalybridge]] (5 October 1952) Gaitskell alleged that "about one-sixth" of the constituency delegates "appeared to be Communist or Communist-inspired" and attacked "the stream of grossly misleading propaganda with poisonous innuendos and malicious attacks on Attlee, Morrison and the rest of us" published in ''Tribune''. He claimed that Labour was threatened by "mob rule" got up by "frustrated journalists" (a number of Bevanites, including [[Michael Foot]] and [[Tom Driberg]], were journalists).<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" /><ref name="Campbell 2010, p219-21" /> He received strong backing from the [[Transport and General Workers' Union|TGWU]] whose block vote was of immense importance at the Labour Conference and which was able to exert pressure on its sponsored MPs to toe the party line.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" />

Attlee then gave a speech at the newly built [[Royal Festival Hall]] demanding an end to groups within the party. After the PLP voted 188–51 to ban such groups Bevan insisted, over the wishes of Foot and Crossman, that the Bevanite group be disbanded. The Shadow Cabinet elections (elected by Labour MPs when the party was in opposition) were topped by [[Jim Griffiths]] and [[James Chuter Ede|Chuter Ede]]. Gaitskell was in third place with 179 votes. Bevan, who had just challenged Morrison unsuccessfully for the Deputy Leadership, scraped on in twelfth and last place with 108 votes.<ref name="Campbell 2010, p219-21" />

=== 1953–54 ===
[[Tony Benn]] wrote of Gaitskell (24 September 1953) "he is intellectually arrogant, obstinate and patronising. I respect – but cannot quite admire – him".<ref name="Campbell 2010, p222">Campbell 2010, p222</ref>

Relations between Bevan and Gaitskell continued to be acrimonious. On one occasion in 1953, when Gaitskell called for unity at a Shadow Cabinet meeting, Bevan was observed to give him "a glare of concentrated hatred" and declared: "You're too young in the movement to know what you're talking about".<ref>Campbell 2010, p221</ref> Bevan resigned from the Shadow Cabinet in April 1954 over Labour's support for the setting-up of [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization|SEATO]].<ref name="Campbell 2010, p222" />

Bevan stood against Gaitskell for [[Treasurer of the Labour Party|Party Treasurer]], knowing he would likely lose but hoping to discredit union bosses [[Arthur Deakin]] and [[Tom Williamson, Baron Williamson|Tom Williamson]] in the eyes of rank-and-file trade union members. In the event even [[Sam Watson (trade unionist)|Sam Watson]], leader of Bevan's own miners' union, supported Gaitskell. Gaitskell won by 4.3 million votes to 2 million. Bevan gave a speech to the ''Tribune'' party at the conference, declaring that the Labour Leader needed to be a "desiccated calculating machine". He was widely and probably wrongly thought to be referring to Gaitskell, to whom the label stuck. In fact it may well have been aimed at Attlee who had the previous day warned against "emotionalism" whilst privately Bevan thought that Gaitskell was highly emotional and, as he had shown in 1951, "couldn't count".<ref>Campbell 2010, p222-3</ref> The Treasurership election was seen as particularly important as it was lining up a successor to Attlee, whose retirement was clearly fairly imminent.<ref>Pelling 1992, p235</ref>

=== 1955 ===
In March 1955 Bevan, who had given no hint of disagreement with party policy at the party meeting a few days earlier, now challenged Attlee in a House of Commons debate to demand terms for use of the new [[Thermonuclear weapon|H-Bomb]] in return for Labour's support for the weapon. He and 62 other abstained in the vote, leading to demands from loyalists that the party whip be withdrawn from him as a preliminary to him being formally expelled from the Labour Party by the NEC.<ref>Campbell 2010, p223-4</ref>

Writing a few days later, Gaitskell claimed to have felt that "sooner or later [Bevan] would have to go, but I was not sure whether this was the right moment" (19 March). However, Gaitskell told an audience at [[Doncaster]] that Bevan had made "a direct challenge to the elected Leader of our Party" and accused him of not being a team player. At a party meeting a few days later (16 March) Bevan accused Gaitskell of having told a direct lie against him and declared that it was "those hatchet-faced men sitting on the platform" who were undermining the leadership. After a lukewarm summing up by Attlee the PLP voted by 114–112 to withdraw the whip from Bevan.<ref name="Campbell 2010, p224-5">Campbell 2010, p224-5</ref>

Gaitskell felt he had to follow the lead of the unions and pushed for Bevan's expulsion, telling Crossman (24 March) that Ian Mikardo was running a Bevanite organisation in the constituency parties to make Bevan leader. When Crossman interjected that Bevan "was only half wanting" to be leader, had not made any conspiracy against Attlee and was mainly concerned at voicing protests against Morrison and Gaitskell, the latter replied that "there are extraordinary parallels between Nye and Adolf Hitler. They are demagogues of exactly the same sort ... There are minor differences but what is striking is the resemblance". Summoned to appear before an NEC sub-committee, Bevan refused to be "cornered by Gaitskell". In the event Gaitskell intervened only once at the meeting, asking Bevan to give a pledge that he would not attack the leader – Bevan refused as it was "a trap". Bevan's apology for his rebellion over the H-Bomb was accepted. Gaitskell described the result (2 April) as "a stalemate ... my own position is no doubt weaker".<ref name="Campbell 2010, p224-5" /> Gaitskell thought the need to move against Bevan "dirty work" (April 1955).<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" />

The [[1955 United Kingdom general election|May 1955 General Election]] was the first since 1931 in which Labour's vote had not increased. In ''Tribune'' on 21 June 1955 Gaitskell poured scorn on the idea that more left-wing policies (or, as he put it, policies more similar to those of the Communist Party) would have won Labour more votes. Campbell argues that "history overwhelmingly supports" Gaitskell's argument that elections are won by appealing to the centre ground rather than to a party's core base, tempting as the latter strategy often is to parties in opposition.<ref>Campbell 2010, p226</ref>

At the [[Margate]] conference that autumn Gaitskell gave a stirring and well-received speech including an apparently unscripted passage stressing his own socialist credentials and arguing that nationalisation was still a "vital means" to achieving that end. Bevan was observed to be watching the speech "red-faced and furious" and complaining of Gaitskell's "sheer demagogy".<ref name="Campbell 2010, p226-7">Campbell 2010, p226-7</ref> In October 1955 Gaitskell was re-elected Party Treasurer by a wider margin over Bevan than the previous year.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" />

The apparent congruence between Gaitskell's economic policies and those of his Conservative successor as chancellor [[Rab Butler]], who had retained and extended NHS charges, was sometimes labelled "Butskellism" by the press. This view was not shared by Gaitskell himself, and after Butler's emergency "Pots and Pans" budget in October 1955, in which he reversed tax cuts made prior to the Conservatives' re-election at the general election earlier that year, he attacked him strongly for allegedly having misled the electorate.<ref name="Matthew 2004, p.289" /> Gaitskell won further praise for his attacks on Butler.<ref name="Campbell 2010, p226-7" />