Editing Hugh Gaitskell (section)

=== 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 He and 62 other abstained in the vote, leading to demands from loyalists that the party whip be withdrawn from him as a preliminary to him being formally expelled from the Labour Party by the NEC.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" />