Editing Clement Attlee (section)

===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>