Editing Aneurin Bevan (section)

==Parliament==
===MP for Ebbw Vale===
In 1928, Bevan won a seat on [[Monmouthshire County Council]] in the Tredegar Central Division. He lost the seat in 1931, but regained it in 1932 before deciding against seeking re-election in 1934.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas-Symonds|2014|p=52}}</ref> With his success in 1928, he was picked as the Labour Party candidate for [[Ebbw Vale (UK Parliament constituency)|Ebbw Vale]] (displacing the sitting [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] [[Evan Davies (Ebbw Vale MP)|Evan Davies]]),<ref name="Foot8082">{{harvnb|Foot|1966|pp=80–82}}</ref> and easily held the seat at the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 General Election]]. Bevan gained more than twice the votes of Liberal candidate William Griffiths, receiving 20,000 votes to Griffiths' 8,000.<ref name="bbclegacy"/><ref name="Foot8082"/> In keeping with his background, Bevan described his initial thoughts on the [[House of Commons]] as a shrine to "the most conservative of all religions – ancestor worship".<ref name="ns">{{cite magazine |url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/03/aneurin-bevan-stormy-petrel-labour-left |title=Aneurin Bevan, stormy petrel of the Labour left |magazine=[[New Statesman]] |last=Marquand |first=David |date=19 March 2015 |access-date=3 August 2019}} {{registration required|nolink=y}}</ref> In Parliament, he became noticed as a harsh critic of those he felt opposed the working man and woman.<ref name="carradice">{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/entries/52d237e5-efa9-3a39-95ee-e525133bc1c1 |title=The death of Nye Bevan |publisher=BBC Wales |last=Carradice |first=Phil |date=5 July 2010 |access-date=25 July 2019}}</ref> His targets included the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] [[Winston Churchill]] and the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[David Lloyd George]], as well as [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and [[Margaret Bondfield]] from his own Labour party (he targeted the latter for her unwillingness to increase unemployment benefits).<ref name="about"/><ref name="Foot9598">{{harvnb|Foot|1966|pp=95–98}}</ref> He had solid support from his constituency, being one of the few Labour MPs to be unopposed in the [[1931 UK general election|1931 General Election]], and this support grew through the 1930s and the period of the [[Great Depression in the United Kingdom|Great Depression]].<ref name="about"/>

Soon after Bevan entered Parliament, he was briefly attracted to [[Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)|Smethwick]] Labour MP [[Oswald Mosley]]'s arguments,<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/britains-near-brush-with-fascism-the-politician-who-rooted-for-hitler/ |title=Britain's near-brush with Fascism: The politician who rooted for Hitler |newspaper=The Times of Israel |last=Philpot |first=Robert |date=24 October 2017 |access-date=27 July 2019}}</ref> becoming one of the 17 signatories of the [[New Party (UK)#Mosley Memorandum|Mosley Memorandum]] in the context of the MacDonald government's repeated economic crises,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mandle |first=WF |date=May 1967 |title=Sir Oswald Leaves the Labour Party, March 1931 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27507860 |journal=Labour History |issue=12 |pages=42 |doi=10.2307/27507860 |jstor=27507860 }}</ref> including the doubling of [[Interwar unemployment and poverty in the United Kingdom|unemployment levels]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/history/past-prime-ministers/james-ramsay-macdonald |title=History of James Ramsay MacDonald |website=gov.uk |access-date=25 April 2015}}</ref> In January 1931, Bevan wrote a letter to the government on behalf of the Mosley group, raising concerns over its "failure to deal with unemployment".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BQwqC1 |url-access=subscription |title=Unemployment |newspaper=[[The Times]] |date=22 January 1931 |page=4 |access-date=25 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> Mosley broke from the Labour Party in early 1931 to form the [[New Party (UK)|New Party]], but Bevan refused to defect and instead announced that he had no intention of leaving the Labour Party. By 1932, Mosley's [[New Party (UK)|New Party]] had migrated from the [[left-wing politics|left]] over to the [[far-right]] of British politics and was rebranded as the [[British Union of Fascists]]. Bevan's past association with Mosley would be used against him in subsequent years by his political rivals.<ref name="Foot113">{{harvnb|Foot|1966|p=113}}</ref>

He married fellow Socialist MP [[Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge|Jennie Lee]] in 1934, after they met in London. Described as "more left-wing than Nye", Lee became a considerable influence on Bevan's political career.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/arts_ents/17188168.play-tells-the-inspiring-story-of-political-couple-aneurin-bevan-and-jennie-lee/ |title=Play tells the inspiring story of political couple Aneurin Bevan and Jennie Lee |newspaper=The Herald |last=Cooper |first=Neil |date=31 October 2018 |access-date=26 October 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-41972669 |title=How Jennie Lee helped Aneurin Bevan shape political change |work=BBC News |last=Heaney |first=Paul |date=14 November 2017 |access-date=27 July 2019}}</ref> They were early supporters of the socialists in the [[Spanish Civil War]], and Bevan visited the country in 1938.<ref>{{cite ODNB |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30740?docPos=1 |url-access=subscription |title=Bevan, Aneurin [Nye] (1897–1960) |last=Smith |first=Dai |year=2004 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30740 |access-date=18 October 2017}}</ref> In 1936 he joined the board of the new socialist newspaper ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]''. His agitations for a [[Popular Front (UK)#United Front|united socialist front]] of all parties of the left (including the [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]) led to his expulsion from the Labour Party from March to November 1939 (along with [[Stafford Cripps]], [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 3rd Baronet|C. P. Trevelyan]] and three others). Bevan and Cripps had previously been threatened with disciplinary action by the party for sharing a stage with a Communist speaker, and all party members were threatened with expulsion if they were associated with the Popular Front.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=83}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRd6k4 |url-access=subscription |title=Popular Front Denounced |newspaper=The Times |page=9 |date=6 March 1939 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> Bevan and another expelled MP, [[George Strauss]], appealed against the decision.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdCW9 |url-access=subscription |title=Expulsions from the Labour Party |newspaper=The Times |page=18 |date=4 April 1939 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> Bevan was readmitted to the party on 20 December 1939,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdKH0 |url-access=subscription |title=News in Brief |newspaper=The Times |page=5 |date=21 December 1939 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> after agreeing "to refrain from conducting or taking part in campaigns in opposition to the declared policy of the Party".<ref name="ts94">{{harvnb|Thomas-Symonds|2014|p=94}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdRw1 |url-access=subscription |title=Labour Party and Kettering |newspaper=The Times |page=5 |date=29 February 1940 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref>

He strongly criticised the [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]]'s [[British re-armament|rearmament]] plans in the face of the rise of [[Nazi Germany]], saying to the Labour conference in autumn 1937:

<blockquote>If the immediate international situation is used as an excuse to get us to drop our opposition to the rearmament programme of the Government, the next phase must be that we must desist from any industrial or political action that may disturb national unity in the face of [[Fascist]] aggression. Along that road is endless retreat, and at the end of it a voluntary [[totalitarian state]] with ourselves erecting the barbed wire around. You cannot collaborate, you cannot accept the logic of collaboration on a first class issue like rearmament, and at the same time evade the implications of collaboration all along the line when the occasion demands it.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=77}}</blockquote>

His opposition to the Labour leadership's approach was partly based on his view that the leadership of the Labour Party was not demanding assurances from the Government on its [[History of the foreign relations of the United Kingdom|foreign policy]] as a price for the party's support for re-armament as expressed in his speech to the Bournemouth Conference of that year: <blockquote>...we should say to the country we are prepared to make whatever sacrifices are necessary, to give whatever arms are necessary to fight Fascist powers and in order to consolidate world peace...{{sfn|Foot|1966|p=267}}</blockquote>

The Labour conference voted to drop its opposition to rearmament. When [[Winston Churchill]] said that the Labour Party should refrain from giving [[Adolf Hitler]] the impression that Britain was divided, Bevan rejected this as sinister: <blockquote>The fear of [[Hitler]] is to be used to frighten the workers of Britain into silence. In short Hitler is to rule Britain by proxy. If we accept the contention that the common enemy is Hitler and not the British capitalist class, then certainly Churchill is right. But it means abandonment of the class struggle and the subservience of the British workers to their own employers.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=77}}</blockquote>

===Opposition to the war-time government===
By March 1938, Bevan was writing in ''Tribune'' that Churchill's warnings about German intentions for [[Czechoslovakia]] were "a diapason of majestic harmony" compared to Prime Minister [[Neville Chamberlain]]'s "thin, listless trickle".{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=80}} Bevan now called unsuccessfully for a [[Popular Front (UK)|Popular Front]] against fascism under the leadership of the Labour Party, including even anti-fascist Tories.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=80}} When the government introduced voluntary national service in December 1938, Bevan argued that Labour should demand the nationalisation of the armaments industry, support the  [[Second Spanish Republic|democratic government of Spain]] and sign an [[United Kingdom|Anglo]]-[[Soviet]] pact in return for its support. When Labour supported the government's scheme with no such conditions, Bevan denounced Labour for imploring the people on recruiting platforms to put themselves under the leadership of their opponents.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=82}} The [[Military Training Act 1939]] reintroduced [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|conscription]] six months later, and Bevan joined the rest of the Labour Party in opposing it, calling it "the complete abandonment of any hope of a successful struggle against the weight of wealth in Great Britain".{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=85}} He emphasised that the government had no arguments to persuade young men to fight "except merely in another squalid attempt to defend themselves against the redistribution of international swag".{{sfn|Campbell|1987|p=85}}

In August 1939 came the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]], a non-aggression pact between the [[Government of Nazi Germany|Nazi]] and [[Government of the Soviet Union|Soviet governments]] that shocked democratic governments around the world. In Parliament, Bevan argued that this was the logical outcome of the government's foreign policy. He wanted the war to be not just a fight against fascism but a war for socialism.{{sfn|Campbell|1987|pp=85–86}} Bevan was relieved that the country had united against Nazi Germany in the fight against fascism to provide a common enemy away from the working class.<ref name="ts94"/> He was a strong critic of Chamberlain, arguing that his old rival Winston Churchill should become prime minister.<ref name="ns"/>

During the [[Second World War]] he was one of the main leaders of the left in the Commons, opposing the [[Churchill war ministry|wartime Coalition government]]. Bevan opposed the heavy [[Censorship in the United Kingdom|censorship]] imposed on radio and newspapers and wartime [[Defence Regulation 18B]], which gave the Home Secretary the powers to intern citizens. Bevan called for the [[nationalisation]] of the [[Coal mining in the United Kingdom|coal industry]] and advocated the opening of a [[Western Front (World War II)|Second Front in Western Europe]] to help the [[Soviet Union]] in its fight with Germany. In one of his most noted speeches made against Churchill, he railed that the prime minister "wins debate after debate and loses battle after battle".<ref name="ns"/> Churchill would later label Bevan "a squalid nuisance".{{sfn|Wrigley|2002|p=60}} Churchill was a frequent target of Bevan's, who already held a dislike of him following his intervention in the [[Tonypandy riots]] and the [[1926 United Kingdom general strike]] which Bevan considered heavy handed. Bevan believed that the key to the war was the involvement of Russia and considered Churchill was too focused on the intervention of the United States.<ref name="Butler"/> Bevan also feared that allowing Churchill to continue unopposed and unchallenged in Parliament during the war would leave him almost unbeatable for the Labour Party in future elections.<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas-Symonds|2014|p=96}}</ref> Historian [[Max Hastings]] described Bevan's role in Parliament during the war as "his figures were accurate but his scorn was at odds with the spirit of the moment—full of gratitude, as was the prime minister".<ref>{{harvnb|Thomas-Symonds|2014|p=95}}</ref> His fierce opposition made him unpopular with some portions of the public at the time; his wife later described how the couple would frequently receive parcels filled with excrement at their home.<ref name="tsi">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/nhs-70-years-aneurin-bevan-health-welfare-uk-politics-a8421781.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/nhs-70-years-aneurin-bevan-health-welfare-uk-politics-a8421781.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=70 years of the NHS: How Aneurin Bevan created our beloved health service |newspaper=[[The Independent]] |last=Thomas-Symonds |first=Nick |date=3 July 2018 |access-date=28 July 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Bevan was critical of the leadership of the [[British Army]], which he felt was class bound and inflexible. After General [[Neil Ritchie]]'s retreat across [[Cyrenaica]] early in 1942 and his disastrous defeat by General [[Erwin Rommel]] at [[Battle of Gazala|Gazala]], Bevan made one of his most memorable speeches in the Commons in support of a motion of censure against the Churchill government.

<blockquote>"The Prime Minister must realise that in this country there is a taunt on everyone's lips that if Rommel had been in the British Army he would still have been a sergeant ... There is a man in the British Army who flung 150,000 men across the [[Ebro]] in Spain, [[Malcolm Dunbar|Michael Dunbar]]. He is at present a sergeant&nbsp;... He was Chief of Staff in Spain, he won the [[Battle of the Ebro]], and he is a sergeant."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1942-07-02/debates/64dacb26-408e-4010-aae7-dc5b54c7da0f/CentralDirectionOfTheWar?highlight=%22across%20the%20ebro%20in%20spain%22#contribution-cdd2d0bd-8165-4179-9919-30b190714717 |title=Central Direction of the War |publisher=Hansard |date=2 July 1942 |access-date=29 October 2019}}</ref></blockquote> Dunbar had been recommended for a commission, but rejected it himself to remain with his unit.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTfLAgAAQBAJ&q=aneurin+bevan+dunbar&pg=PT362 |title=Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism |last=Baxell |first=Richard |publisher=Aurum Press |year=2012 |isbn=9781845136970}}</ref>

Bevan was subject to further disciplinary action in 1944, when he deliberately voted against Labour's stance on new defence regulations.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdaP9 |url-access=subscription |title=Mr. Bevan and the Labour Party |newspaper=The Times |page=4 |date=3 May 1944 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> He also voiced criticism of trade union leaders, which drew complaints from both the Miners' Federation and the [[Trades Union Congress]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdhY5 |url-access=subscription |title=Another Censure of Mr. Bevan |newspaper=The Times |page=2 |date=9 June 1944 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> An administrative committee voted 71 to 60 in favour of retaining Bevan as an MP,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdeG4 |url-access=subscription |title=Labour Party and Mr. Bevan |newspaper=The Times |page=2 |date=11 May 1944 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref> although it was announced that party discipline was to be strengthened in future.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://tinyurl.galegroup.com/tinyurl/BRdjD0 |url-access=subscription |title=Stronger Discipline in Labour Party |newspaper=The Times |page=2 |date=29 June 1944 |access-date=27 July 2019 |via=The Times Digital Archive}}</ref>

He believed that the Second World War would give Britain the opportunity to create "a new society". He often quoted an 1855 passage from [[Karl Marx]] that was published in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1865: "The redeeming feature of war is that it puts a nation to the test. As exposure to the atmosphere reduces all mummies to instant dissolution, so war passes supreme judgment upon social systems that have outlived their vitality."<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284265 |title=The Eastern Question |last=Marx |first=Karl |year=1856 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.284265/page/n612 594] |publisher=Routledge |isbn=1138993220}}</ref> At the beginning of the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]] campaign, Bevan told his audience that his goal was to eliminate any opposition to the Labour programme: "We have been the dreamers, we have been the sufferers, now we are the builders. We enter this campaign at this general election, not merely to get rid of the Tory majority. We want the complete political extinction of the Tory Party, and twenty-five years of Labour Government."{{sfn|Kynaston|2008|p=64}}