Attlee ministries | |
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![]() Cabinet of the United Kingdom | |
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![]() Attlee (1950) | |
Date formed |
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Date dissolved |
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People and organisations | |
Monarch | George VI |
Prime Minister | Clement Attlee |
Prime Minister's history | 1945–1951 |
Deputy Prime Minister | Herbert Morrison |
Total no. of members | 243 appointments |
Member party | Labour Party |
Status in legislature | Majority 393 / 640 (61%) (1945) 315 / 625 (50%) (1950) |
Opposition party | Conservative Party |
Opposition leader | Winston Churchill |
History | |
Elections | |
Outgoing election | 1951 general election |
Legislature terms | |
Predecessor | Churchill caretaker ministry |
Successor | Third Churchill ministry |
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Labour Leader
Prime Minister
Post-Prime Minister
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Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in July 1945,[1] succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, and went on to enact policies of what became known as the post-war consensus, including the establishment of the welfare state and the nationalisation of 20 percent of the entire economy. [2] The government's spell in office was marked by post-war austerity measures; the crushing of pro-independence and communist movements in Malaya; the grant of independence to India, Pakistan, Ceylon, and Burma; the engagement in the Cold War against Soviet Communism; and the creation of the country's National Health Service (NHS).
Attlee went on to win a narrow majority at the 1950 general election, forming the second Attlee ministry.[3] Just twenty months after that election, Attlee called a new election for 25 October 1951, but was narrowly defeated by the Conservative Party, sending Labour into a 13-year spell in opposition.