ABSTRACT

The 1964 election saw Labour’s return to office, by the narrowest of margins, after 13 years in the electoral wilderness. It also saw the party gain a more favourable press than even in 1945. This is an area that has been seldom comprehensively explored in the wider academic focus on Wilson’s electoral impact, the party’s modernising strategy and the Conservative party’s many political and electoral difficulties after 1959. In so far as communications has a place in 1964, it is one that gives rather more space to detailing how modern political marketing and television were well exploited by Wilson. This chapter rectifies this imbalance by exploring the important political role played by the popular press between 1962-1964. It details how a strongly partisan Labour press at the height of its power was combined with a distinctly lukewarm attitude to the Conservatives from their traditional press allies, both before and during the 1964 election. It begins, however, by charting the important shift in press coverage that characterised the 15 years after 1951.