Labour and the Post-War Boom, 1951–64

The Labour Party entered a long period of opposition that was marked by growing internal division. Labour leaders like Clement Attlee and Herbert Morrison were determined to downplay the importance of public ownership and ‘attempted to throw off their commitments to further nationalisation as gracefully as they were able’.1 The call for further nationalization would simply be a barrier to the urgent task of repositioning Labour as a national, and not a class, party and undermine its embracing of a mixed economy and social and political consensus.