ABSTRACT
The omission of Beveridge from the manifesto was due to the changed personal status of Beveridge himself. When Labour adopted Beveridge during the war, it was endorsing the proposals of a disinterested avowed social insurance expert with no political axe to grind. By 1945 Beveridge was a Liberal politician who was parading across the country as the party’s main electoral asset. The Beveridge Report was published just at the turning point of the war when the fear of imminent defeat was receding, and the collectivist social solidarity of wartime was beginning to erode. The popular view of Churchill as having been lukewarm on Beveridge was difficult to counter, particularly because of the many wartime cartoons.
