In the
1945 general election, the Labour Party won its first majority in Parliament, with
Clement Attlee becoming prime minister. Both Gaitskell and Bevan took positions in the
Cabinet, Gaitskell as
Minister of Fuel and Power and Bevan as
Minister of Health. In October 1950,
Stafford Cripps was forced to resign as
Chancellor of the Exchequer due to failing health, and Gaitskell was appointed to succeed him. His time as Chancellor was dominated by the struggle to finance Britain's part in the
Korean War which put enormous strain on public finances. The cost of the war meant that savings had to be found from other budgets. Gaitskell's budget of 1951 introduced charges for certain prescriptions on the
National Health Service. He had a falling out with Bevan, who had defended the NHS and had left over the matter, and the budget split the government.
Harold Wilson and
John Freeman joined Bevan in resigning in protest of Gaitskell's policies. Later that year, Labour lost power to the
Conservatives in the
1951 election. Gaitskell was replaced as Chancellor by
Rab Butler, who largely continued Gaitskell's economic policies. This was termed
Butskellism and laid the foundation for the
post-war consensus. During the period of opposition, the feud between the Gaitskellites and Bevanites continued. In 1954, Gaitskell and Bevan ran against each other for the position of
Treasurer of the Labour Party, which was seen as a stepping-stone to the position of Party Leader. Gaitskell defeated Bevan. Following Labour's defeat in the
1955 election, Attlee announced his retirement as Party Leader (and subsequently,
Leader of the Opposition). In the
leadership election, the Labour left rallied around Bevan, while the Labour right was split between Gaitskell and
Herbert Morrison. Gaitskell defeated both, gaining almost sixty per cent of the vote, and on 14 December 1955 became both Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. During the early period of Gaitskell's tenure as Party Leader, the opposition between the Gaitskellites and Bevanites simmered, centring mainly on the issues of
nuclear disarmament (which the Bevanites supported and the Gaitskellites opposed) and Britain's participation in
NATO, specifically the foreign policy of opposing the
Soviet Union and supporting the
United States (which the Bevanites opposed and Gaitskellites supported). However, during this initial period the factional infighting dimmed somewhat; Gaitskell appointed Bevan to the
Shadow Cabinet as Shadow
Colonial Secretary and then Shadow
Foreign Minister, the position he held during the
Suez Crisis which enabled him to formulate Labour's response to the actions of Prime Minister
Anthony Eden. Also in 1956, Bevan was elected Party Treasurer, defeating the Gaitskellite candidate,
George Brown. Ironically, in 1957 Bevan split from the Bevanites due to a speech he gave opposing nuclear disarmament at the annual Labour Party conference. The hostilities between factions exploded again after the
1959 election. Labour was widely expected to win the election, with the Conservatives unpopular after the Suez Crisis. However, the Conservatives managed to increase their majority, largely due to the Conservatives' exploiting Labour's internal divisions over economics. The Labour election manifesto, drafted by the left, stated that it would raise taxes to pay for an increase in spending, especially pensions, while Gaitskell publicly promised that he would not raise taxes. After the election Gaitskell blamed the Bevanite economic position for the electoral defeat and, in an effort to modernize the party in the face of the Conservatives' electoral and economic successes, attempted to reverse the Labour charter's
Clause IV calling for
nationalisation. The Bevanites managed to defeat this attempt. The Clause IV struggle had the effect of creating the pro-Gaitskellite
Campaign for Democratic Socialism as a pressure group within the party. In 1960 the Bevanites managed to commit to Labour backing nuclear disarmament, only for the Gaitskellites to reverse it in 1961. In 1959, Bevan was elected
Deputy Party Leader, only to die shortly before the
1960 party leadership election. The Bevanites instead backed
Harold Wilson, who lost to Gaitskell by almost two-thirds of the vote. However, the factional infighting, largely over the nuclear issue, was so much that there was another
party leadership election the next year. In that election, the Bevanites backed
Anthony Greenwood, who lost to Gaitskell by almost three-fourths of the vote. Near the end of his life, Gaitskell himself began to move away from the Gaitskellites on several issues. The Gaitskellites generally supported Britain entering the
European Economic Community, which Gaitskell opposed, claiming it would cause the end of Britain as an independent nation. In early 1963, Gaitskell died. In the
ensuing party leadership election Wilson again was the candidate of the former Bevanites, while the Gaitskellite vote was split between George Brown and
James Callaghan. In the first round of voting, the two Gaitskellites split the right-wing vote, with Wilson getting 47% of the vote. In the second round between Wilson and Brown, Wilson won with 58% of the vote, the same margin that Gaitskell had on his election in 1955. == Legacy ==