S/P/39. Divisions in the Labour Party 1951-64

This essay argues that divisions within the Labour opposition 1951-64 were at heart genuine conflicts over principals, albeit frequently dressed up as conflicts of personality between Bevanites and Gaitskell’s revisionists. It draws heavily on contemporary journal articles, and explores the roots and public faces of these divisions, and the changing seas over the thirteen years Labour was out of power, finally drawing together the various strands to illustrate the profound division over the Party’s ethos, and its fundamental tenets.