1945 - 1951

Herbert Morrison (1888-1965) came from a London working-class background; he became involved in Labour politics and by 1915 was the Secretary of the London Labour Party. In 1923 he entered Parliament; in the Labour government of 1929 he was made Minister for Transport. On the formation of the national government in 1931 he resigned; in the contest for the Leadership of the Labour party in 1935 he lost out to Clement Attlee, and for the remainder of the 1930s made London politics his priority. In wartime he served as home Secretary in Churchill's coalition government, and despite a challenge to Attlee's Leadership of the Labour party following its election victory of 1945, Attlee made him deputy prime minister and Leader of the House of Commons, in charge of piloting through the House the party's programme of social reforms and nationalisation. In 1951 he replaced Ernest Bevin at the foreign office, but the party was defeated a few months later at the general election. In 1959 Morrison retired to the Lords as baron Morrison of Lambeth.