« Caroline Kennedy and the Senate Seat | Ed Weissman's Blog | Libby, Bush, Cheney: Look at the Subtext »
Churchill
Josh is right about Churchill who was a Tory, but very much on the outs with the party (with even a threat of being denied nomination for the next election). Actually the government of the day was nominally an all party coalition with a handfull of Liberal traitors and Labour traitors (10 is the number I recall.) It had been that way since Ramsey MacDonald sold the Labour Party out in 1931 and became the PM in this effectively Tory government. It was reelected in 35 when Ramsey Mac retired and Stanley Baldwin became PM again and retired in '37 and being replaced by Neville Chamberlain.
By 1940, the five year term of the Parliament was just about up. To continue the Parliament during the war would require a real all party government under the conventions of the constitution. Labour wanted Churchill even though most Tories wanted Halifax. Churchill was still not the choice of the Tories even though they acquiesced to his being PM. It wasn't until six months later (Nov. '40) that he became leader of the Conservative Party.
Advertisement
Leave a comment