Philip Snowden: The First Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer

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Many other countries followed suit, so it was mainly UK trade with dollar-using countries which was affected. Douglas Jay and others attempted in vain to persuade Gaitskell to compromise, but he refused, arguing that two members of the Cabinet should not be allowed to dictate to eighteen, although he agreed not to specify just yet the date at which the charges would come into effect.

And if further action which amounted to obvious aggression by Egypt were taken by Nasser, then again it would be different. He worked for the Independent Labour Party and was twice chairman of the party, from 1903 to 1906 and later from 1917 to 1920.It was during that year he had prostate gland surgery, following which his health and mobility declined. Following his defeat in the 1918 General Election, Philip Snowden remained as the Parliamentary Candidate although the Independent Labour Party were keen to secure a safer seat for him at the 1922 General Election. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer, the first Labour Chancellor, in the Labour Government formed by Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929. Gaitskell argued that with employment high, the balance of payments in decent shape and inflation a containable problem, the only problem was shortage of dollars, with US opinion very reluctant to help the UK any more. Gaitskell very likely might have become Prime Minister had he lived; however, he left no lasting monument other than "the fading memory of promise unfulfilled".

Writing a few days later, Gaitskell claimed to have felt that "sooner or later [Bevan] would have to go, but I was not sure whether this was the right moment" (19 March). Frank Cousins became General Secretary of the TGWU in 1956, beginning the process whereby the unions began to shift left. He argued that higher interest rates would be perceived as generating profits for the banks, which would not sit well with trade unions, and he was only prepared to consider demanding that the banks restrict credit. After leaving office in October, he was created a viscount and made lord privy seal, but he left that office in 1932.Bondfield would later become the first female cabinet minister and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK. Gaitskell felt he had to follow the lead of the unions and pushed for Bevan's expulsion, telling Crossman (24 March) that Ian Mikardo was running a Bevanite organisation in the constituency parties to make Bevan leader. Bevanites took over the constituency section of Labour's National Executive Committee (the "NEC"): Bevan, Barbara Castle, Tom Driberg, Ian Mikardo and Harold Wilson took the top five places with Crossman seventh. During his seven years as a clerk, he studied and then passed the civil service entry examination; in 1886, he was appointed to a junior position at the Excise Office in Liverpool. At the October 1960 Scarborough Conference two resolutions in favour of unilateral disarmament – proposed by the TGWU and the Engineers' Union – were carried, whilst the official policy document on defence was rejected.

When Crossman interjected that Bevan "was only half wanting" to be leader, had not made any conspiracy against Attlee and was mainly concerned at voicing protests against Morrison and Gaitskell, the latter replied that "there are extraordinary parallels between Nye and Adolf Hitler. Gaitskell was educated at the Dragon School from 1912 to 1919, where he was a friend of the future poet John Betjeman. Britain still preferred to encourage trade in pounds sterling within the Commonwealth, and Gaitskell wanted to preserve Britain's ability to avoid downturns like the US downturn of 1948–9, which Britain had largely escaped because of devaluation. He was not made a member of the Cabinet, [23] although he often attended Cabinet meetings when his input was required. Early in 1950 Cripps backed off from a plan to introduce further charges, this time on false teeth and spectacles, after Bevan threatened to resign, but Gaitskell was put on a committee to monitor Bevan's agreement to a ceiling on NHS spending.

e. a meeting of Labour MPs) on 11 April as "sheer relief" that it had not been worse; the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) strongly supported the budget. Crossman believed Bevan could have overthrown Gaitskell (17 July 1959) and that both Bevan and Gaitskell thought Wilson an unprincipled careerist (13 August 1959). In his budget, Snowden lowered the duties on tea, coffee, cocoa, chicory and sugar; reduced spending on armaments; and provided money for council housing. At the party meeting Bevan refused to agree to toe the party line, but the issue was defused by a conciliatory motion by the centrist "Keep Calm" group, passed against the wishes of the platform.

He was not a pacifist; however, he did not support recruiting for the armed forces, and he campaigned against conscription. However, Dell argues that all chancellors have to make sticking points or they would have to give in to everybody.He had died from complications following a sudden flare-up of lupus, an autoimmune disease which had affected his heart and kidneys. This may have been from a love of micro-management or because, as an advocate of controls and planning, he was suspicious of treasury officials, whom he thought excessively inclined to free market mechanisms. The Gaitskells had a long family connection with the Indian Army, and he spent his childhood in Burma. a total over a three-year period); at this stage it had appeared that the US would be willing to help foot the bill.