An election landslide which stunned the nation

After leading the nation during the war years, the voters' decisive rejection of Churchill and the Conservatives smacked of ingratitude.

The Labour landslide in the 1945 general election was a watershed in British electoral history, marking the end of an era, and the beginning of another.

Churchill was deeply shocked. His wife Clementine tried to console him. "It may well be a blessing in disguise," she said.

"At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised," he replied.

Nor did the political establishment of the day, or even the Labour leadership, see it coming.

There was though nothing personal in it. Churchill's approval ratings just weeks before the poll stood at 83 per cent.

However, by 1945, he was out of step with the public mood.

The war-weary voters had judged that a great leader in war, who had brought the nation together, would not necessarily be the person they would want to lead them in peace, and those vital post-war years of rebuilding.

The context was provided by the hardship of the 1930s, which was still fresh in the memory. These were days of mass unemployment, and days in which many ordinary people were living in slum conditions, and many others lacked electricity and bathrooms, let alone indoor toilets.

People wanted something better.

Leading Conservatives had been tainted by their readiness to appease Hitler and their failure to re-arm as the war clouds gathered.

It should too be remembered that Churchill, a voice in the wilderness for so long in the 1930s, had been treated with suspicion by the Tories to such an extent that it was largely thanks to Labour support that he became Prime Minister in 1940.

So in 1945, which was the first general election fought in Britain for 10 years, the choice in the voters' minds was of more of the same old ways, or something new, a new start, and creating not only a land fit for heroes but a land providing decent services and standards, underscored by wide-ranging social reform.

Labour's team had already had their hands on the tillers of power as part of the war cabinet. Churchill had got on with, and respected, the likes of Clement Attlee (Deputy Prime Minister), and Ernest Bevin (Minister of Labour). When the time came, they were to prove more than capable of leading the nation.

One of the crucial areas of policy was that of post-war health care. The Beveridge Report of 1942 had proposed the creation of a national health service and a welfare state.

Labour enthusiastically embraced the report's wide-ranging blueprint for social reform. The Tories, including Churchill, were perceived as dragging their feet.

During the campaign Labour outlined a vision for better health care, better housing, and nationalisation. The Tories adopted a negative tone, warning of the dangers of socialism.

Voting for the election was on July 5. It was very much a khaki election, with many of the voters being in uniform as the war in Europe had only just ended, and the war in the Far East was continuing with no sign of an early end in sight.

For that reason, to allow time for the ballot boxes to be collected from service personnel overseas, the count did not begin until July 25.

When the result was announced it was a stunning victory for Labour, under its leader Clement Attlee. It secured 395 seats (if you include two Independent Labour), with the second-placed Conservatives only securing 197.

If the defeat for the Conservatives was crushing, for the Liberals, who ended up with just 12 seats, it confirmed their decline as a force in British politics.

Incidentally Clement Attlee, the new Prime Minister, was soon to have a Shropshire connection through the marriage of his daughter Janet. In November 1947 she wed Harold Shipton, a scientist from Shrewsbury.