1955 Labour Party leadership election


The 1955 Labour Party leadership election was held following the resignation of Clement Attlee. Attlee was Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951 and stayed on as party leader until he lost the 1955 general election.

Candidates

Three candidates were nominated.
  1. The left wing candidate was the father of the National Health Service, former Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan. Bevan had represented the Welsh constituency of Ebbw Vale since 1929.
  2. The younger candidate from the right wing of the party was Hugh Gaitskell, former Chancellor of the Exchequer. Gaitskell had been the Member of Parliament for Leeds South since 1945.
  3. A veteran right wing Labour minister Herbert Morrison, who had been deputy leader as well as having served in the senior ministerial offices of Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary, was also seeking the leadership. Morrison, the leading London politician of his generation, had been an MP since 1923 and was representing Lewisham South in 1955.

    Ballot

The result of the only ballot of Labour MPs on 14 December was as follows: