The Conservative Party's growing dominance in British politics was underlined at the 1935 General Election when the ‘National’ Conservative government was re-elected to office. The Conservatives secured 47.8% of the popular vote, returning 386 MPs to Westminster. Although Labour recovered from its disastrous showing in the 1931 General Election (when it was reduced to just 52 MPs), it only managed to win 154 seats on the basis of 38% of the popular vote.

It was acknowledged within Labour circles that there was limited prospect of the party making significant inroads into the Conservative vote by the time of the next General Election in 1939 or 1940. However, the outbreak of the Second World War disrupted the domestic political scene and proved to be a catalyst for a dramatic revival in the fortunes of the Labour Party. In this chapter, attention will be focused, first, on the impact of the Second World War on the Conservative Party's approach to social policy during the period of coalition government from September 1940 until 1945. Attention will then shift to the growing influence of progressive ‘One Nation’ Conservatism towards the end of the war, which was to underpin the party's peacetime thinking on the welfare state from the early 1950s to the mid-1970s.

Conservative social policy during the Second World War

Labour's decision to join the coalition government in 1940, which was conditional on Neville Chamberlain relinquishing his position as Prime Minister, had a significant impact on the Conservative Party's approach to social policy for the remainder of the war and beyond. Labour's willingness to join the coalition was premised on a clear understanding that there would no longer be an exclusive focus on the military campaign. At Labour's insistence, post-war reconstruction was to be moved up the political agenda. This proved advantageous for progressive Conservatives such as Boothby and Butler, whose interventionist inclinations had already been boosted as a result of the need for extensive forms of government intervention on the home front following the outbreak of war. After the resignation and subsequent death of Neville Chamberlain (who had continued to lead the Conservative Party within the coalition and chair the Committee on Home Affairs) in the autumn of 1941, the political pendulum edged further in a progressive direction.