This chapter deals with the question of how the war impacted on Labour's electoral fortunes after 1918. It begins with the post-war influx of Liberals who felt that Labour was now the real home of the radical Liberal tradition, and argues that – having proved its patriotism during the war – the party could show a more radical face over Ireland, India, and disarmament. The second section will address the experiences of soldiers and ex-servicemen specifically, and argue that while the war did not create a long-term radicalisation of veterans, the labour movement made a concerted effort to appeal to soldiers, and many ex-servicemen moved towards labour after the war. The third and final section describes the most significant breakthrough for Labour, concentrating on the extent to which the Left made ‘cultural’ appeals to voters: as Englishmen and women, as Britons, as patriots, as Anglicans, as Catholics, and as individual people. This chapter will argue that support for the war was critical to the successes of Labour in the interwar period. Not only did it prevent a parliamentary annihilation in 1918, it secured patriotic credentials to counterbalance the influx of middle-class radicals; prevented a break with the trade unions; and facilitated Labour's appeals to a working-class culture based on family, neighbourhood, pubs, and patriotism. It will be argued here that this cultural appeal to the wider working class allowed Labour to win support from beyond both the heavily unionised skilled workers and the Nonconformist tradition which had hitherto provided most of its support, and that the experience of the war – and labour patriotism during that conflict – was essential to this cultural appeal.

The Conversion of Liberal and Conservative Elites

While many of those who fled the Liberals for Labour in the 1920s had become disillusioned with laissez-faire Liberalism due to the war, economic concerns can only partly explain post-war recruitment, and moral prerogatives were the most important factor for many former Liberals.