Herbert Stanley Morrison, Baron Morrison of Lambeth (3 January 1888 – 6 March 1965) was a British politician who held a variety of senior positions in the Cabinet as a member of the Labour Party. During the inter-war period he was Minister of Transport during the second MacDonald ministry, then after losing his parliamentary seat at the 1931 general election he became Leader of the London County Council in the 1930s. After returning to the Commons, he was defeated by Clement Attlee in the 1935 Labour Party leadership election but later served as Home Secretary in the wartime coalition.
Morrison organised Labour's victorious 1945 election campaign, and was appointed Leader of the House of Commons and acted as Attlee's deputy prime minister in the Attlee ministry of 1945–51. Attlee, Morrison, Ernest Bevin, Stafford Cripps, and initially Hugh Dalton formed the "Big Five" who dominated those governments. Morrison oversaw Labour's nationalisation programme, although he opposed Aneurin Bevan's proposals for a national body to run the National Health Service. Morrison developed his social views from his work in local politics and always emphasised the importance of public works to deal with unemployment. In the final year of Attlee's premiership, Morrison had an unhappy term as Foreign Secretary. He was hailed as "Lord Festival" for his successful leadership of the Festival of Britain, a critical and popular success in 1951 that attracted millions of visitors to fun-filled educational exhibits and events in London and across the country.
Morrison was widely expected to succeed Attlee as Labour leader but Attlee, who disliked him, postponed stepping down until 1955. Morrison, who by then was nearing 70 and considered too old, came a poor third in the 1955 Labour leadership election.Laybourn, Keith (2002). "Morrison, Herbert Stanley", in Ramsden, John (ed.), The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century British Politics, Oxford University Press, pp. 443–444. .
Early life Morrison was born in Brixton, Lambeth, London, youngest child (there being two boys and four girls) of police constable Henry Morrison ( 1849−1917) and Priscilla Caroline, née Lyon (c. 1848−1907), daughter of an East End carpet fitter. Henry Morrison had a "weakness for the bottle", and held strong Conservative political opinions with which his son would later come to disagree strongly.
As a baby, he permanently lost the sight in his right eye due to infection. He attended Stockwell Road Primary School and, from the age of 11, St Andrew's Church of England School. He left school at 14 to become an errand boy and then a shop assistant. He recalled in 1949 in a foreword to P C Hoffman's history of shop worker trades unionism, how hard his life had been: "I started at eight in the morning. I finished at half past nine in the evening, ten on Fridays and midnight on Saturdays. It was years before we got an early closing day, and then it was five o'clock. I enjoyed the work...but it was a dog's life, especially as I was trying to read and study in my spare time".P C Hoffman, history of shop worker trades unionism
He developed strong socialist beliefs as a teenager, firstly through listening to street orators, and then through extensive reading. He developed an interest in improving social conditions, after deciding that poor living conditions were the cause of many social ills. His early politics were radical, and in 1907 he joined the Social Democratic Federation; however, he soon rejected the revolutionary politics of that organisation, and joined the more moderate Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1910, becoming a dedicated activist. During the First World War, although he could have escaped military service due to his blind eye, he chose to make a stand and become a conscientious objector, and he was sent to work in a market garden in Letchworth.
Political career
Local politics in London, 1919–1929 Morrison became a pioneer leader in the London Labour Party (LLP) and one of its leading organisers. He was elected to the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney in 1919 when the Labour Party won control of the Borough, and he served as Mayor during 1920–21. In 1921 he came into conflict with many in the LLP in opposing the Poplar Rates Rebellion in the neighbouring borough of Poplar, led by the future party leader George Lansbury. Morrison believed that unconstitutional direct action would harm Labour's electoral appeal.
He was elected to the London County Council (LCC) in 1922. Morrison quickly rose to the top of the London Labour Party, becoming its Chief Whip in 1923, and its leader in 1925.
National politics He was elected to Labour's National Executive Committee in 1920. At the 1923 general election he became Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney South. He was not offered a post in Ramsay MacDonald's short-lived first Labour government, and sat as a backbencher. He lost the seat again in October 1924 when Labour lost the general election.Howell, David (2004) "Morrison, Herbert Stanley, Baron Morrison of Lambeth (1888–1965)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press;
Morrison was politically on the right wing of the Labour Party and was a fierce opponent of the Communist Party of Great Britain's attempts to affiliate with Labour. He argued that Communism was incompatible with the Labour Party's ethos of peaceful social transformation. He gained a reputation as the 'chief witchfinder' for his efforts to root out Communists from the party. He believed that Labour should have broad appeal across social classes, and appeal to middle-class voters as well as to its working-class base.
Minister of Transport, 1929–1931 Morrison returned to Parliament in the 1929 general election, which returned a minority Labour government, and MacDonald appointed him Minister of Transport. In this role he modernised traffic law through the Road Traffic Act 1930. He also introduced legislation to unify London's public transport under a public body, the London Passenger Transport Board; although the Labour government collapsed in 1931 before the legislation could be passed, the Bill was passed largely unchanged by the subsequent National Government in 1933. Morrison voted with the majority of the cabinet to cut unemployment benefit in the crisis of 1931, and he lost his seat again in Labour's landslide defeat at the 1931 general election.
Leader of the London County Council, 1934–1940 Morrison continued to sit on the London County Council, and in 1933 was re-elected to lead the Labour Group (his leadership having lapsed during his time as a minister). He wrote a book, Socialisation and Transport: the Organisation of Socialised Industries with Particular Reference to the London Passenger Transport Bill, which encapsulated his ideas on nationalisation. Managers would be appointed to run monopoly industries in the public interest. He did not, however, envisage democratic control by the workers.
Unexpectedly, Labour won a majority at the 1934 London County Council election and Morrison became Leader of the LCC. This made him the leader of the largest local authority in Britain, and the most powerful Labour figure in the country at the time, and gave him control of almost all local government services in London. His main achievements here included the creation of the Metropolitan Green Belt around the suburbs. He confronted the government over its refusal to finance the replacement of Waterloo Bridge; eventually the government agreed to pay 60% of the cost of the new bridge. The LCC made much progress in slum clearance and the construction of new housing estates during Morrison's tenure, so much so that he was said to have done "more to refashion the face of the City since Sir Christopher Wren". Improvements were also made to hospital and welfare services.
London Conservatives frequently accused him of seeking to "build the Tories out of London",Ken Young, John Kramer, Strategy and conflict in metropolitan housing (Heinemann Educational, 1978), p. 262. the implication being that the LCC would deliberately build council houses in order to affect local voting patterns. His biographers, Bernard Donoughue and George W. Jones, have written that "Morrison never said or wrote" the words attributed to him.
Morrison was a pioneer in using the talents of women, and promoted women to chair various committees of the LCC. He promoted women to positions which they had never previously held, such as memberships of the Fire Brigade Committee and the Metropolitan Water Board.
1935 leadership election
In the 1935 general election, Morrison was once again elected to the House of Commons and immediately challenged Clement Attlee for the leadership of the party in the leadership election. Although Morrison was widely seen as the favourite in many sections of the press and intelligentsia, he came second in the first ballot, and was defeated by a wide margin by Attlee in the final ballot. Many causes have been suggested for his defeat; one factor was the loyalty to Attlee which the MPs who had served in the previous Parliament had felt. Attlee had also led Labour through the 1935 general election which had seen Labour gain over 100 seats, and many MPs would have seen it as ingratitude to deprive him of the leadership. Another factor was Morrison's refusal to give a clear undertaking to give up his job at the LCC if elected leader. He was also widely distrusted by the left of the party. Both he and his supporter Hugh Dalton put some of the blame on the Masonic New Welcome Lodge, who, they claimed, backed the third-place leadership candidate Arthur Greenwood and then switched their votes to Attlee. This cites as note number 2 H. Morrison, Herbert Morrison: An Autobiography by Lord Morrison of Lambeth, London, Odhams, 1960, p. 164 After losing, Morrison declined to stand for the post of Deputy Leader, instead deciding to concentrate on his LCC work.
1937 LCC election He convinced Labour to adopt the new electioneering techniques that opponents had been using, especially using advertising agencies in the 1937 local elections.Wring, Dominic. "'Selling socialism' – The marketing of the 'very old' British Labour Party", European Journal of Marketing, 35#9/10 (2001): 1038–1046. online For example, he stressed housing, education and his own leadership with posters featuring Morrison alongside children and with a backdrop of new LCC flats above slogans such as "Labour Puts Human Happiness First", "Labour Gets Things Done" and "Let Labour Finish the Job". This strategy paid dividends, for Labour increased its majority on the LCC in the 1937 London County Council election.
In 1939, Conservative MPs defeated Herbert Morrison's Bill introducing "site value rating", a tax on similar lines to land value tax, in the old LCC area.Wetzel, Dave (20 September 2004) The case for taxing land. New Statesman.
Wartime Coalition government, 1940–1945 In May 1940, Labour joined the wartime coalition government under Winston Churchill, and Morrison was appointed as Minister of Supply, which put him in charge of procuring supplies for the army. Only a few months later, in October, Churchill moved him to the posts of Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, succeeding John Anderson. Churchill chose Morrison for the roles because he was known and trusted by Londoners who were by that time enduring the Blitz.
His role as Home Secretary put him in charge of policing and justice, while his role as Minister of Home Security put him in control of all central and regional civil defence organisations, such as air raid wardens, rescue squads, fire services, and the Women's Voluntary Service. He was also responsible for giving approval to local ARP schemes and providing public shelters.