OPPOSITION REACTION

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27636, 18 April 1955, Page 11

OPPOSITION REACTION

Attlee To Cut Tour Short

(Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, April 16. Both the Leader and the DeputyLeader of the Labour Party (Mr Clement Attlee and Mr Herbert Morrison) were out of England when the General Election date was announced by the Prime Minister (Sir Anthony Eden) yesterday. Mr Attlee, who is in Canada on a cross-country lecture tour, was informed that an election had been called when his tour stopped in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. He said he would probably cut his tour ihort and return to Britain. He wm confident of a Labour win in the election.

In Bonn, Mr Morrison, who is on a visit to Germany, said the General Election was “really a party manoeuvre.”

He said: “The nation now has a chance to throw the Tories out. Labour will fight this election with all its strength for the sake of the future of our country and of the world. “Clearly this election has been rushed on the public by the Conservatives The reason is easy to see. The Government evidently expects rough economic weather and still higher living costs. It does not want the people to know what the coming months have in store for them.” , Lord Woolton, chairman of the Conservative Party, said today that Sir Anthony Eden’s election decision had “cleared away the mists of uncertainty which hung over the nation and was exercising a disturbing influence in

Lord Woolton added: “The party organisation is ready to go into action. It will work with enthusiasm to ensure the return of a Conservative Government with an increased majority, in order that it may continue the progress towards peace and prosperity which has been so well begun.” Dr. Edith Summerskill, the Labour Party chairman, said she was surprised at the Prime Minister’s decision, since the Government could stay in office another year if it wished. (The Conservatives’ five-year term ends in October. 1956.)

Dr. Summerskill said she could only assume that Mr R. A. Butler, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was “not happy about the economic position and has decided to have an election before the position worsens. There can be no other explanation.”

in a short broadcast to the nation —his first since replacing Sir Winston Churchill—Sir Anthony Eden said that uncertainty at home and abroad about Britain’s political future would be bad for Britain’s influence in world affairs, bad for trade and unsettlng m many ways. “I believe it is better to face this issue now,” he told his radio audience. If the three-week-old strike of 700 newspaper electricians and maintenance engineers is not settled soon, the political parties will conduct -one of the strangest election campaigns in history—without the national newspapers to bring the latest election speeches and opinions. At present, with three seats vacant m the 625-member Parliament, the Conservatives have a majority over all parties of 18. But in the new Parliament 630 seats will be at stake, the additional five created by the recent redistribution in Parliamentary constituency boundaries caused by shifts in population. Politicians said today that these changes could have a vital effect on the outcome of the election and could make accurate forecasting difficult. The present position is: Conservatives 320, Labour 294, Liberals 6, Irish Nationalists 2. Three seats are vacant. The Conservatives, who have been in power since October, 1951, are likely to campaign mainly on a plank Of the country’s general prosperity. The Labour Party will charge the Conservatives with allowing sharp rises in the cost of living and that under its policies the nation is heading for economic difficulties. The Conservatives hope to contest all 630 constituencies and Labour, 629 —by tradition Labour will not contest the seat held by the Speaker of the House of Commons, Mr W. S. Morrison. The Liberals—the ruling radical party in Britain in the early years of the twentieth century—hope to contest between 120 and 150 seats. Importance of Television

For the first time television . will play a major part in an election campaign. All the main political parties have already had experience of producing and presenting their own programmes to viewers.

Sir Winston Churchill, the recently retired Prime Minister, may cut short his vacation in Syracuse to throw his full support behind Sir Anthony Eden in the Conservatives’ campaign. Sir Winston Churchill wul again contest the Woodford, Essex, seat, where he had a majority of more than 18,000 over the Labour candidate at the last election.

Sir Anthony Eden, accompanied by Lady Eden, drove from Chequers, his official residence in Buckinghamshire, today, to Windsor Castle, where they will be the chief guests at a weekend party given by the Queen.