FUTURE OF BEVAN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27670, 28 May 1955, Page 7

FUTURE OF BEVAN

Expulsion May Be Sought

(Rec. 12.18 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. The fate of Mr Aneurin Bevan, leader of the Labour Party’s Left-wing faction, is a matter of deepening speculation as a result of the Conservative victory in the British General Election A Reuter correspondent said that Labour’s defeat, which could keep the partv out of office for five years, may produce renewed demands for his expulsion from the Labour ranks. The correspondent said that although the first returns showed all his chief supporters on Labour’s national committee being re-elected, the swing against Bevanites as a whole was greater than that against moderate Labour candidates.

Labour Party and trade union chiefs had feared that recent feuds between Mr Bevan and themselves would antagonise many voters. They now probably would feel that the polling figures branded him as the man who lost Labour the election and this might produce an even more bitter rift between the Right and Left wings of the party.

The American Associated Press, however, quoted the “Daily Express” as predicting that Mr Attlee would lose his post as a result of the defeat. The newspaper foresaw a strong bid by Mr Bevan for the post of opposition leader in his place. A United Press correspondent, pointing to the defeat of Mr Michael Foot, one of Mr Bevan’s closest supporters, said the Left-wing had suffered a sharp loss of prestige. In his own constituency Mr Bevan’s majority had been 'trimmed from 21,526 to 19,236.