DEFEAT OF LABOUR

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27782, 6 October 1955, Page 13

DEFEAT OF LABOUR

‘Rusty Machine’

Blamed

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON. Oct. 5. Sweeping changes in Britain’s Labour Party are called for in a special report published today, which charges that Labour lost the May General Election through bad organisation.

The report, drawn up by a probing committee appointed by the party leadership, is likely to bring bitter recriminations at Labour’s week-long annual conference opening at Margate on Monday. Reuter’s political correspondent said.

In an analysis containing 40 recommendations, the report said: “Even a limited improvement in organisation would have won us the election, if only by a narrow margin.” The 30,000-word document gives Labour’s organisation its worst criticism in party history. It will be debated in a closed-door session by delegates of the Labour movement. A major dispute is brewing over widespread ‘leaks” of the report. Sections of it already have appeared in newspapers in Britain.

The proposed Labour shake-up, at the cost of an extra £60,000 a year, includes the appointment of top party

leaders as a permanent directorate supervising organisation. The report said a Conservative Party organiser had listed 35 constituencies which were lost “primarily through poor Labour organisation.”

Except in a few areas, the Labour Party’s voluntary workers were “fewer and less enthusiastic than at any previous time,” the report said. It blamed this on apathy, party squabbles, disillusionment with the way the nationalisation of industry had been presented to the public, and the “scare” that a Labour Government would bring back food rationing.

“Ageing Party” The report expressed “deep concern” at the evidence that Labour was an “ageing party” and that in the vast majority of areas it was “entirely failing to appeal to youth.” The Conservatives had been able to mobilise far more young people for active work than Labour, it said.

“Our surprise is not that the General Election was lost, but that we won as many seats as we did.” says the report, which was compiled by a committee headed by Mr Harold Wilson. “Compared with the Conservatives' streamlined set-up Labour's was like an old-fashioned bicycle in a jet-propelled age. Our machine is getting rusty and deteriorating with age,” it said. Other recommendations by the committee include a review of party education and publicity, the ending of the practice of Labour candidates contributing to local party funds, a national drive to send droves of canvassers, party workers and money to weak spots, more aid from trade unionists, and the provision of full-time agents with cars.