Foreign Policies 1945-1964: Labour vs. Conservative Government

Labours consistent approach to the Middle East had proved beneficial and due to the mistakes of the Conservatives America took more authority and responsibility in the Middle East.
After WW2 Labour saw the need to decrease the defence expenditure, largely because of the economic pressures. The possible ways to do this involved forming collective defence organizations and possessing a nuclear deterrent. However even by 1952 Britain was totally dependant on the USA for her nuclear deterrent and had no say over how the bombs were used.

However, the Conservatives persuaded The President to alter the conditions of the McMahon act and with the help of the information gained; Britain tested her own atomic bomb in 1952.
So although they both had the same aims the Conservatives tougher approach gave them the edge needed to achieve their goals.

Despite these things, some people may argue that war time coalition and the post war consensus which followed meant that foreign policies between 1945 and 1964 showed little signs of change. After the 1951 election of the Conservative Govt. Dilwyn Porter stated ‘what became clear after the electoral froth had subsided was how little had changed. Atlee’s patriotic socialists had been replaced by Churchill’s social patriots.’ This quote reflects the common opinion that not much had really changed with regards to foreign policy.

A good example of this is the policies on International Alliances, both Labour and Conservative govt’s were eager to promote collective defence. This was favourable because it enabled them to slightly relax the cost of their individual forces and because it prevented countries in the alliances from falling to communist influences.

Overall the evidence suggests that although the bases of the policies were inarguably similar, the subtleties of each party’s individual approach are visible in many different areas from relationships with the superpowers to nuclear weapons. Although it is arguable whether this would be a very different essay had it not been for the post war consensus, as at this point in history the attitudes of the Conservative and Labour governments were very much more polar than they are currently.