Draft:Shadow Cabinet of Hugh Gaitskell

Shadow Cabinet of Hugh Gaitskell
Shadow Cabinet of the United Kingdom
1955 - 1963
Date formed	14 December 1955
Date dissolved	18 January 1963
People and organisations
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Leader of the Opposition	Hugh Gaitskell
Deputy Leader of the Opposition	Jim Griffiths Aneurin Bevan George Brown
Member party	Labour Party
Status in legislature	Official Opposition 277 / 630 (44%) (1955) 258 / 630 (41%) (1959)
History
Election	1955 Labour Party leadership election
Legislature terms	41st UK Parliament 42nd UK Parliament
Predecessor	Second Shadow Cabinet of Clement Attlee
Successor	First Shadow Cabinet of Harold Wilson

In December 1955, Hugh Gaitskell, the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer was elected as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party, replacing former Prime Minister Clement Attlee, the longest serving leader of the Labour Party. Attlee had stepped down as leader after having led it to a defeat in the 1955 general election, the fifth election Labour had fought under him during his 20-year long leadership.

In the subsequent leadership election, Gaitskell defeated left-wing firebrand and former Health Minister Aneurin Bevan and deputy leader Herbert Morrison (who had been serving as acting leader since Attlee's resignation).

Gaitskell was to hold this position, notwithstanding the defeat in the 1959 election until his untimely death in January 1963, whereupon his successor Harold Wilson would lead the party to victory in 1964. During the course of his tenure, he was known for his attempts at reforming the Labour Party such as the attempt to remove Clause IV. He also prevented an attempt to adopt unilateral nuclear disarmament as Labour Party policy, and stood opposed to Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's attempt to lead the UK into the European Common Market.

He had played a major role in reviving the popularity of Labour among the masses following the electoral debacles of 1955 and 1959 and at the time of his demise, the Labour Party was well placed to win the next general election. Harold Wilson who succeeded him as Leader of the Opposition and Labour Leader in February 1963 would go on to win the next general election and become Prime Minister ending the party's thirteen year stint in the opposition.

Portfolio	Shadow Minister	Date of assuming office	Date of demitting office
Leader of the Opposition	Hugh Gaitskell	14 December 1955	18 January 1963
Deputy Leader of the Opposition	Jim Griffiths	2 February 1956	4 May 1959
	Aneurin Bevan	4 May 1959	6 July 1960
	George Brown	15 July 1960	18 January 1963
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer	Harold Wilson	14 December 1955	2 November 1961
	James Callaghan	2 November 1961	18 January 1963
Shadow Foreign Secretary	Alfred Robens	14 December 1955	6 November 1956
	Aneurin Bevan	6 November 1956	11 October 1959
	Denis Healey	11 October 1959	2 November 1961
	Harold Wilson	2 November 1961	18 January 1963
Shadow Home Secretary	Kenneth Younger	14 December 1955	13 May 1957
	Patrick Gordon-Walker	13 May 1957	12 March 1962
	George Brown	12 March 1962	18 January 1963
Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland	Tom Fraser	14 December 1955	7 December 1961
	Willie Ross	7 December 1961	18 January 1963
Leader of the Opposition in the House of Lords	The Viscount Alexander of Hillsborough	14 December 1955	18 January 1963

References

• Jones, Tudor. Remaking the Labour Party: From Gaitskell to Blair (1996)
• Williams, Philip Maynard (1985) [1979]. Hugh Gaitskell. London: Jonathan Cape Ltd.
• Dutton, David. British Politics Since 1945: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Consensus (2nd ed. Blackwell, 1997)