Hugh Gaitskell

The Right Honourable Hugh Gaitskell CBE
Gaitskell in 1947
Leader of the Opposition
In office 14 December 1955 – 18 January 1963
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan
Preceded by	Herbert Morrison
Succeeded by	George Brown
Leader of the Labour Party
In office 14 December 1955 – 18 January 1963
Deputy	Jim Griffiths Aneurin Bevan George Brown
Preceded by	Clement Attlee
Succeeded by	Harold Wilson
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 26 October 1951 – 14 December 1955
Leader	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Rab Butler
Succeeded by	Harold Wilson
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 19 October 1950 – 26 October 1951
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Stafford Cripps
Succeeded by	Rab Butler
Minister of Fuel and Power
In office 24 October 1947 – 15 February 1950
Prime Minister	Clement Attlee
Preceded by	Manny Shinwell
Succeeded by	Philip Noel-Baker
Member of Parliament for Leeds South
In office 5 July 1945 – 18 January 1963
Preceded by	Henry Charleton
Succeeded by	Merlyn Rees
Personal details
Born	Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell (1906-04-09)9 April 1906 London, England
Died	18 January 1963(1963-01-18) (aged 56) London, England
Resting place	St John-at-Hampstead, London
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Anna Dora Creditor ​ (m. 1937)​
Children	2
Alma mater	New College, Oxford

Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell CBE (9 April 1906 – 18 January 1963) was a British politician who served as Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1955 until his death in 1963. An economics lecturer and wartime civil servant, he was elected to Parliament in 1945 and held office in Clement Attlee's governments, notably as Minister of Fuel and Power following the bitter winter of 1946–47, and eventually joining the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Facing the need to increase military spending in 1951, he imposed National Health Service charges on dentures and spectacles, prompting the leading left-winger Aneurin Bevan to resign from the Cabinet.

The perceived similarity in his outlook to that of his Conservative Party counterpart Rab Butler was dubbed "Butskellism", initially a satirical term blending their names, and was one aspect of the post-war consensus through which the major parties largely agreed on the main points of domestic and foreign policy until the 1970s.^[1][2] With Labour in opposition from 1951, Gaitskell won bitter leadership battles with Bevan and his supporters to become the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in 1955. In 1956 he opposed the Eden government's use of military force at Suez. Against a backdrop of a booming economy he led Labour to its third successive defeat at the 1959 general election.

In the late 1950s, in the teeth of opposition from the major trade unions, he attempted in vain to remove Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution, which committed Labour to nationalisation of all the means of production. He did not reject public ownership altogether, but also emphasised the ethical goals of liberty, social welfare and above all equality, and argued that they could be achieved by fiscal and social policies within a mixed economy. His revisionist views, on the right wing of the Labour Party, were sometimes called Gaitskellism.

Despite this setback, Gaitskell reversed an attempt to adopt unilateral nuclear disarmament as Labour Party policy, and opposed Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's attempt to lead the UK into the European Common Market. He was loved and hated for his confrontational leadership and brutal frankness. He died suddenly in 1963, when he appeared to be on the verge of leading Labour back into power and becoming the next prime minister.