Labour Party Ideology

How far do sources N, O and P suggest that Labour was a divided party in the 1950’s?

Source N is negative primary source that comes from Labour politician Roy Jenkins’ book called A life at the Centre published in 1991 and it effectively details the division within the Labour party from first-hand experience. Source O is a positive secondary source in the form of an extract from historian and author Kenneth Morgan which tells of Nye Bevan’s following with Labour. Source P is a primary cartoon by Michael Cummings and published in the Daily Express and it depicts Attlee as a distrustworthy character.

All three sources agree with the question to some degree, as they all highlight different parts of the party and thus different aspects of the

It had a pretty damaging effect on the party considering that it showed them to be inadequate as party members, if they couldn’t work with each other, then how could they even pose as worthy opposition for the conservatives. Source O suggests that not everyone was on board with the division, that it was perhaps the idea of one member of the party and it’s simply escalated to a party-wide 6 way split. The source recounts that Bevan “disliked the whole idea of conspiratorial private groups.”, while in the same sentence, remarks another member of the party with the completely opposite view, “so beloved of

Personally I cannot see how source P links to the question, as it does not focus on the division with the party itself, rather Attlee’s capability as the leader of the party. Obviously, it’s not going to hold him in high spirits because of the well documented split within Labour but, the source itself remarks : “You can trust Mr Attlee.”, the tone itself suggests the opposite, that he is not worthy of the public trust. This could be for various reasons, a popular one would be that, he let his party become divided, his attempts to glue it back together have failed, and in turn the communists can capitalise upon that and ruin the country. The country is not protected, looked after, or under capable leadership while Labour run it. The artist, Michael Cummings was a documented right-wing cartoonist, frequently targeting Labour and many left wing leaning councils, student activists, trade unions etc. Source O was written by popular author Kenneth Morgan, famous for his works on political history so you can expect a lot of detail and hope for a more balanced view. The extract is from Michael Foot’s biography and holds relevance to the question as it details the Bevanite movement within Labour and certainly holds the benefit of hindsight in regards to how everything turned out in the end or how actions affected the course