Philip Snowden: The First Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer

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However, Gaitskell told an audience at Doncaster that Bevan had made "a direct challenge to the elected Leader of our Party" and accused him of not being a team player. It was perhaps too smart-alecky, too clever: sarcasm was not the right tool for a subject that affected all humanity.

He argued that higher interest rates would be perceived as generating profits for the banks, which would not sit well with trade unions, and he was only prepared to consider demanding that the banks restrict credit.Robert Skidelsky is representative of the Keynesians who have charged that Snowden and MacDonald were blinded by their economic philosophy that required balanced budgets, sound money, the gold standard and free trade, regardless of the damage that Keynesians thought it would do to the economy and the people. By the time he was elected Labour MP for Blackburn in 1906, he had become a well-known socialist figure, standing at the national level alongside both Keir Hardie, Professor Arnold Lupton and Ramsay MacDonald.

In 1893, in the aftermath of the formation of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in neighbouring Bradford, he was asked to give a speech for the Cowling Liberal Club on the dangers of socialism. He was the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, a position he held in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. However, even by the end of 1951 there was less likelihood of the Korean War turning into a general war (the front line had stabilised, with the US administration being clear that they did not wish to escalate hostilities against China), so any government might have pared back defence spending in 1952. At the same time, however, taxation on profits was raised and pensions increased to compensate retirees for a rise in the cost of living, [65] while the allowances for dependent children payable to widows, the unemployed and the sick, together with marriage and child allowances, were also increased. Charges on false teeth and spectacles were "insignificant" in the context of the greater budget and "financially were neither here nor there" .Labour also planned new and improved schools, improved pensions and benefits, and laid the foundations for the extension of voting rights to millions more. Gaitskell visited Washington in October 1950, his first visit there, just before becoming Chancellor. Bevan now claimed he had "misunderstood or misheard" what Gaitskell planned and was reported to be "absolutely livid" and "wondering whether to blow the whole thing wide open". There were also very real worries that the Soviets might invade western Europe (which was unarmed, with strong communist influence in many countries) and that the US would not help Britain if she did not help herself.