Constituency : Oldham 1900-04 ( Conservative ), 1904-06, Manchester North West 1906-08, Dundee 1908-22, Epping 1924-5 ( Constitutionalist then Conservative ), Woodford 1945-64
This is a milestone post . As I always expected he would be, Winston is the first of the MPs we're discussing to ( just about ) survive into my own lifetime. My dad was a big fan and went down to London for his funeral; I don't expect my mum was greatly enthusiastic about being left at home with a month old baby however much respect she had for the great man.
Winston eneters the story at this point because, having been elected as a Conservative in 1900, in May 1904 he crossed the floor of the House and joined the Liberals in response to the Conservatives turning towards protectionism.
Winston was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill the Tory politician who crashed and burned in the 1880s. He was educated at Harrow but did not prosper academically. He went on to Sandhurst and joined the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. He also became a war correspondent for several newspapers to supplement his income. He saw action in India and the Sudan before returning to the UK to unsuccessfully contest a by-election at Oldham in 1899. He then saw action in the Boer War where he escaped from a P.O.W. camp and took part in the Siege of Ladysmith. In the 1900 election he was elected for the Conservatives at Oldham. He soon fell out with the party over tariffs and in one speech said that " To think you can make a man richer by putting on a tax is like a man thinking that he can stand in a bucket and lift himself by the handle". When his constituency party disowned him, he made the decision to join the Liberals.
Winston switched his constituency to Manchester North West for the 1906 election. He was appointed him Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies. His major task was settling the Transvaal Constitution.
Asquith promoted Winston to President of the Board of Trade, a Cabinet post , in succession to his friend Lloyd George. The two men shared the political vision that the Liberals must hold Labour off by implementing advanced social reforms to benefit the working man. He was defeated in the by-election to confirm his new post but was soon returned for Dundee.
Asquith later complained to Harcourt that Winston took up too much Cabinet time.
In 1908 Winston introduced the Trade Boards Bill to fix minimum wages. In 1909 he set up labour exchanges. He also helped draft the legislation for national insurance. He helped Lloyd George by presiding over the Budget League which championed the Chancellor's policies.
In 1910 Asquith promoted Winston to Home Secretary in succession to Herbert Gladstone. There he proceeded to lose the working man's trust by his heavy-handed response to the Cambrian Colliery dispute. He also incurred criticism by appearing in person at the Sidney Street Siege , not the last time his impetuosity would get him into trouble.
In 1911 Winston became First Lord of the Admiralty and set about modernising the navy. He was a voice for war in the Cabinet's discussions in August 1914 . In October he went to Antwerp to stiffen resistance. Though unsuccessful he claimed that his action delayed the surrender and allowed the securing of Calais and Dunkirk.
In 1915 Winston, impatient at the stalemate in the West, enthusiastically backed a scheme to use spare naval capacity and colonial troops to attack Turkey in the Dardanelles campaign. When this proved an embarrrassing failure, the Conservatives demanded his removal from the Admiralty as a price for joining the wartime coalition. Winston was retained in the Cabinet as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He resigned a few months later and rejoined the army as a lieutenant colonel on the Western front. He made some forays into no man's land but was not involved in serious action.
When Lloyd George became Prime Minister he gave Winston a leg up and appointed him Minister of Munitions. After the war he made him Secretary State for War and for Air. He was the chief advocate of military intervention in Russia to topple the Bolshevik government. He also supported a military alliance with France. He was also involved in sending the Black and Tans into Ireland. In 1921, he succeeded Montagu as Secretary of State for the Colonies and was a signatory of the Anglo-Irish treaty .
In 1922 Winston was ousted at Dundee in a bizarre result which placed a Scottish Prohibitionist Edwin Scrymgeour at the head of the poll. Scrymgeour had contested every election at Dundee since 1908 but had never come close to winning the seat. What ensured Churchill's defeat was another National Liberal candidate D McDonald standing. He split the vote and ensured neither of them got elected. Winston's appendectomy during the campaign didn't help his campaign.
In 1923 Winston was seen off fairly easily at Leicester West by Labour.
By 1924 Winston had become highly hostile to Labour and contested the Westminster Abbey by-election as a "Constitutionalist" advocating a new coalition between the Tories and the Liberals. He hoped for support from both anti-socialist parties. In the event both the Unionists defending the seat and the local Liberals put candidates in the field. The Liberal candidate declared he was only standing to oppose Churchill which contributed to his departure from the party. He came a very close second to the Unionist.
Later in the year Winston secured the backing of the Unionist party in Epping to stand as a "Constitutionalist" ( his lead followed by a number of other waverers ) and defeated a Liberal to return to Parliament. When Baldwin asked him to become Chancellor of the Exchequer he dropped the label and became a Tory once again.
As Chancellor , Winston oversaw the disastrous return to the gold standard which seriously damaged the British economy. During the opposition years of 1929-31, he became increasingly estranged from the Tory leadership over protection and Indian self-government. He was not invited into the National Government in 1931 and spent the early part of the thirties concentrating on writing. His support for Edward VIII only underlined his isolation.
Winston started calling for rearmament from 1936 and Neville Chamberlain was quick to restore him to the Admiralty when war broke out. Though it seems inevitable in hindsight, Winston's accession to the premiership in 1940 was almost by accident. He was hardly less culpable than Chamberlain for the failure in Norway and a majority in the House would have accepted Halifax if he'd been willing to accept the position. As we know, Winston's rhetoric inspired the nation to carry on the fight against Hitler until the American's arrived though his actual wartime record is stained by the betrayal of Poland and the anti-Soviet Russians.
Winston was then rejected by the electorate in 1945, tired of Tories after 14 years of the so-called "National" Government. His own "reds under the bed " rhetoric, directed against his stalwart wartime allies, undoubtedly contributed to the drubbing. He toured the USA where he made his "iron curtain" speech in 1946. He continued as Tory leader largely because his obvious successor, Eden, was happy to bide his time.
So it was that Winston in his eighties became a peacetime Prime Minister in 1951. Retaining some affection for his old party he invited the Liberal leader Clement Davies to join the government but the offer was declined. His administration was notable for Macmillan's efforts to deal with housing and the slow deterioration of Britain's world power status.. His health got worse after a stroke in 1953 and he might have retired then had Eden not been seriously ill himself at the time. Instead he lingered until 1955 before stepping down though he remained an MP.
Winston's declining health and infrequent attendance in the Commons were largely kept secret from the public although his constituents were starting to notice and his majority fell in 1959. He was persuaded to step down at the 1964 election. He died in January 1965 aged 90.
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