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Herbert Morrison became a leading cabinet member of Clement Atlee’s post-war Labour governments. The two most important posts held by Herbert Morrison were Leader of the House and Home Secretary.
Herbert Morrison was born on January 3rd, 1888 in Lambeth, London. Lambeth was not an affluent area of London and many people there lived hard lives. Morrison had little formal education and left school at fourteen. He made a living from being an errand boy but got involved in politics. Morrison was a founder member of the London Labour Party and quickly became a leading figure in it.
In 1920, Morrison was elected mayor of Hackney - another deprived area of London. In 1922, he was elected to the London County Council and in 1923 Morrison became MP for South Hackney – a seat that he lost in the following year when Ramsey MacDonald’s government lost the general election. It is probable that Morrison was very much a victim of the political fall-out of the ‘Zinoviev Letter’. Hackney may well have been a deprived area but it was patriotic and had no truck with the ‘Reds’.
Herbert Morrison returned to Parliament in 1929 when he was appointed Minister of Transport. Perturbed by the whole issue of Ramsey MacDonald and a National Government, he lost his seat again in 1931.
In the years that lead to World War Two, Morrison returned to the London County Council. In 1933, he was elected to lead the Labour group on the LCC. In 1934, Labour unexpectedly won the election for the LCC and Morrison found himself as Leader of the Council. Probably his finest achievement was setting up a ‘Green Belt’ around London’s suburbs.
In 1935, Morrison again returned to Parliament as a MP. He tried to challenge Clement Atlee in an election for leadership of the party but failed badly.
Morrison was a supporter of the Republican movement during the Spanish Civil War and criticised the government for its policy of non-intervention. He felt that a positive support of the Republicans would have sent out a signal to Hitler and Mussolini that Britain would not take a pacific stance against aggression in Europe.
Morrison served in Winston Churchill’s war cabinet. In 1940, he was Minister of Supply but shortly after the he was appointed Home Secretary. The impact of the Blitz on the East End of London had a major impact on Morrison but his knowledge of the area was a very useful asset in determining how best to deal with issues thrown up by the Blitz. An indoor air-raid shelter was named after him – the Morrison Shelter. By the end of the war, Morrison had gained a reputation for being a good organiser and as a man who had to take difficult decisions regardless of circumstances – such as taking on the ‘Daily Mirror’ for publishing a cartoon that both he and Churchill considered unacceptable for the war effort. Ironically a party colleague forced a debate in the Commons over the whole issue – Anuerin Bevan with whom Morrison was later to serve in Atlee’s post-war cabinet.
Morrison helped to draft Labour’s 1945 general election manifesto – ‘Let Us Face the Future’. He was one of the organisers of Labour’s election campaign and the party’s victory ensured that Atlee, the man he challenged in the 1935 leadership election, would suitable reward him. Morrison was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons. For a short time in 1951, he took over from Ernest Bevin as Foreign Secretary.
Morrison failed in his attempt to succeed Atlee as party leader in 1955. Aged 67 he was seen as being too old to lead a major political party and he finished third out of three candidates for the post.
He stood down as a MP in 1959 and was made a life peer as Baron Morrison of Lambeth. He became President of the British Board of Film Censors and died on March 6th 1965.
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