of the Labour tability of MPs and the parliamentary leadership.
the trust with which ordinary party members and the electorate regard those who rise to the top of the labour movement.
strength of this ine argument strikingly ilhustrated in the row which led Foot to admonish Benn at last week's meeting of the Shadow Cabinet. Foot was upset over Benn's decision follow Labour he Tory defente and vote proposals That it was Foot who should be the to carpet Benn is wonderfully ironic. For, in doing so Foot gave a classical example of the poacher turned gamekeeper. There is a remarkable paralle what Benn did during the defence debate and what a former leader the Labour left did nearly 30 vcals azu.
Bevan Thạt leader Was Aneurin Bevan MP for Ebbw Vale. The Bevan took, the way he was attacked by the party leadership and hounded by the media. hias been recorded in a biography of Bevan The author is one Michael Fooi, the present MP for Ebbw Vale.
Foot records that et Challenge Jures, Page, Erect et le Party is democratic accounIt is, Benn has said, a question of dispelling Bevan's defiance of the parliamentary leadership came during defence debate in March 1952. The Tory government proposea an increase in acience expenditure of £500 million. Defence In doing so the Tories were doing no more than what had been approved principle by the previous Labour government.
Cultell Tory defence policy is also, many respects, just a carry over from where the last Labour cabinet lett ott In 1952, because they opposition and required Labours more radical lanc. parliamentary leadership proposea an amendment orne rorv celence Dialis oresent shadow cabinet did the same When the amendment was lost in 1952 MPs were told by their leaders to abstain on the final vote The present shadow cabinet same. Nye Bevan rebelled against and voted against the government, along with 56 other MPs. Tony Benn on did the salle, did 75 Labour MPs.
After VOLC Tony Benn was once again the the LOI aDust media. In his biography of bevan. Foot somewhat sarcastically records_that 29 years ago, the Daily BENN Tony Benn for Depu"The fastest sellbadge on the taarch, Star, can Julie.
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Herald, rebuked rebels 'in most magisterial tone' The Herald wrote: 'This time for frankness. we must tell Mr Aneurin Bevan and his supporters that sup on acourse which will they harm the country and imperil the future the labour movement 'They are deliberately bent on...challenging the democratie decisions of the Parliamentary Labour Party, advertising ana their antagonism to elected leader Mr Attlee... The labour movement is becoming tired this minority's egoism'.
If this sounds rather familiar, so is what happened next. At PLP meeting the following week Attlee proposed tha evan and the rest of th ficial apology for voting the way they had, and pro mise never to act in the same manner again
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ACCORDING to Tony Benn, what lies at the heart of the contest for the deputy leadership