Aneurin Bevan’s resignation speech

The World War II has shown how much all the population was united during this period. All this mobilisation proved to be successful in winning the war. Britain has got a strong support from public opinion and several reforms started to be planned as people were ready to accept state intervention. The Beveridge Report was published in wartime in 1942 and described the road to social reconstruction. This report also proposed a system of national insurance that formed the basis of the National Insurance Act in 1946. In the years between 1942 and 1951, Britain faced the implementation of social security and other measures.

In 1945, Clement Attlee, member of the Labour Party, won the General Election and appointed Aneurin Bevan as the Minister of Health. Clement Attlee’s government implemented the provisions of the Beveridge Report. The party also introduced a comprehensive welfare state and several post-war social security programmes as the National Health Service.

This text is taken from the House of Commons archives. It is Aneurin Bevan’s resignation speech that he addressed to the House of Commons on April 23, 1951. The NHS exceeded its budget by 40 percent while medical expenditure had been planned downward. Financial solutions had to be provided. Bevan voiced his opposition to Hugh Gaitskell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who was in favour of introducing optical and dentures charges. When Hugh Gaitskell announced that he intended to introduce these measures, Bevan resigned.

Why does Bevan tackle the issue of charges? To what extend the implementation of charges is such a bad thing for him?

The first part on the analysis will bring and develop more information on the reasons that led the Labour Party to take new measures and the second part will focus on Bevan’s reasons.

The National Insurance Act, first produced in 1911, had finally been passed by the Parliament in 1946. This Act offered a safety net “from the cradle to the grave”. It created a system providing social security to all adults. It was funded by employers, employees and the government and it provided sickness, maternity, employees and pension benefits. Later, on 5 July 1948, the National Health Service started to operate. It was one of the major social reforms. It had 3 principles: to be free at the point of delivery, to be universal (for everybody including non-UK residents) and comprehensive (covering all health-related issues as doctors, hospitals, treatments, dental and optical care). The NHS was funded from general taxation.

In 1950, the United Kingdom was recovering from the World War II and at the same time British troops went to support US forces in the Korean War. This made public spending to strongly increase. The Korean War (1950-1953) opposed North Korea (with the support of China and the Soviet Union) with South Korea (with the support of the United States and its allies).

By 1951, heavy pressures were made on heath spending. In fact, Britain decided to rearm because of the Korean War. This is why Bevan talks about “defend ourselves by arms” (l.49) at the end of the speech. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Gaitskell wanted to balance the budget by imposing charges on dental and optical care. In fact, he wanted to reduce Health expenditure to save money that was need for the defence programme. As the NHS was founded by taxation, people will not agree to pay higher tax, so reducing the budget was the only legitimate solution. Hugh Gaitskell wanted to prove that the Labour party was ready to make hard choices.

For Bevan, “democratic Socialism” (l.43) is the “only hope for mankind (l.43) where this refers to the ideology characterized by the will of a socialist society where the greatest possible equality and where justice prevails, is compatible with respect for democratic principles. This ideology believes that capitalism is incompatible with democratic values of liberty, equality and solidarity. That is why line 9 Bevan states that “we must not follow behind the anarchy of the American

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