Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated December 16, 1955: Attlee's successor

Mr. Hugh Gaitskell on December 14 succeeded Mr. Clement Attlee as leader of the British Labour Party. In a secret ballot of Labour's 275 MPs, he defeated Mr. Herbert Morrison and Mr. Aneurin Bevan. The 49-year-old former Chancellor of the Exchequer topped the poll with 157 votes against 70 for Mr. Bevan and 40 for Mr. Morrison. It was a victory for youth as well as Socialist orthodoxy, as Mr. Morrison might have been more strongly backed but for his 67 years. Mr. Bevan, 58, had not been conceded a chance because of his unpopularity due to past clashes with the party leadership. Mr. Gaitskell, whose rise has been meteoric during only ten years in Parliament, will now become Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.

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