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As commentators predict a 100 seat Tory victory, Churchill is jeered and cheered by thousands, with one boy throwing a firecracker at him.

In Blackburn, Barbara Castle is wary about overturning the Tory majority

A thread on the last day of the 1945 election campaign
The illegal betting markets remained confident of a Tory victory. Small secret trades continued to take place and bookmakers offered 5/1 on a Labour victory.

Few, it was claimed, were enticed into backing Labour.
The Manchester Guardian called it for the Tories:

‘There is no reason to be other than frank about these matters. The chances of Labour sweeping the country and obtaining a clear majority over all other parties are pretty remote’
The Times also reports that ‘the least probable outcome of all on the evidence is a Labour landslide’.
The Daily Mirror urged its readers to ‘Vote For Them’

'The man who would fill that chair in your home. The mate you miss at work. The pal you liked to meet in the pub. The boyfriend'
The Conservative media talked of a historic landslide for Churchill.

Lord Beaverbrook’s papers claimed ‘favourite figures range from 100 upwards’.
Only the final day, over 1500 public meetings were held across the country.

In London, Churchill relied on his war energies to mobilise support:

‘We are going to win. I feel it in my bones’.
Churchill was clear about the threat:

‘If there should be a landslide to the left here, many countries on the Continent would slide, not in to decent socialism, but in to the violence of communism. If we go down, all the nine-pins of Europe will fall’.
At Camberwell Green, he was said to have been jeered by thousands. At Walworth Road, the crowd was so hostile that he had to be rescued by a police escort.
At Tooting Bec Common, a 17 year old is arrested after throwing a firecracker at Churchill. After the crowd tackle him, Churchill responds:

‘Leave him alone. Don’t hurt the little fool’.
Observing all this, the Washington Post’s Marquis Childs.

He declared Attlee to have ‘politically speaking, all the appeal of a lonely clam’.

Churchill, ‘the greatest living figure of our time, may occupy the driver’s seat in England for a long time to come’
For Attlee, speaking at Bethnal Green baths, this was now a time for change:

‘We are asking that, for the first time in the history of Britain, the working class party should be given power to carry out a policy that puts the interests of the common man first’
Harold Laski spoke in Kensington. He claimed the election was not about:

‘whether Mr Churchill deserves a vote of gratitude’ but ‘the issue is the future of British civilisation in the context of the future of the free world’
In Wandsworth, Bevin told supporters that Churchill’s comments about socialism in Europe had been unhelpful

‘You have got to meet round a table to make peace’
In Wakefield, Greenwood believed victory was in sight

‘Churchill has finally been trounced by Attlee. The Tories have become more and more panic stricken as the days have gone by. Our strength in the country is far greater than ever it has been before. Toryism is played out’.
In Bishop Auckland, Hugh Dalton lamented Churchill’s tone in the campaign:

‘For those of us who served at his side through the darkest days of the war, we have watched with surprise and regret his pathetic decline during this campaign’
Dalton argued that ‘his recent performances has lost the respect and the good will of millions in the war years who would have followed him to the end’

He observed that ‘the electors will not be deceived by this prostitution of a great name’
In East Lewisham, Herbert Morrison read out a letter from a soldier serving in Germany that declared many of the troops had been deprived of the vote.

‘We put our faith in the people at home to do the right thing by us and give us the people in power we want’
In Blackburn, Barbara Castle addressed an eve of poll meeting of 3000 people alongside Sir Hartley Shawcross, the candidate for St Helens.

She did not expect to overturn a Tory majority of 3,500.
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