NOW SEVEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 115, 28 February 1950, Page 3

NOW SEVEN

LABOUR LEAD IN BRITAIN

NORTH OF SCOTLAND RESULTS tN.Z.P.A-Copyright) (Rec. 9.30) LONDON,Teb. 27. Conservative and Liberal wins in three delayed North Scotland polls to-day clipped down toseven the Labour Party’s narrow overall majority in Britain’s new House of Commons.

The state of parties now is:— Labour .. ... . • 315 Conservative .. .. 296 Liberal 9 , Irish Nationalist .. 2 Independent Liberal .. 1

The one final result to come is from the Misside Division of Manchester, where polling will be on March 3. The Conservative candidate to-day won the Argyll, Scotland Division, with a majority of more than 10,000 votes. The Conservative; Major D. McCallum, polled votes,, and I. Nicholson (Labour) 9215, while Mrs M. Hold, standing as a Scottish Home Rule candidate, .lost her deposit, with 1490 votes. J. Grimond (Liberal) gained the Orkney and Shetland seat from the Conservatives. He polled 9237 votes. Sir Basil Neven-Spence (Conservative) 6281 and H. Leslie (Labour) 4195. - -

The Conservatives won the , Inverness seat, where the voting was: Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton (Conservative) 16,056, D. Thompson (Labour) ,11,236, H. Bannerman (Liberal) 8023. Gains and losses in nominally comparable seats are now Labour 10 gains and, 55 losses, Conservatives 50—5, Liberal 2—3, Communist o—l, LabourIndependent o—2, Independent Labour Party o—2, Conservative-Liberal I—o, National Liberal o—2, Independent o—4, Independent Liberal I—o. King’s Speech Reuter says it is now quite certain that the King’s Speech outlining the Government’s programme will contain no controversial legislation, and that nationalisation will be left out. There have been no contacts yet between Government, Liberal or Conservative leaders. The announcement by Prime Minister Attlee of his reconstructed Government is expected shortly, possibly within the next 25 hours. Mr Attlee this afternoon summoned senior Cabinet Ministers to No. 10 Downing Street to plan immediate strategy following the Labour Party’s narrow General Election victory. Ministers discussed Cabinet reconstruction and the filling of other Government posts. A further Cabinet meeting—possibly two—will, it is expected, be called later this week to discuss immediate administration

problems, including the Budget, which „ the Government must have ready for presentation to Parliament in April. Political quarters said to-day that Sir Stafford Cripps might go to America for fresh economic talks with the • United States Secretary of the Treasury, Mr John Snyder, before the Government produced its April Budget. \ Replacements have to be found for several members of the Government who will not be members of the new Parliament. They include Mr Creech Jones (Colonial Secretary), Sir Frank Soskice (Solicitor-General, Mr L. J. Edwards (Barliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade) and Mr C. P. lVlayhew (Under-Secretary for Foreign Affiairs) who lost their seats. Mr Attlee will see the King at Buckingham Palce to-night. He will tell his Majesty of his plans, and probably submit the names of his reconstructed »cabinet for his Majesty’s approval. The King and Queen returned to Buckingham Palace to-day. They spent the week-end a£ the Royal Lodge at [Windsor.

NEW OFFENSIVE

EYES ON COMMUNISTS

(Rec. 10.15) LONDON, Feb. 27. Leading Trade Union leaders expect British Communists, annihilated in the General Election, to launch a new offensive in the industrial field, says Reuter’s' industrial correspondent. He adds that there is wide Trade Union belief that the election stalemate will kill the -Cripps wage freeze policy. Several key unions are pressing wage demands, and the Communists are expected to seize this.

Trade Union leaders are unperturbed at the possibility. They believe that the political defeat of the Communists is a reflection of their loss of influence generally, and claim that the T.U.C. General Council has ■effectively plugged most of the gaps through which the Communists have advanced v in the Trade Union movement in the past. Trade Union leaders are doing their heart-searching in solitude. They seem likely to await next month’s meeting of the T.U.C. General Council before making a public declaration of their wages policy. Meantime the Council is expected to maintain support to the Avage freeze policy. A number of key unions—engineers, railwaymen and miners among them —are almost certain to disregard this and press -their wage claims.