a LIberaL witHout a Home The Later Career oF Leslie Hore-belisHa In the simplistic and sometimes pernicious categorisations which have so often been applied to the political personalities of the 1930s – appeasers and anti-appeasers, a majority of dupes and a minority of the far-sighted, the decade’s Guilty Men and its isolated voices in the wilderness – Leslie Hore-Belisha has strong claims to be listed among the virtuous. David Dutton tells the story of Hore-Belisha – a Liberal without a home. 22 Journal of Liberal History 65 Winter 2009–10 a LIberaL witHout a Home The Later Career oF Leslie Hore-belisHa rue, he was a member Belisha ticked most of the right his name. Promoted to be Secre- of the National Gov- boxes. tary of State for War when Nev- ernment for most of its The events of January 1940 ille Chamberlain became Prime existence and a Cabinet represented the abrupt termina- Minister in May 1937, Belisha set minister from Octo- tion of an apparently inexora- about reforming the entrenched Tber 1936 until January 1940. But ble political ascent. Isaac Leslie upper echelons of the army and he was also a vigorous Minister Hore-Belisha was born in 1893, He was also War Office. During nearly three of War, who implemented a suc- the son of Jacob Isaac Belisha, a a vigorous years in this key post, he enhanced cession of much-needed reforms; businessman of Sephardic Jew- his standing with the public but he became disillusioned before ish origins. His father died when minister inevitably trod on many signifi- most of his colleagues with what Leslie was only nine months old cant and sensitive toes. Chamberlain did at Munich; he and he only assumed his hyphen- of War, Nevertheless, at the time of pushed – albeit belatedly – for ated name when his widowed his removal from the government a ‘continental commitment’ mother married Sir Adair Hore who imple- in January 1940 no less a figure against the prevailing assump- in 1912. Educated at Clifton, the than Churchill, giving Belisha tions of ‘limited liability’; he Sorbonne and St John’s, Oxford, mented a credit for the introduction of took part in the Cabinet revolt of Hore-Belisha served in the First peacetime conscription, wrote 2 September 1939 which forced World War before returning to succession to express his regret at the course Chamberlain to issue an ultima- complete his degree. The first of events. ‘I hope that it will not tum to Germany without further post-war President of the Oxford of much- be long’, concluded the future delay; he enjoyed the distinc- Union, he moved naturally into a Prime Minister, ‘before we are tion of being sacked from the career in politics and was elected needed colleagues again, and that the government in January 1940, to parliament in 1923. Less than a temporary setback will prove no ‘the last positive achievement decade later his ministerial career reforms; serious obstacle to your oppor- of the appeasers’ in the words of began. He was appointed Parlia- tunities of serving the country.’3 one influential account of these mentary Secretary at the Board of he became Most of the press, which worked times;1 he lined up with those Trade in November 1931, Finan- the War Minister’s resignation brave dissidents who defied their cial Secretary to the Treasury in disillusioned ‘into a big story’, was of a simi- whip and voted against Cham- September 1932 and Minister of lar mind, confident that Belisha berlain at the end of the cel- Transport in June 1934, with a seat before most would soon be restored to office.4 ebrated Norwegian debate on 8 in the Cabinet from October 1936. of his col- As the diarist Harold Nicol- May 1940, the necessary prelimi- Here, Belisha transformed what son recorded: ‘It seems that the nary to Churchill’s elevation to was normally a ministerial back- leagues with country regard him as a second the premiership; and his name is water into a high-profile public Haldane and a moderniser of absent from the cast-list of Cato’s office. He introduced driving what Cham- the Army. The line is that he has Guilty Men, the extraordinarily tests, revised the Highway Code, been ousted by an intrigue of the influential polemic which fixed reduced road traffic accidents berlain did Army Chiefs, and there is a gen- popular perceptions of the 1930s and installed the ‘beacon’ pedes- eral uproar about being ruled by for decades to come.2 In short, trian crossings which still bear at munich. dictators in brass hats.’5 Journal of Liberal History 65 Winter 2009–10 23 a liberaL witHout a Home: tHe Later Career oF Leslie Hore-belisHa Yet there was no place for ‘the biggest political sensation and editors of the London press, Belisha when Churchill formed since hostilities began’. The gov- many of whom were only too his own administration just four ernment had ‘dealt itself a stag- ready to vent the frustration to months later, and he remained on gering blow. It had relapsed with which the inactivity of the Pho- the backbenches for the duration a thud lower into the morass of ney War had naturally given rise. of hostilities, until recalled briefly its own mediocrity.’10 Writing in The issue dominated the head- to the post of Minister of National the Sunday Pictorial, Hugh Cud- lines for several days and report- Insurance in the short-lived care- lipp argued that Chamberlain had ers besieged Belisha’s Wimbledon taker government between May meekly surrendered to an intrigue home during the weekend follow- and July 1945. Losing his parlia- ‘of brass-hats and aristocrats’. But ing his resignation. His opportu- mentary seat of Plymouth Dev- the British public would not stand nity would arise in the Commons onport in the Labour landslide for it. ‘You haven’t’, predicted resignation speech traditionally later that year, Belisha’s ministe- Cudlipp, ‘heard the last of Hore- accorded to departing ministers. rial career was now over. He stood Belisha or of his miserable mean Not for the last time, however, unsuccessfully for parliament in dismissal.’11 According to the Tory Belisha discovered that opposi- Coventry South in the general MP, Victor Cazalet, Chamberlain tion during wartime is a hazard- election of February 1950, before had succeeded in making him a ous undertaking. Criticism that accepting a peerage in the New ‘national hero’.12 Briefly, Beli- was too pointed and vocal inevi- Year’s Honours List of 1954. Aged sha himself seemed to sense his tably ran the risk of being seen just sixty-three, he died suddenly opportunity to seize the highest as disloyal and unpatriotic. Fur- in February 1957 while deliver- office of government. He was, he thermore, he certainly desired ing a speech in Rheims as head confided to Cudlipp, ‘in a won- to return to government at the of a parliamentary delegation on derful position heading straight earliest opportunity and would Anglo-French commercial rela- for the Premiership’.13 no doubt have recognised that tions. As Keith Robbins has writ- Chamberlain himself was suf- the dominant Conservative Party ten, the fates had contrived to ficiently concerned, and aware of remained firmly under Chamber- ensure that Belisha would ‘shine the ability of his media-conscious lain’s control. Recalling recent brightly’, but also ‘shine briefly’.6 ex-minister to stir up trouble in departures from the National Many of Belisha’s private the press, that he took the trouble Government, Lieutenant-Gen- papers, bequeathed to his devoted to record his own thirteen-page eral Henry Pownall, Director of secretary Hilde Sloan, appear to account of the events surround- Military Operations at the War have been destroyed. Much of ing Belisha’s resignation.14 This Office, noted that Anthony Eden what survived, dealing largely was to counter a version of those and Samuel Hoare had got back with his years in office, was pub- events presented by the former into office by ‘“going gracefully” lished nearly half a century ago.7 A War Minister to Lord Camrose of when they had to go. H-B may serviceable, if uninspiring, biog- the Daily Telegraph. This, Cham- think it best to follow their exam- raphy appeared in 2006.8 There berlain noted, contained ‘only a ple.’18 None the less, strengthened have also been useful studies of few statements which are directly by the support of the popular press his period as Secretary of State for at variance with the truth, but (though Harold Nicolson sensed War (1937–40), while his removal by suppression, by alteration of less of a ‘pro-Belisha than an anti- from office in May 1940 has been the setting and by direction of Chamberlain outburst’),19 Beli- thoroughly explored.9 But no emphasis, the whole picture is sha still seemed keen to make the detailed examination exists of completely distorted and gives an most of his chance when discuss- Belisha’s later career and therefore entirely false impression’.15 In the ing the details of his resignation of the failure of a man who, in the meantime there appeared in suc- by any objec- speech with Hugh Cudlipp as late early months of the Second World cessive issues of the journal Truth, as 13 January.20 War, was widely regarded, after certainly with Chamberlain’s tive criteria In the event, however, he drew Churchill, as the most dynamic knowledge and possibly also his back from a frontal attack on member of the War Cabinet, to connivance, a vitriolic attack on belisha had a Chamberlain and his government.