Clement Attlee

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 (1883–1967)

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Lived 1883–1967, aged 84United Kingdom

United Kingdom PoliticiansPolitician

Wikipedia
93 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1883–1967
Aged 84
Known for
The Queen and the Coup
2020

Summary

Updated 2026-06-21

He built the British welfare state from the rubble of World War II — nationalised industries, launched the NHS, housed a shattered nation — then lost power and faded into a reputation for being boring. History remembers the institutions, not the man.

Biography

About

Clement Richard Attlee was born on 3 January 1883 into an upper middle class family, son of a wealthy London solicitor, and trained as a barrister after Oxford. Volunteer work in London's East End shifted his politics leftward; he joined the Independent Labour Party, abandoned law, and began lecturing at the London School of Economics. Elected to Parliament in 1922 for Limehouse, he served in Ramsay MacDonald's governments and became Labour leader in 1935 after the party's landslide defeat. He took Labour into Churchill's wartime coalition in 1940, serving as deputy prime minister from 1942, t…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Clement Attlee

Clement Attlee

said1937

Socialism is not the invention of an individual. It is essentially the outcome of economic and social conditions.

— The Labour Party in Perspective (Left Book Club, 1937), p. 15

Clement Attlee

said1937

Socialists do not propose to substitute the domination of society by one privileged class for that of another. They seek to abolish class distinctions altogether.

— The Labour Party in Perspective (Left Book Club, 1937), p. 145

Clement Attlee

said1937

When we are returned to power we want to put in the statute book an act which will make our people citizens of the world before they are citizens of this country.

— The Labour Party in Perspective (Left Book Club, 1937)

Clement Attlee

said22 Apr 1936

Mr. Chamberlain's Budget was the natural expression of the character of the present Government.

— Broadcast (22 April 1936), quoted in "Mr. Attlee on a war budget", The Times (23 April 1936), p. 16.

Clement Attlee

said22 Apr 1936

The Government has now resolved to enter upon an arms race, and the people will have to pay for their mistake in believing that it could be trusted to carry out a policy of peace.

— Broadcast (22 April 1936), quoted in "Mr. Attlee on a war budget", The Times (23 April 1936), p. 16.

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