4 - Anti-Socialism and Working-Class Conservatism in the Industrial North

Summary

Drawing upon Stockton-on-Tees and Leeds West as case studies, this chapter explores the relationship between the National Government and popular Conservatism in urban, industrial, predominantly working-class constituencies. It demonstrates how Conservatives in the depressed regions, despite budgetary impediments to social reform legislation, succeeded in constructing a distinctive working-class appeal in the 1930s. They did so first by seeking to assert a reworked version of anti-socialism among working-class voters at the 1931 general election; then, in relation to relief campaigns among the unemployed, by seeking to rehabilitate a conspicuous Conservative presence in working-class communities; and ultimately, in 1935, by embracing the National Government’s cross-party example to advocate a programme of economic reconstruction that was both in keeping with reformist Conservatism and capable of retaining erstwhile Liberal and Labour voters.