members of Parliament elected at the 1935 general election, held on 14 November. Due to the onset of the Second World War, this was the last general election before 1945, making it the longest UK parliament in history and the longest parliament to sit in Westminster since the Cavalier Parliament
of 1661–1679.
History
A declaration was made to Parliament 3 September 1939[1] by PM Neville Chamberlain that "this country is at war with Germany", as it had been since 9am that day upon the expiration of an unobserved deadline to cease German fire in Poland.
The King commissioned a change in Administration on 10 May 1940, and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister on 13 May 1940 with a resolution "That this House welcomes the formation of a Government representing the united and inflexible resolve of the nation to prosecute the war with Germany to a victorious conclusion."[2]
On 29 January 1942, Clement Attlee's motion was voted, "That this House has confidence in His Majesty's Government and will aid it to the utmost in the vigorous prosecution of the War", and passed by a margin of 464 Ayes to 1 Noe (Maxton, J.).[3]
A motion to censure the Government of Churchill, "That this House, while paying tribute to the heroism and endurance of the Armed Forces of the Crown in circumstances of exceptional difficulty, has no confidence in the central direction of the war," was defeated on 2 July 1942 by a count of 475 Noes to 25 Ayes. Sir John Wardlaw-Milne was mover, and Mr. Aneurin Bevan was seconder.[4]
Composition
This diagram show the composition of the parties in the 1935 general election.
Note: This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time.
The Commons Chamber was hit by bombs and the roof of Westminster Hall was set on fire. The fire service said that it would be impossible to save both, so it was decided to concentrate on saving the Hall.
The Commons Chamber was entirely destroyed by the fire which spread to the Members' Lobby and caused the ceiling to collapse. By the following morning, all that was left of the Chamber was a smoking shell. As the Commons Chamber was totally destroyed and the Lords Chamber was damaged, both Houses moved to the Church House annexe and sat there from 13 May.
From late June 1941 until October 1950, the Commons met in the Lords Chamber, while the Lords met in the Robing Room (a fact which was kept secret during the war).[5]
Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee nor these three received the salary for the post of Leader of the Opposition. The largest party that opposed the war and was not part of the coalition – and therefore, in theory, the opposition – was the Independent Labour Party, led by James Maxton
. With only three MPs, it tried to take over the opposition frontbench but was widely opposed in this venture.
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