Item 322 - Carbon copy of a letter from Lord Pethick-Lawrence to Herbert Morrison

1 single sheet

Sends a copy of an article he has written criticising the programme of the Labour Party. The Labour peers’ protest at overdue reforms to the House of Lords should not be ignored.

Transcript

1st. July, 1955.

Dear Herbert,

I promised to send you the enclosed which should be appearing in this month’s Contemporary Review. In case you are too busy to read all of it I have put a cross against the essential penultimate paragraph, which contains the pith of my criticism of the programme of the Labour Party. Though I naturally did not want to say so in a public article my feeling about the Labour Party is that it is continually running away from the really vital issues, and thereby lowering the credit of the party with the general public.

For precisely the same reasons I hope that the protest of the Labour peers will not get lost in the sand. If the Labour Party continues to take a negative view on long overdue reforms of the House of Lords it will not destroy that House but will injure its own reputation. In particular it seems to me to be quite monstrous that because M.Ps are not wholly satisfied with their own remuneration they should object to any remuneration whatsoever being given to peers for quite considerable labours and time spent on public duties. I object equally to ordinary snobbishness and inverted snobbishness.

Ever sincerely yours,
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Encl.

Rt. Hon. Herbert Morrison, M.P.
55, Archery Rd,
Eltham,
London, S.E.9.

This description was created by A. C. Green in 2020.