Scotsman Archive

LIBERAL ATTITUDE TO ALLIANCE 21 January, 1950

AN ALLIANCE between the Liberals and the Conservatives would not ensure the defeat of the Socialists, but it would mean the destruction of the Liberal Party, said Viscount Samuel, Leader of the Liberal Peers in the House of Lords last night. It was asked why the Liberals did not join the Conservatives to defeat the Labour Government. Lord Samuel answered by pointing out that in the last election the country, grateful as it was to Mr Churchill for his magnificent war leadership, voted against the party with which he had identified himself. "The people made it quite clear then that they did not wish to see in the next four or five years another Conservative administration. Now there is good ground for believing that a great number, perhaps the majority, want the Socialists out, but they do not want the Conservatives in." If the Liberals presented only a few candidates and supported the Conservatives elsewhere, there would be no prospect of winning 7,000,000 floating votes.

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