Eighty years ago Labour hopes rise after polling day in the general election
With a large increase in the number of voters since the last general election in 1935 it was especially hard to call the result of the 1945 vote. To give time for the votes of electors serving overseas to be counted, it would be another three weeks before the result was published. Labour was in confident mood after polling day on the basis of detailed canvasses although the Conservatives were still on a formidable majority of seats won in 1935. Labour leadership talked in terms of winning 100 seats and many of the 25 new constituencies. This would put them within striking distance of enough MPs to form the government. The Conservatives were nervous that a vigorous campaign by the Liberals had translated to proper three-way fights in constituencies which would work to the government's disadvantage. Political debate in France was dominated by the question of the consitution. De Gaulle preferred a simple reversion to the 1875 constitution of the Third Republic but ...