Eighty years ago this week General de Gaulle and the Labour left wing display their power

 

 

A military court in Algeria sentenced industrialist and collaborator Pierre Pucheux to death in the first high profile trial of a former member of the Vichy government. Pucheux had come to North Africa under a safe conduct pass issued by General Giraud but General de Gaulle chose to ignore this. Pucheux had been minister of the interior under Vichy and thus caught by an edict of the National Liberation Committee which deemed all ministers to have committed treason. Pucheux had also personally selected 89 hostages for reprisal execution and established the Police Aux Questions Juives.

Ireland declined a request from the US to expel diplomats from Axis countries on the grounds of security. Britain then banned travel to Ireland  as part of precautions to preserve secrecy over the imminent Overlord landings in France.

There was uproar in the House of Commons when the Conservative health minister Henry Willink made a statement on post-war housing policy. The substance was innocuous - housing subsidies were to be extended and 300,000 new houses built - but  led by back bencher Aneurin Bevan Labour MPs protested vigorously against such a statement when no debate would be allowed, condemning this as an abuse of process. Anthony Eden, the leader of the House, promised that there would be a full debate of any legislation on the question. The exercise served to demonstrate that the government could not expect unlimited support from the Labour left wing.