Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill

by Andrew Adonis

As a statesman, Ernest Bevin is second only to Churchill in impact and legacy. Born in abject poverty to a single mother, and with virtually no formal education, Bevin went on to become the founder of the largest trade union in British history and then made it to the top of politics and government.

As Minister of Labour from 1940 to 1945 he was the nation’s wartime mobiliser-in-chief. Clement Attlee, Churchill’s Deputy Prime Minister, kept the wartime coalition in good administrative order, but it was the charismatic Bevin who really drove the domestic war effort.

As post-war Foreign Secretary, Bevin was Britain’s last world power envoy and did much to thwart Stalin’s Soviet Union, and to prevent Europe sinking back into conflict. No one did more to stabilise and democratise Europe, and to pave the way for the European Union.

In this major, wide-ranging new biography Andrew Adonis brings to life one of our greatest statesmen – a politician whose light is often unjustly hidden beneath that of his more celebrated contemporaries.

Genres: Biography, Politics, History, Nonfiction, British Literature

368 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2020

About the author

Andrew Adonis, Baron Adonis, PC is a British Labour Party politician and journalist who served in HM Government for five years in the Blair ministry and the Brown ministry. He served as Secretary of State for Transport from 2009 to 2010, and as Chairman of the National Infrastructure Commission from 2015 to 2017.

Reviews

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first rate piece of scholarship that shines an important light on a figure Left wing British politics desperately needs to remember and learn from.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bevin, more than any other Labour figure before or since was a loved and trusted leader of the British working class. Despite his conceit and prejudice he was without question an extremely able and visionary trade unionist and politician. Problems that would daunt most of us provided Bevin with a challenge he relished. In this country's darkest hour, Bevin by now a revered household name, was second only to Churchill as the most popular of our Wartime leaders. In its aftermath, as Attlee's Foreign Secretary, and at times alone, he aggressively challenged and defeated Stalin's attempt to secure greater influence in the West. Bevin was also the driving force behind the creation of West Germany, and NATO. Bevin had his failures, rooted in his pro-imperialist leanings, and belief that only by keeping the Empire (minus India) would the spread of communism be halted. Adonis doesn't avoid these issues or the anti-Semite tendency that infected Bevin and Attlee when refusing to support an independent Israeli state. Something that still echoes in the Labour Party to this day.
In this offering you will see Bevin for what he is. A flawed genius. Yet still the most extraordinary working class trade union leader and politician ever to represent and fight for Britain. How we could do with a modern Bevin today. Then perhaps Farage and Johnson wouldn't be attracting more trade union votes than the curent Labour Party.

[Douglas Bridger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read. I had read Lord Bullocks 3 volume biography and knew Bevin was brilliant but largely unknown nowadays. This more compact version of Bevin gives a different perspective and brings him back to our attention. It reminds us what politics can achieve when people of integrity and stature are in it and a stark contrast with the pygmies running our country now.
This book puts some things in context with current Labour Party politics making the story seem more immediate and real, and I cannot fault the depressing final summing up of the failure of leadership of the current Trade Union movement.
The Failures chapter also is a rather downbeat end to the book. The principal criticism is that he was an imperialist. It is worth remembering that prior to the First World War every European nation believed that this was the natural way of progress.
The only thing I missed in the book was more of the anecdotal stories of the way he spoke which clearly endeared him to many people.
This book should be compulsory reading for all Labour Party members.

[David Lowther · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read quite a number of political biographies and this is most certainly the best. I knew of Ernest Bevin, of course, and I recognised the wonderful job he did during the war as Minister of Labour. Of his huge contribution to the growth of trade unionism, I was blissfully unaware and I, horribly mistakenly, judged his period as Foreign Secretary by the dreadful Palestinian mess.
Andrew Adonis has given us a warts and all portrait of a very great politician whose contribution to the establishment of the welfare state, the setting up of the West German state, the close relationship he had with George Marshall in delivering the Marshall Plan and the prevention of the spread of Stalinism into Western Europe should never be forgotten.
He, like all great men, had his faults. Bevin was an imperialist and failed to spot the writing on the wall when Britain's Empire slid into post-war decline. This led Bevin to reject the opportunity for the UK to become involved with the European Coal and Steel Community (later the European Union), despite the entreaties of his close wartime colleague and friend Winston Churchill who frequently called for the establishment of a United States of Europe (note that Johnson).
By normal standards, Ernest Bevin: Labour's Churchill is a short book not the two or three volume or 700 page volumes to which we have become accustomed. But it's none the worse for that and Adonis frequently references other biographies about this giant of a man.
Heavens we could do something with Bevin's massive determination, clear thinking and untouchable belief is the working class ('his people') today.
Reading this book has been a totally rewarding experience and its so clear to follow.

David Lowther. Author of The Blue Pencil, Liberating Belsen, Two Families at War and The Summer of '39, all published by Sacristy Press.

[William Gethin Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say? This book is brilliant, (although maybe a little short), this book gives you the whole life of the titan of the Labour movement. The man who stood up to and beat the big brown bear of bolshevism and stopped him from taking over the whole of Germany after the war. The man who created his own union, the man who helped create arguably one of the most successful British governments in history, the last truly independent British Foreign Secretary, he was a master, a titan, he was not Labour’s Churchill he was Labour’s rock. He was Labour’s Bevin.

[Ben Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rightfully nuanced biography of a complicated but brilliant champion.

[Stephen Morrissey · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than anything else, the 20th Century witnessed the rise and fall of two distinct phenomenons: totalitarianism and trade unionism. At the center of both of these phenomenons stands the life and legacy of Ernest Bevin, a giant of Britain's early 20th Century trade unionism, heading the development of the Transport & General Workers' Union (T&G), and postwar British foreign policy, leading the charge against Stalinism.

Bevin's life and career are a fascinating contrast against the stolid portraits of many British political leaders. With the exception of Churchill and Lloyd George, few characters leap off the historical page as prominently as "Ernie" Bevin. A hulking presence, Bevin possessed an enduring energy and pragmatic bullishness on power and politics that led Bevin to being more often right than not.

Andrew Adonis recounts, in a breezy, cheery and contemporary account, the rise of Bevin, as well as his importance for the modern world. Adnonis is particularly adept at linking Bevin's success with T&G, his leadership of the Ministry of Labour under Churchill during the war, and, finally, Bevin's improbable role as Foreign Secretary from 1945-51.

Bevin gets it right on the big challenges of the day: in confronting Hitlerism and Stalinism; in forging postwar European unity and a durable transatlantic alliance with the United States; and a close alliance between unions and politicians, forged with Attlee and the Labour Party more broadly. Adonis doesn't ignore Bevin's mistakes, particularly on his pro-imperial stance, his anti-semitism, and his allergy to closer cooperation with a budding European political and economic continental movement. However, Adonis makes a convincing case that Bevin belongs in the pantheon with Churchill, as a leader who helped Britain win the war, forge the peace, and stand strong for its working men and women.

Adonis' book is compelling for the politics of our day. Since the death of Bevin and defeat of Attlee, Labour and unionism have become further estranged, with the void filled by the populism of the likes of Farage and Trump. If inequality is to be staunched and populists defeated, it won't take a political movement, but a workers' movement.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject of this book is an immense man and worth the readers investigation

Ernest Bevin - about whom I knew almost nothing - born to poverty , working class , became a hugely influential figure in the trade Union movement - the TGW - then a political of great achievement as minister for labour 1940 and foreign secretary in 1945

To be specific. The part of the book I found most revealing - was the period of diplomacy after 1945 between UK US Russia . My assumption was that the UK and US would have been working hard to protect non communist western interests against Stalin

Not so

Truman’s Secretary of State - Byrne - attempted to cultivate Stalin and regarded Bevin as small fry. The US were desperate to leave Europe and were happy to let Stalin dictate many of the terms. Bevin was a big bruiser who didn’t take any Sh1t from anyone and saw Stalin for what he was - a schemer whose objective was to overrun all Europe with communism. The particular struggle was over Germany .

I think Bevin was fighting a lonely battle in 1946/7. He managed to stonewall Stalin and Molotov. He was blunt and brutal in his exchanges with them both. But it was just in late 47 with Marshall replacing Byrne that matters abruptly changed. Marshall saw through the Russian scheming .

The result was an about turn form the US. Marshall
Aid - 12 billion over as many years pumped money into Western Europe and weaned them off communism
. The creation of west Germany by the amalgamation of the US and UK zones came next and the US stayed in situ and bolstered the newly formed Western bloc .

So much achieved and Bevin holding out for this on his own.

Adonis is a good biographer. Not my favourite - he lacks irony , but a good solid presenter from a centrist left perspective. I enjoyed this and Bevin is a great man

Ps : the killer aspect of Bevin - he was principled but above all he was fiercely practical and as a union leader he argued for what was fair and achievable. He hates illegal or uncoordinated strike action. He saw both sides of the transaction

[Steven Heywood · Rating 4 out of 5]

It struck me part way through this book that Andrew Adonis' biography of Bevin had the same emotional weakness as Michael Foot's biography of Bevan: every so often the author's admiration of the subject would get in the way. Having said that, this is a well-researched and readable account of a great politician that isn't scared of taking the time to explore the weaknesses and failures as well as the strengths and successes of a very eventful and influential life.

[Igor Zurimendi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've agreed with the idea that life is too short to finish bad books for a while, but struggled to act. 30% in, I've given up on Bevin. There's been little critical analysis so far, and even before WWII the comparison to Churchill was getting tedious. The writing style would be fine in a high school textbook, not in a serious biography. Bevin deserves better.

[Artie LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very approachable and readable book, and it refreshed my knowledge of the period. It is not quite a scholarly biography - the index is poor and the references ditto; the editing could have been better. There is little sense of Bevin as a person as opposed to as a political being. Notwithstanding these cavils, recommended.

[james woodcock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating

Great read about one of the outstanding statesman of the 20th century a towering figure of the Labour movement and also an indispensable minster of Labour and member of the war cabinet during the second World War.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, balanced and highly readable biography of a remarkable man.

[Claire O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew nothing of Bevin and found this absolutely fascinating on the man himself and the period of history.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this in September 2022, a compelling read.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining biography of a great man too often forgotten by history. My only criticism is that it was quite light on detail about his life pre-governnent.

[Kat Noble · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernest Bevin was the founder of the powerful Transport and General Workers’ Union (T&G). He served in the Labour Party as the Minister of Labour and National Service during World War II and as Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government of 1945-1951.

He shaped Western European policy for decades to come, serving as an architect of NATO, helping to establish the Federal Republic of Germany, securing Marshall Aid from the US, and pursuing a policy of containment against Stalin to try and halt the expansion of the Soviet Bloc in Europe.

Adonis initially structures Bevin’s biography chronologically, covering his childhood and work in the union movement, the General Strike of 1926, before focusing chapters on certain elements such as his relationships and working with John Maynard Keynes, Clement Attlee, and Stalin.

Two chapters also examine Bevin’s work during World War II as Minister for Labour and his role in foreign policy in the late 1940s, rebuilding Germany and the threat of Soviet Russia. While Churchill arguably was charmed at first by Stalin, Bevin was never taken in by his charm. From his days in the trade union, he was strongly anti-communist, and he worked hard to contain and challenge him during the peace negotiations over Germany’s future.

Adonis is highly admiring of Bevin, though he does highlight his failures and more short-sighted policies.

Bevin grew up during the Victorian age, and his upbringing and society influenced his mindset. He emphasises how Bevin was an imperialist in many ways, which influenced his perception of colonialism, and he was not in support of India’s independence or further breakup of the British Empire by granting independence.

This meant that instead of Britain supporting a transference of power, thereby working to create a true Commonwealth and a new network of power sharing and cooperation, he was often looking to build a better form of colonial administration.

His part in the creation of Israel is also analysed critically, and the charge of antisemitism. He was also not in favour of equal pay for women and men when he was Minister of Labour during World War II, seeing it as a policy that would lead to economic disaster and tried to reverse equal pay for teachers.

Adonis uses diaries and letters from government aides and colleagues who worked with Bevin, along with political cartoons from the period in publications such as Punch and other newspapers, to illustrate the media perception of him and how his behaviour was perceived at the time.

Adonis is a strong admirer of Bevin and believes that we need someone of his calibre and aptitude today. Bevin was a strong campaigner for better working conditions and the rights of working people, but Adonis believes that this is unlikely to happen given the political environment and the fall in the power of trade unionism and its severing of close relationship with the government.

Baron Andrew Adonis is a Labour Party politician and member of the House of Lords. He served in the Government for five years, across the Blair and Brown ministries, in areas such as education and transport and was Chair of the European Movement pressure group from 2021 to 2022, which calls for a close relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union. He is also a columnist for The New European.