Editing Ernest Bevin (section)

==Wartime Minister of Labour==
[[File:INF3-61 Ernest Bevin Artist Arthur Boughey.jpg|thumb|Sketch of Bevin commissioned by the [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]] during the [[Second World War]]]]
In 1940, [[Winston Churchill]] formed an [[Churchill war ministry|all-party coalition government]] to run the country during the [[Second World War]]. Churchill was impressed by Bevin's opposition to trade union pacifism and by his appetite for work (according to Churchill, Bevin was by "far the most distinguished man that the Labour Party have thrown up in my time"). He appointed Bevin to the position of [[Secretary of State for Employment|Minister of Labour and National Service]].<ref name=barr2011>{{cite book|last=Barr|first=James| author-link =James Barr (author) | title=A Line in the Sand: Britain, France and the Struggle that Shaped the Middle East|publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=London, UK|year=2011|isbn=978-1-84739-457-6}}</ref> As Bevin was not actually an MP at the time, to remove the resulting constitutional anomaly, a parliamentary position was hurriedly found for him, and Bevin was [[1940 Wandsworth Central by-election|elected unopposed]] to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] as [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for the London constituency of [[Wandsworth Central]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ernest Bevin (1881–1951)|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/bevin_ernest.shtml|publisher=BBC|access-date=16 March 2017}}</ref>

The [[Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939]] gave Bevin complete control over the labour force and the allocation of manpower, and he was determined to use the unprecedented authority not just to help win the war but also to strengthen the bargaining position of trade unions in the postwar future.<ref>Borth, Christy. ''Masters of Mass Production,'' p. 74, Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1945.</ref> Bevin once quipped: "They say [[Gladstone]] was at the [[Treasury]] from 1860 until 1930. I'm going to be at the [[Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Labour]] from 1940 until 1990," suggesting he aspired to have his doctrines remain at the Ministry of Labour as long as [[Gladstonian liberalism|Gladstone's economic policies]] had governed the Treasury's approach. The industrial settlement he introduced remained largely unaltered by successive postwar administrations until the reforms of [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s [[Premiership of Margaret Thatcher|government]] in the early 1980s.
[[File:Churchill waves to crowds.jpg|thumb|Ernest Bevin standing to the right of [[Winston Churchill]] who waves to crowds on [[Whitehall]] on [[Victory in Europe Day|VE Day, 8 May 1945]], after broadcasting to the nation that the war against Germany had been won.|left]]
During the war, Bevin was responsible for diverting nearly 48,000 military conscripts to work in the [[coal mining in the United Kingdom|coal industry]] (the workers became known as the [[Bevin Boys]]), and he used his position to secure significant improvements in wages and working conditions for the working class.<ref>A History of Work in Britain, 1880–1950 by Arthur McIvor</ref> He also drew up the [[demobilisation of the British Armed Forces after the Second World War|demobilisation scheme]] that ultimately returned millions of military personnel and civilian war workers into the peacetime economy. Bevin remained Minister of Labour until 1945 when Labour left the Coalition government. On [[VE Day]], he stood next to Churchill in looking down on the crowd on [[Whitehall]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Smith|first1=Lydia|title=Winston Churchill's 1945 Victory in Europe Day speech in full|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/winston-churchills-1945-victory-europe-day-speech-full-1500190|access-date=16 March 2017|work=International Business Times|date=8 May 2015}}</ref>