Ernest Bevin - Legacy

Legacy

Bevin in office showed the same pragmatic stubbornness that had characterised his years as a trade union leader and as one of the integral organisers of the Labour Party. Like Churchill, he was an old-fashioned English (as opposed to British) patriot, which was why the two leaders worked well together. However, he was also an internationalist and a supporter of the American alliance and of European unity. He saw clearly that Britain's days of imperial greatness were over, something he did not regret, unlike Churchill, as Bevin believed that the working class had never benefited from the Empire.

For his critics, his most lasting legacy remains the failure of his Palestine policy.