LONDON: Prime Minister Clement Attlee and Opposition leader Winston Churchill today [July 23] fired opening broadsides in Party campaigns for a general election which Mr Churchill hinted might not be too far off. The Conservative leader and war-time Premier, declaring Britain might be “on the eve” of one of her most vital general elections, launched the Party’s new policy statement with a call for “a full stopper” on further nationalisation. Labour Premier Attlee, counter-blasting the Conservative programme as “one of the most dishonest documents that I have ever read”, said the past four years of Labour rule had been years of great difficulty but great achievement.

Mr Attlee told a big rally of coal miners at Durham: “Evils created by decades cannot be ended in four years but we have made a great start.” …

Mr Churchill attacked the Labour Govern­m­­ent for bringing the nation low. Naming Fra­nce, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and Denmark, he said: “Every acco­unt which reaches us from Europe shows how much more rapid has been the recovery of all the European countries.”

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2024