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Stafford Cripps

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Overview

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, he first entered Parliament at a by-election in 1931, and was one of a handful of Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat at the general election that autumn. He became a leading spokesman for the left-wing and co-operation in a Popular Front with Communists before 1939, in which year he was expelled from the Labour Party. During World War II, he served as Ambassador to the USSR (1940–42), during which time he grew wary of the Soviet Union, but achieved great public popularity because on being invaded by Nazi Germany the USSR stated its co-operation with the Allies and restoring peace, causing Cripps to be seen in 1942 as a potential rival to Winston Churchill for the premiership. He became a member of the War Cabinet of the wartime coalition, but failed in his efforts (the "Cripps Mission") to resolve the wartime crisis in India, where his proposals were too radical for Churchill and the Cabinet, and too conservative for Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders. He later served as Minister of Aircraft Production, an important post but outside the inner War Cabinet. Cripps rejoined the Labour Party in 1945, and after the war; served in the Attlee ministry, first as President of the Board of Trade and between 1947 and 1950 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Labour party member and historian Kenneth O. Morgan claimed of his role in the latter position that he was "the real architect of the rapidly improving economic picture and growing affluence from 1952 onwards".

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“But it is a fallacy, if one is examining the methods by which security can be attained, to start upon the assumption, as so many hon. Members do, that we get security by an increase of air armaments or an increase of any other form of armaments.”
— Hansard, House of Commons, 5th Series, vol. 292, col. 2425.
“It is fundamental to Socialism that we should liquidate the British Empire as soon as we can.”
— Hull Daily Mail (2 March 1936), quoted in Quintin Hogg, The Left was Never Right (1945), p. 109
“Every possible effort should be made to stop recruiting for the Armed Forces. This may, and probably would, lead to some form of conscription being proposed or introduced. Thus would be provided a most favourable political platform upon which to fight the National Government.”
— Forward (3 October 1936), quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (1945), p. 36
“The workers must now make it clear beyond all doubt that they will not support the Government or its armaments in its mad policy which it is now pursuing.”
— Speech on 23 May 1938, quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (1945), p. 45

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.

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Overview

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat. A wealthy lawyer by background, he first entered Parliament at a by-election in 1931, and was one of a handful of Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat at the general election that autumn. He became a leading spokesman for the left-wing and co-operation in a Popular Front with Communists before 1939, in which year he was expelled from the Labour Party. During World War II, he served as Ambassador to the USSR (1940–42), during which time he grew wary of the Soviet Union, but achieved great public popularity because on being invaded by Nazi Germany the USSR stated its co-operation with the Allies and restoring peace, causing Cripps to be seen in 1942 as a potential rival to Winston Churchill for the premiership. He became a member of the War Cabinet of the wartime coalition, but failed in his efforts (the "Cripps Mission") to resolve the wartime crisis in India, where his proposals were too radical for Churchill and the Cabinet, and too conservative for Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders. He later served as Minister of Aircraft Production, an important post but outside the inner War Cabinet. Cripps rejoined the Labour Party in 1945, and after the war; served in the Attlee ministry, first as President of the Board of Trade and between 1947 and 1950 as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Labour party member and historian Kenneth O. Morgan claimed of his role in the latter position that he was "the real architect of the rapidly improving economic picture and growing affluence from 1952 onwards".

From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Notable quotes

“But it is a fallacy, if one is examining the methods by which security can be attained, to start upon the assumption, as so many hon. Members do, that we get security by an increase of air armaments or an increase of any other form of armaments.”
— Hansard, House of Commons, 5th Series, vol. 292, col. 2425.
“It is fundamental to Socialism that we should liquidate the British Empire as soon as we can.”
— Hull Daily Mail (2 March 1936), quoted in Quintin Hogg, The Left was Never Right (1945), p. 109
“Every possible effort should be made to stop recruiting for the Armed Forces. This may, and probably would, lead to some form of conscription being proposed or introduced. Thus would be provided a most favourable political platform upon which to fight the National Government.”
— Forward (3 October 1936), quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (1945), p. 36
“The workers must now make it clear beyond all doubt that they will not support the Government or its armaments in its mad policy which it is now pursuing.”
— Speech on 23 May 1938, quoted in Talus, Your Alternative Government (1945), p. 45

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.