Stafford Cripps

Sir Stafford Cripps
Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office
13 November 1947 – 19 October 1950
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byHugh Dalton
Succeeded byHugh Gaitskell
Minister for Economic Affairs
In office
29 September 1947 – 13 November 1947
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byNew creation
Succeeded byPost abolished (Trial post)
President of the Board of Trade
In office
27 July 1945 – 29 September 1947
Prime MinisterClement Attlee
Preceded byOliver Lyttelton
Succeeded byHarold Wilson
Minister of Aircraft Production
In office
22 November 1942 – 25 May 1945
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byJohn Llewellin
Succeeded byErnest Brown
Leader of the House of Commons
Lord Privy Seal
In office
19 February 1942 – 22 November 1942
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Preceded byWinston Churchill (as Leader of the House of Commons)
Clement Attlee
(as Lord Privy Seal)
Succeeded byAnthony Eden
(as Leader of the House of Commons)

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil
(as Lord Privy Seal)
Solicitor General for England and Wales
In office
22 October 1930 – 24 August 1931
Prime MinisterJames Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded byJames Melville
Succeeded byThomas Inskip
Member of Parliament
for Bristol South East
Bristol East (1931–1950)
In office
16 January 1931 – 25 October 1950
Preceded byWalter John Baker
Succeeded byTony Benn
Personal details
Born
Richard Stafford Cripps[1]

(1889-04-24)24 April 1889
Chelsea, London, England
Died21 April 1952(1952-04-21) (aged 62)
Zürich, Switzerland
Political partyLabour
Other political
affiliations
Popular Front
SpouseDame Isobel Cripps
Children4, including Peggy Cripps
Parent(s)Charles Cripps
Theresa Potter
RelativesKwame Anthony Appiah (grandson)
Alma materUniversity College London

Sir Richard Stafford Cripps CH QC FRS[1] (24 April 1889 – 21 April 1952) was a British Labour Party politician, barrister, and diplomat.

A wealthy lawyer by background, Cripps first entered Parliament at a by-election in January 1931, and was one of a handful of Labour frontbenchers to retain his seat at the October general election that year. He became a leading spokesman for the left-wing and for co-operation in a Popular Front with Communists before 1939, in which year the Labour Party expelled him. During this time he became intimately involved with Krishna Menon and the India League.

During World War II (1939-1945), Cripps served from May 1940 to January 1942 as Ambassador to the USSR, with major responsibility for building rapport with Hitler's greatest foe. Back in London in early 1942, he became a member of the War Cabinet of the wartime coalition. In March 1942, Prime Minister Winston Churchill sent him to India to negotiate with Indian leaders about Indian cooperation in the war effort in exchange for dominion status after the war. Cripps failed in this mission, as his proposals were too radical for Churchill and the Cabinet, while being too conservative for Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian leaders. Nonetheless, he kept the trust and friendship of V. K. Krishna Menon, allowing him to retain a role in Indian affairs, including as a member of the 1946 Cabinet Mission to India and, ultimately, in having a voice in the selection of the final Viceroy in 1947. From November 1942 he served as Minister of Aircraft Production, an important post, but one outside the inner War Cabinet.[2]

Cripps rejoined the Labour Party in February 1945, and after the war he served in the 1945-1951 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".[3]

The economy improved after 1947, benefiting from American money given through grants from the Marshall Plan as well as from loans. However, the pound had to be devalued in 1949. Cripps kept the wartime rationing-system in place to hold down consumption during an "age of austerity", promoted exports and maintained full employment with static wages. The public especially respected "his integrity, competence, and Christian principles".[2]

  1. ^ a b Schuster, George (1955). "Richard Stafford Cripps 1889–1952". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 1: 11–26. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1955.0003. JSTOR 769240.
  2. ^ a b Mitchell, Andrew (2002) "Cripps, (Richard) Stafford" in John Ramsden, ed., The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-century British Politics. ISBN 0198601344. p. 176
  3. ^ Peter Clarke; Clive Trebilcock (1997). Understanding Decline: Perceptions and Realities of British Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press. p. 193. ISBN 9780521563178.

Stafford Cripps

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