Do You Agree with the View That the Suez Crisis of 1956-57 Did No Damage to the Fortunes of the Conservative Party?

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The Suez crisis emerged following Colonel Nasser announcing the nationalization of the Suez Canal in July 1956. The canal was of great interest to Britain as it gave access to middle eastern oil, hence a diplomatic and eventually military crises developed. There are both arguments for and against as wether the crisis did any damage to the conservative party and its fortunes. Source 6 states that “Suez did us no harm politically” which implies that the conservative party was not damaged by the Suez affair. In agreement with these views, source 5 similarly points out that the crisis “did not destroy the political balance at home”. These idea can be backed up by the fact that the Conservatives won the following election in 1959, whilst being lead by Eden’s replacement, Harold Macmillan in 1957; during this time the conservatives were far more affluent and popular than the labour party. Moreover, evidence for lack of political effect grows, as source 5 argues that Eden stepped down as Prime minister “as a result of ill health” rather that being removed from power due to the outcome of Suez. Arguments for his ill health can be supported as Eden lived on a mixture of pills to control his pain as he had never properly recovered from an operation in 1953, and following doctor’s advice to rest, went on holiday in Jamaica. Furthermore, with the help of R.A Butler and Heath, Macmillan quickly took control of the party and began the recovery process for the problems caused by Suez. It could also be argued that the events of the Suez crisis cause more damage to the labour party, than the fortunes of the tories, as seen in source 5 “there was no internal split in the conservative party”. However source 6 suggests Labour suffered “widespread disgust” and became far more unpopular. This was due to Labour opposing the war which caused the party to be seen by many working-class
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