Conservative Party
Edwards at first sat in Parliament as an Independent but he accepted invitations to speak from Conservative Party bodies. Speaking to the City of London Young Conservatives in July 1948 he apologised on behalf of his former party for Aneurin Bevan's attack on the Conservatives as "lower than vermin". Edwards began to argue against nationalisation as a whole, and claimed that few Labour Party MPs thought nationalisation was essential to socialism. When he suggested a campaign against steel nationalisation, the Steel Defence Campaign was established.
In August 1949, after his Parliamentary campaign against the Steel Bill had proved unsuccessful, Edwards announced that he had joined the Middlesbrough Conservative Association and applied for the Conservative Party whip in Parliament. He was immediately adopted as the Conservative candidate for his constituency, and made a speech praising private enterprise and denouncing Labour Party extremism.
Read more about this topic: Alfred Edwards (politician)
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