Later Career
In 1942, Beattie was readmitted to the NILP. He went on to win the Belfast West by-election, 1943 but resigned from the NILP shortly after.
In 1945, he held his seat and formed the Federation of Labour (Ireland), but took the Labour Party (UK) whip in the British House of Commons. He was the only Labour candidate returned in Northern Ireland. However, his tenure as a Labour MP was short: He joined the Labour Party in London as an individual member, using his London accommodation address but was subsequently expelled, "solely on the grounds that his place of residence was Belfast". On 30 April 1945, Beattie was punched in the Stormont Parliament by the Government Minister and former NILP MP, Harry Midgley. Midgley apologised the next day.
When the Northern Ireland general election, 1949 took place, the Anti-Partition League of Ireland was at its height. The middle ground in Northern Irish politics was squeezed. Beattie, who had accepted money from a fund established by the Anti-Partition League, "wore a steel helmet while campaigning in east Belfast". When one of his election meetings was broken up by an angry mob, he sent a telegram of protest to Downing Street which read "Stoned by official Unionist mobs and denied the right of free speech in my election campaign tonight. Armed Stormont police took no action".
Beattie lost his seat, disbanded the Federation and joined the Irish Labour Party. Tim Pat Coogan remarks that with the defeat of Beattie and other opposition candidates, "for the first time the opposition at Stormont was entirely Catholic, a matter of much satisfaction to Brooke".
Although he lost Belfast West in the 1950 UK general election, Beattie retook it in 1951, losing it once more at the 1955 election. His attempt to win Belfast Central in the Stormont Parliament in 1953 also failed.
Read more about this topic: Jack Beattie
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