Based on a 1950 General Election poster, this tea towel celebrates one of the Labour Party’s greatest legacies: the National Health Service.

After the Second World War, Great Britain was in tatters. Cities had been blitzed, and a whole generation of working-age men had been killed or injured. The people wanted change: they wanted hope after so many years of despair. And on the 5^th of July 1945, just two months after the war had ended, they voted overwhelmingly for that change, electing Attlee’s Labour Government with a landslide majority. The manifesto promised to “Face the Future” and build a new Jerusalem out of the rubble of war.

Central to Labour’s post-war vision was the creation of the new National Health Service, first proposed by the Labour-allied Socialist Medical Association and included in Labour’s 1935 election manifesto. The NHS was Labour through and through, and it was Labour’s Nye Bevan who pushed it through parliament and got the doctors on board. On the 5^th of July, 1948, the NHS opened its doors for the first time, where everyone could receive care free at the point of use. The Conservatives voted against it a whopping 21 times.

Half Panama unbleached organic cotton, with hanging loop. Measures approximately 48cm x 70cm.