Political career of Rab Butler (1941–1951)

Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), generally known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a British Conservative Party politician.

From July 1941 to May 1945 Butler served as President of the Board of Education, his first Cabinet level post, although he was not a member of the small War Cabinet. His Education Act of 1944 for England and Wales, widely known as "the Butler Act", helped reshape postwar society. It responded to wartime demands for a greater role for Christianity in state schools while at the same time resolving the decades-old controversy over state support for the cash-strapped church schools, an issue which had been unpopular with nonconformists who by the 1940s made up a powerful voice in the NUT. The Act absorbed most Anglican schools into the state system, while others, including Roman Catholic schools, received financial aid whilst remaining largely autonomous. Butler's role was to secure passage by negotiations with interested parties from Churchill, who was initially reluctant to bring in a major bill, to the churches, from educators to MPs. Butler helped to achieve a consensus among vested interests and opinion formers. Much of the framework remained intact until the 1988 Education Act. The Butler Act was the first of the enactments which brought in the postwar Welfare State and the only one for which the Conservatives could claim credit. The Act also resolved confusion over two other issues, by creating a clear divide between primary and secondary schools at age 11 and by raising the school leaving age to 15, with provision to raise it further to 16 (not implemented until 1971). In accordance with education doctrine of the time the Act left the door open for, but did not specifically prescribe, selection of children by aptitude at age 11. The recommendation of the Fleming Committee to provide state scholarship places at fee-paying public schools was not implemented.

During these years Butler nursed the unrequited ambition of being appointed Viceroy of India. He served as Minister of Labour in the short-lived Churchill caretaker ministry (May–July 1945), then narrowly held his seat at Saffron Walden on a split opposition vote in the Labour landslide of July 1945. In opposition he was chairman of the Conservative Research Department and played an important role in rebuilding the Conservative Party, including issuing a number of Charters (one of which was the Industrial Charter) outlining party policy and largely accepting many of the reforms of the Labour Government, thus helping to establish the postwar cross-party "consensus".