<P> After Ramsay MacDonald formed the National Government, Labour was deeply divided . Attlee had long been close to MacDonald and now felt betrayed--as did most Labour politicians . During the course of the second Labour government, Attlee had become increasingly disillusioned with MacDonald, whom he came to regard as vain and incompetent, and of whom he later wrote scathingly in his autobiography . He would write: </P> <P> In the old days I had looked up to MacDonald as a great leader . He had a fine presence and great oratorical power . The unpopular line which he took during the First World War seemed to mark him as a man of character . Despite his mishandling of the Red Letter episode, I had not appreciated his defects until he took office a second time . I then realised his reluctance to take positive action and noted with dismay his increasing vanity and snobbery, while his habit of telling me, a junior Minister, the poor opinion he had of all his Cabinet colleagues made an unpleasant impression . I had not, however, expected that he would perpetrate the greatest betrayal in the political history of this country...The shock to the Party was very great, especially to the loyal workers of the rank - and - file who had made great sacrifices for these men . </P> <P> The 1931 general election held later that year was a disaster for the Labour Party, which lost over 200 seats, returning only 52 MPs to Parliament . The vast majority of the party's senior figures lost their seats, including the Leader Arthur Henderson, Attlee narrowly retained his Limehouse seat in the election, with his majority being slashed from 7,288 to just 551 . He was one of only three Labour MPs who had experience of government to retain their seats, along with George Lansbury and Stafford Cripps, accordingly Lansbury was elected Leader unopposed with Attlee as his deputy . </P> <P> Most of the remaining Labour MPs after 1931 were elderly trade union officials who could not contribute much to debates, Lansbury was in his 70s, and Stafford Cripps another main figure of the Labour front bench who had entered Parliament in 1931, was inexperienced . As one of the most capable and experienced of the remaining Labour MPs, Attlee therefore shouldered a lot of the burden of providing an opposition to the National Government in the years 1931 - 35, during this time he had to extend his knowledge of subjects which he had not studied in any depth before, such as finance and foreign affairs in order to provide an effective opposition to the government . </P>

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