LETTERS: When Labour was Socialist

THE exposure of the Information Research Department ("The dirty tricks that were made in England", 20 August) prompts memories of an extraordinary conspiracy instigated by Conservative Central Office in 1955-56, in which just about all Tory-supporting daily, evening, and Sunday newspapers co- operated, in what was presumably intended as a scare campaign.

For several months, these papers completely suppressed any reference to the Labour Party. Even in verbatim reports, the party's name was published as the "Socialist Party" and MPs names had "Socialist" appended.

I was a branch delegate to the 1956 Easter conference of the Independent Labour Party and still have a copy of the Socialist Leader in which my letter pointed out that the Daily Express had fabricated a report that an ILP delegate had made reference to the "Socialist Party".

Lawrence Sutton

Orpington, Kent