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In 1930 Cripps joined the Labour Party. In 19311931 is the common year starting on Thursday. see link for calendar) Events January January 4 Female aviator Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa January 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application. January 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the he was appointed Solicitor-General in the second Labour government. This post was customarily accompanied by a knighthood, making him Sir Stafford Cripps. As he was not yet an member of Parliament, he stood for and was elected in a by-election for the solidly Labour seat of BristolThis article is about the English city of Bristol. For other uses please see Bristol (disambiguation). Bristol is a city in south-western England, on the River Avon. It borders on the Unitary Districts of Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and S South-East. He moved rapidly to the left and became an outspoken socialist, although his strong faith in evangelical ChristianityChristian cross and its many variations are widely recognized as an ancient Christian symbol. Christianity is an Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as described in the New Testament. Although Christians generally chara prevented him from becoming a Marxist.

In the 1931 general electionThe UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It gave the Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin a huge majority, although the prime minister of the resulting National Government was still Ram, Cripps was one of only three former Labour ministers to hold their seats and so became the number three in the Parliamentary Labour Party, under the leader George Lansbury and deputy leader Clement Attlee. In 1932 he founded the Socialist League to argue for a pure form of democratic socialism. Tall, thin and intense, he became the archetype of the British upper-class doctrinaire socialist so common in the 1930s.

Cripps was an early advocate of a popular front against the rising threat of fascism, and in the face of this threat he abandoned his more extreme positions: the Socialist League was dissolved in 1937. In 1939, however, he was expelled from the Labour Party for his advocacy of a popular front with the Communist Party.

When Winston Churchill formed his wartime coalition government in 1940, he appointed Cripps ambassador to the Soviet Union, in the perhaps naive view that a left-wing socialist was the best person to try to negotiate with Stalin, at this time allied with Nazi Germany through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941 Cripps became a key figure in forging the alliance between the western powers and the Soviet Union.

In 1942 he returned to Britain and made a broadcast about the Russian war effort. The popular response was phenomenal and Cripps rapidly became one of the most popular politicians in the country, despite having no party backing. He was appointed a member of the war cabinet, with the jobs of Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Commons - perhaps a deliberate overpromotion designed to diminish his standing. He was sent to India to try to negotiate an agreement with the nationalist leaders Gandhi and Nehru that would keep India loyal to the British war effort in exchange for a promise of full self-government after the war. Although no formal agreement was reached, he helped calm the situation in India. Later in 1942 he was appointed Minister for Aircraft Production. In 1945 Cripps rejoined the Labout Party.

When Labour won the general election of 1945, Clement Attlee appointed Cripps President of the Board of Trade, the second most important economic post in the government. Although still a strong socialist, Cripps had modified his views sufficiently to be able to work with mainstream Labour ministers. In Britain's desperate postwar economic circumstances, Cripps became associated with the policy of "austerity." As an upper-class socialist he held a puritanical view of society, and took a grim pleasure in enforcing rationing with equal severity against all classes.

In 1947 amidst a growing economic and political crisis, Cripps tried to persuade Attlee to retire in favour of Ernest Bevin, however Bevin was in favour of Attlee remaining. Cripps was instead appointed to the new post of Minister for Economic Affairs. Six weeks later Hugh Dalton resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1947 and Cripps succeeded him, with the position of Minister for Economic Affairs now merged into the Chancellorship, and laboured tirelessly to rescue Britain from its economic crisis. Cripps increased taxes and forced a reduction in consumption in an effort to boost exports and stabilise the Pound Sterling so that Britain could trade its way out of its crisis. He strongly supported the nationalisation of strategic industries such as coal and steel.

Although Cripps's severe manner and harsh policies made him very unpopular, especially among the middle classes, he won respect for the sincerity of his convictions and his tireless labours for Britain's recovery. In 1950 his health broke down under the strain and he was forced to resign his office in October. He retired from Parliament the same month, being succeeded as MP for Bristol South-East by Tony Benn, and died two years later while recuperating in Switzerland.