Welfare State architect's black market secret
Posted on 24 June 2005
Dr Mark Roodhouse, of the University's Department of History, has discovered compelling evidence that the champion of the Labour Left who helped to found the National Health Service, was involved in black market dealing.
In an article in the latest edition of History Today, he argues that papers deposited in the National Archives at Kew reveal telling details of Nye Bevan's black market activities. The official police records suggest that while the British people endured rationing, Bevan and his wife Jennie Lee were benefiting from meat, fruit and vegetables supplied by an Italian nightclub owner and long-time friend Renato (Rene) De Meo.
Statements made to the Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police Fraud Squad - called in by the Lynskey Tribunal set up in 1948 to investigate a series of corruption allegations against senior Government figures - suggested that neither money nor ration coupons changed hands for the produce that Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee obtained from the kitchens of Rene De Meo's Pheasantry Club in Chelsea.
If the ration-weary British public had learned that two of the most vociferous advocates of 'fair shares for all', were fasting in public and feasting in private the fragile support for post-war austerity might have been shattered and with it the careers of Jennie Lee and Nye Bevan
Dr Mark Roodhouse
Detectives interviewed the restaurateur's former mistress Joan Parsons and Rene De Meo himself and it emerged that Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee were regular visitors to the Pheasantry Club. Joan Parsons suggested that Jennie Lee's mother, Ma Lee, who lived with her daughter and Nye Bevan, was also a frequent visitor and was often given parcels of chicken and other food to take away.
Rene De Meo denied allegations by Joan Parsons that Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee never paid for any meals they ate there. He also denied ever giving Jennie Lee or Ma Lee parcels of chicken or other food to take away, though he conceded he had given her "an onion or one lemon but other than that she has had nothing at all."
The Attorney-General Sir Hartley Shawcross, later Lord Shawcross, decided that the allegations against Nye Bevan and Jennie Lee did not fall within the remit of the Lynskey Tribunal while the Police also took no further action.
Dr Roodhouse suggests that "a cryptic reference" to the case in Jennie Lee's memoir of Nye Bevan was an attempt to put historians off the track. She insisted that her mother had brought home "a substantial piece of meat" from the Pheasantry Club, on one occasion only, but she instructed Ma Lee never to repeat it because of the potential damage to her husband's political career.
Dr Roodhouse said: "If the ration-weary British public had learned that two of the most vociferous advocates of 'fair shares for all', were fasting in public and feasting in private the fragile support for post-war austerity might have been shattered and with it the careers of Jennie Lee and Nye Bevan.
"From the documents, you couldn't say there was any conspiracy to cover up the allegations but the Attorney-General, Sir Hartley Shawcross, and the Treasury Solicitor decided the allegations did not fall within the Lynskey Tribunal and the Police did not pursue the matter. The Tribunal may have concluded that although something untoward may have been going on, they had too many other leads to pursue."
Notes to editors:
- As a result of the Lynskey Tribunal investigations, a Junior Minister at the Board of Trade John Belcher, and a director of the Bank of England, George Gibson, resigned. No criminal charges were ever brought.
- History Today is one of the world's leading history magazines. It is a monthly publication aimed at the general reader with an interest in history.
- The Pheasantry Club, 152 Kings Road, Chelsea is now a Pizza Express restaurant.
- The University of York's Department of History combines exciting and original research with the best traditions of stimulating and innovative teaching. Widely accepted as one of the foremost centres of historical research and practice in the UK, the Department numbers some thirty professional academic staff and approximately 800 undergraduate and graduate students. The Department is rated 'Excellent' in teaching and received a '5A' rating in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.