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{{Infobox
|election_name = Labour Party leadership election, 1960
|flag_image = File:Red flag.svg
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The '''1960 Labour Party leadership election''' was held when, for the first time since 1935, the incumbent leader [[Hugh Gaitskell]] was challenged for re-election. Normally the annual re-election of the leader had been a formality. Gaitskell had lost the [[1959 United Kingdom general election
==Background==
Following the heavy defeat of the Labour Party in the [[1959 United Kingdom general election
Elections for the Leader and Deputy Leader were formally held by the [[Parliamentary Labour Party]] at the beginning of each Parliamentary session, which happened later in October. There was already a vacancy for the Deputy Leader of the Party due to the death of [[Aneurin Bevan]] in July, and many senior party figures were weighing up whether to stand for that post; contested elections for vacant posts were usual, but incumbents were not normally challenged. The result of the faction-fighting was that many on the left thought Gaitskell was both out of touch with the party and that a challenge might force him to the left, so they were keen to have a credible challenger.<ref>Williams, p. 624.</ref> One left candidate who was keen to fight for the deputy leadership was [[Harold Wilson]], who found himself subjected to pressure to challenge Gaitskell instead. [[Peter Shore]], then head of the Research Department at party headquarters, thought Gaitskell had lost the confidence of party staff and Wilson could restore it. [[Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge|Jennie Lee]], Bevan's widow and a fellow Labour MP, led a delegation to Wilson.<ref>[[Andrew Roth]], "Sir Harold Wilson: Yorkshire Walter Mitty", Macdonald & Janes, 1977, p. 249.</ref>
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