Campaign for Democratic Socialism

Gaitskell had promised that there would be no new taxes under his administration should he become Prime Minister, not wanting to tamper with the prosperity that had emerged in Britain under the Conservative governments of Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan.

However, the Bevanites – the left wing faction of the Labour Party – had pushed through an electoral manifesto stating it would raise taxes to support increased government expenditures, undercutting Gaitskell's public image.

As a result of the massive Bevanite grassroots mobilisation against Gaitskell, the CDS was established in October 1960 by a group of Labour politicians and supporters, among the most prominent of which were Bill Rodgers, Dick Taverne, Anthony Crosland, Douglas Jay, Roy Jenkins.

It was extremely successful; at the 1961 party conference the Gaitskellites managed to overturn the previous year's commitment to disarmament largely due to the CDS efforts.

CDS influence began to wane, first with the splitting of Gaitskell over the EEC issue in 1962, then with his death and replacement as party leader by the Bevanite Harold Wilson in 1963, a position he retained until 1976.