In June of 1945 after the European war had ended, Churchill gave a public speech where he condemned socialism and said it would lead to a police state. The socialists in Britain jumped on that statement as being over the top.
Churchill lost the elections of that year to socialist Clement Attlee. To his credit, Attlee had been a very loyal supporter of Churchill during the war and worked in the war ministry.
While Britain didn't turn into a police state, the socialists nationalized many industries. That crippled Britain economically for many years.
While Germany and Japan had most of their industrial capacity and many cities destroyed by the war, their post-war, free market economic policies (compared to Britain's) allowed them to recover from the devastation of the war much faster than the U.K.