Why did the postwar Royal Navy contract?

Would Britain have retained a large colonial navy if it had been wealthier after the Second World War and Labour had not won?

It depends on how governments weighed continuing naval capability against domestic spending, economic pressures and NATO commitments, with attitudes toward empire adding another constraint.

Britain continued completing aircraft carriers after the war, and its fleet is assessed here as viable into the 1960s. Contraction is linked to domestic spending, the economic difficulties of that decade, and commitments to Europe's central front that governments valued for alliance relations. Reluctance to appear to be maintaining an expanding empire adds another explanation.