Wikipideia says Britain didn't send any manned mission to the outer space as a response to Gagarin being first human reaching the space . I find this surprising from a country that was world leader only 20 years back and won WWII ? In general the interest of Britain to the space question is very little , in contrast to its great achievements in the industrial revolution and geographic exploration for example . Any readings that can analyze this question ?
The post-war government determined that funding expensive manned space flight could not be justified at a time of austerity - remember the UK still had food rationing until the mid 1950s. The spending priorities were put on welfare programmes like the NHS instead.
You could easily reverse the question and ask 'why did a country as prosperous as the United States not decide to provide free health care to all its citizens in the 1960s?' It was a matter of different spending priorities.
It's a mistake to think that the UK did not play a leading role in developing space technologies, it has been a major contributor to NASA since the 1950s and to European space programs since the 1960s.
The British space industries have focused on export trade - building things like satellites and shuttle components to sell to other countries - the focus has been on profitability and economic returns rather than on attention grabbing things like manned missions. There was not the direct rivalry with the USSR to motivate manned missions that the US had.
A recent reversal of the policy against British citizens partaking in manned space flight will see Tim Peake going to the ISS, probably in 2015, but as part of an ESA or NASA team, there are still no plans for Britain to have any manned missions.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-08/11/why-didnt-britain-win-the-race-to-the-moon
Britain did have a somewhat active space program: Blue Streak almost became the first stage of a British launch vehicle and later did become the first stage of Europa, a failed European launcher. Also, Britain launched a satellite with an indigenous rocket, the Black Arrow. But in the main it's as intangible-tangerine said: Britain had other priorities, and was dealing with a massive shrinkage in power/wealth/etc (going from one of the world's great powers in 1939 to merely a European power like France or Germany by 1950).