Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is the principal centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). It is one of the United Kingdom's three main political parties and is currently the party of government in the United Kingdom. It describes itself as a Democratic Socialist party and is a member of the Socialist International. Under the leadership of Tony Blair it won by a landslide victory in the 1997 general election, and formed its first government since the 1979 general election. It retained its position with two further large victories in the 2001 and the 2005 general elections. Under Blair's leadership, the party has adopted a number of neoliberal policies.

Early years

The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19th century, when it became apparent that there was an increasing need for a third party in Britain to represent the interests and needs of the large working-class population (for instance, the 1899 Lyons vs. Wilkins judgement that limited certain types of picketing). Some members of the trade union movement were interested in moving into the political field and after the extension of the franchise to working class men in 1867 and 1885, the Liberal Party had endorsed some trade union-sponsored candidates. In addition several small socialist groups had been formed which wanted to link to the movement and give it a wider policy. Among these were the Independent Labour Party, the Fabian Society (an intellectual group whose members were mainly middle-class), the Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party.

Related Topics:
Working-class - 1899 - Lyons vs. Wilkins - 1867 - 1885 - Liberal Party - Independent Labour Party - Fabian Society - Middle-class - Social Democratic Federation - Scottish Labour Party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1899 a Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that the Trade Union Congress call a special conference to bring together all the left-wing organisations and form them into a single body which would sponsor Parliamentary candidates. The motion was passed at all stages including by the TUC and this special conference was held at the International Hall, Farringdon Street, London on February 27-28, 1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations; trade unions representing about one-third of the membership of the TUC sent delegates.

Related Topics:
1899 - Doncaster - Trade Union Congress - London - February 27 - 28 - 1900

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Conference created an association called the Labour Representation Committee, and it was to have acted as a body coordinating attempts to elect to Parliament members who had been sponsored by trade unions as representing the working-class population. It had no single leader. In default of any other candidate, the Independent Labour Party's nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 'Khaki election' came too soon for the new party to effectively campaign. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.

Related Topics:
Labour Representation Committee - Trade union - Ramsay MacDonald - 1900 - Keir Hardie - Merthyr Tydfil - Richard Bell - Derby

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Two candidates from the Social Democratic Federation were endorsed but the SDF was unhappy with the essentially compromising agenda of the Labour Representation Committee. At the SDF's 1901 conference it voted to withdraw. However support for the LRC among the trade unions was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale case, a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union ordered to pay £23,000 damages for a strike. The judgment effectively made strikes illegal (since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions). The apparent acquiescence of the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared uninterested in the problems of working people. In the 1902-03 period the LRC won two by-elections.

Related Topics:
1901 - Taff Vale case - Arthur Balfour

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The LRC won 29 seats in the 1906 election, helped by the secret 1903 pact between Ramsay Macdonald and Liberal Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone which aimed at avoiding Labour/Liberal contests in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office. In their first meeting after the election, the group's Members of Parliament decided to take the name "The Labour Party" (February 15, 1906). James Keir Hardie, who had taken a leading role in getting the party established, was elected as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (in effect, the Leader), although only by one vote over David Shackleton after several ballots. In the party's early years, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) provided much of its activist base as the party did not have an individual membership until 1918 and operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies until that date. The Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement.

Related Topics:
1906 election - 1903 - Ramsay Macdonald - Liberal - Herbert Gladstone - February 15 - 1906 - James Keir Hardie - David Shackleton - Independent Labour Party - 1918 - Fabian Society

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

British politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was divided between the perceived 'establishment', represented by the Conservative Party (nicknamed the Tories), and a more radical 'non-conformist' tradition, based around for example Welsh and North Midlands Methodism. After the Representation of The People Act, 1884, most adult men had the vote but about 40% were still unenfranchised, mainly among the working class who would be more likely to support parties of the left. The non-conformist tradition was embodied by the Liberal Party under leaders like William Ewart Gladstone and David Lloyd George.

Related Topics:
Conservative Party - Tories - Welsh - Methodism - Liberal Party - William Ewart Gladstone - David Lloyd George

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1909 the Osbourne judgment ruled that Trade Unions could not raise funds for political purposes, a move which threatened one of Labour's main funding sources. This was especially detrimental to the Labour party as it supporters were generally poorer than other political parties. The two elections in 1910 saw Labour gain 40 seats and 42 seats respectively. In 1911 David Lloyd George gave MPs a wage of £400 per annum, which partly helped to alleviate the financial problems and the Osbourne judgment was overturned in 1913.

Related Topics:
1909 - Osbourne judgment - 1910 - 1911 - 1913

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Support grew for Labour during the 1910-1914 period as a result of an unprecedented scale of strike action. Seamen, rail workers, cotton workers, coal miners, dockers and many other groups all organised strikes, with many sympathy strikes also occurring. This increase in action can partly be explained by the recession of 1908-09 and subsequent rise in unemployment, as well as the growing support for radical change among the working-class (such as support for syndicalism). This was no doubt helped by the sometimes heavy-handed measures of the Liberal government; Winston Churchill sent in troops to the Rhondda valley in 1910 to deal with coal miners, resulting in some fatalities.

Related Topics:
Seamen - Rail workers - Cotton - Coal - Miners - Dockers - Syndicalism - Winston Churchill - Rhondda valley

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

During the First World War the Liberal Party split between factions supporting leader David Lloyd George and former leader Herbert Asquith. At the end of the war universal adult male suffrage was enacted, together with votes for women over the age of 30. The Liberal split, accompanied by this fundamental change in the system, allowed the Labour Party to co-opt some of The Liberals support, and by the 1922 general election Labour had supplanted the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives. With The Liberals still in turmoil, Labour formed its first minority government with Liberal support in January 1924, with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister; the government collapsed after nine months when the Liberals voted for a Select Committee inquiry which MacDonald had declared an issue of confidence but The Liberal electoral base had vanished. The ensuing general election saw the publication four days before polling day of the Zinoviev Letter implicating Labour in a plot for a Communist revolution, and the Conservatives returned to power. The Zinoviev letter is now generally believed to have been a forgery.

Related Topics:
First World War - Herbert Asquith - 1922 general election - Liberal Party - Conservatives - January - 1924 - Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister - General election - Zinoviev Letter

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~