Labour Party (UK)

Labour Party
Red on white word "Labour" in sans-serif font to the right of white on red silhouette of a rose.
Leader	Ed Miliband MP
Deputy Leader	Harriet Harman MP
Founded	1900 (1900)
Headquarters	39 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0HA,
Student wing	Labour Students
Youth wing	Young Labour
Membership (2010)	193,961
Ideology	Democratic Socialism Social Democracy Third Way (recent)
Political position	Centre-left
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
European Parliament group	Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats
International affiliation	Socialist International
Colours	Red
House of Commons	258 / 650
House of Lords	212 / 724
European Parliament	13 / 73
London Assembly	8 / 25
Scottish Parliament	37 / 129
Welsh Assembly	30 / 60
Local Government	5,698 / 21,871
Website
www.labour.org.uk
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections

The Labour Party is a centre-left, social democratic and democratic socialist political party in the United Kingdom. It overtook the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after which it formed a majority government under Clement Attlee. Labour was also in government from 1964 to 1970 under Harold Wilson and from 1974 to 1979, first under Wilson and then James Callaghan.

The Labour Party was last in national government between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179, reduced to 167 in 2001 and 66 in 2005. Having won 258 seats in the 2010 general election, Labour is the Official Opposition. Labour has a working majority in the Welsh Assembly, is the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament and has 13 members in the European Parliament. The Labour Party is a member of the Socialist International. The Party's current leader is Ed Miliband MP.

Party ideology

Throughout its history, the Labour Party has usually been thought of as being left wing or centre-left in its politics. Officially, it has maintained the stance of being a socialist party ever since its inception, currently describing itself as a "democratic socialist party". The party has been described as a broad church, containing a diversity of ideological trends from strongly socialist, to more moderately social democratic, and in recent years pro-market tendencies. Throughout its history, it has been criticised by other leftist commentators and historians for not being truly socialist in its policies, instead supporting anti-socialist stances such as capitalism and neo-colonialism and has been described as a "capitalist workers' party".

Historically the party was broadly in favour of socialism, as set out in Clause Four of the original party constitution, and advocated socialist policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers, the welfare state, publicly-funded healthcare and education. Beginning in the late-1980s continuing to the current day, the party has adopted free market policies, leading many observers to describe the Labour Party as Social Democratic or Third Way, rather than democratic socialist.

Party electoral manifestos have not contained the term socialism since 1992, and in 1995 the original Clause Four was abolished. The new version states:

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.

Party constitution and structure

Main article: Labour Party Rule Book

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the National Executive Committee (NEC), Labour Party Conference and National Policy Forum (NPF)—although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on policy. The 2008 Labour Party Conference was the first at which affiliated trade unions and Constituency Labour Parties did not have the right to submit motions on contemporary issues that would previously have been debated. Labour Party conferences now include more "keynote" addresses, guest speakers and question-and-answer sessions, while specific discussion of policy now takes place in the National Policy Forum.

For many years Labour held to a policy of not allowing residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining, and whilst the National Executive has established a regional constituency party it has not yet agreed to contest elections there.

The party had 193,961 members on 31 December 2010 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, which was up from 156,205 the previous year. In that year it had an income of about £36 million (£4.9 million from membership fees) and expenditure of about £34 million, high due to that year's general election.

As it was founded by the unions to represent the interests of working-class people, Labour's link with the unions has always been a defining characteristic of the party. In recent years this link has come under increasing strain, with the RMT being expelled from the party in 2004 for allowing its branches in Scotland to affiliate to the left-wing Scottish Socialist Party. Other unions have also faced calls from members to reduce financial support for the Party and seek more effective political representation for their views on privatisation, public spending cuts and the anti-trade union laws. Unison and GMB have both threatened to withdraw funding from constituency MPs and Dave Prentis of UNISON has warned that the union will write "no more blank cheques" and is dissatisfied with "feeding the hand that bites us".

International linkages

The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. Since 1951 the party has been a member of the Socialist International, which was founded thanks to the efforts of the Clement Attlee leadership. Labour is also a member of the Party of European Socialists, while the party's MEPs sit in the Socialists & Democrats group.

History

Main articles: History of the British Labour Party and History of socialism in Great Britain

File:ILP 21st anniversary certificate large.jpg

The Independent Labour Party, founded in 1893

Founding of the party

The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19th century, around which time it became apparent that there was a need for a new political party to represent the interests and needs of the urban proletariat, a demographic which had increased in number and had recently been given franchise. Some members of the trades union movement became interested in moving into the political field, and after further extensions of the voting franchise in 1867 and 1885, the Liberal Party endorsed some trade-union sponsored candidates. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time, with the intention of linking the movement to political policies. Among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party.

It was during this period that British socialism began to make headway in local government. In 1889, a "Progressive" party composed of Fabians and British Liberals took control of London County Council at the first elections held there. This was the first council to have substantial socialist influence, and carried out a programme of municipalisation, while constructing some of the first social housing in England and increasing public spending on services such as the Fire Brigade. In addition, the number of parks and public baths were increased, London’s sewage system was improved, roads were widened and paved, and the Blackwall Tunnel, linking the Isle of Dogs with Greenwich, was opened in 1897.

The Women’s Labour League, which was active in the field of social policy, set up a child welfare clinic in Kensington before the outbreak of World War I.

In 1892, Fred Jowett a member of the Independent Labour Party) became the first socialist to be elected to Bradford City Council. A few months later, Jowett founded a branch of the Independent Labour Party in that city. As a member of Bradford City Council, Jowett was responsible for the passage of several important reforms that were eventually imitated by other local authorities. In 1904, for instance, Bradford became the first local authority in Britain to provide free school meals, while a successful campaign led to the clearing of a slum area and its replacement with new houses. Jowett was also a supporter of reforming the 1834 Poor Law, and attempted to improve the quality of the food given to the children in the Bradford Workhouse after being elected as a Poor Law Guardian.

In 1898, West Ham borough became the first ever Labour council. The new administration embarked on a programme involving the enlargement of the municipal workforce and bringing it directly under public control in order to improve job security, conditions, and pay for workers. A minimum wage and an eight-hour workday were introduced for council employees, together with a fortnight’s annual holiday. Although Labour lost its majority two years later, its achievements in the council demonstrated Labour’s effectiveness at instigating reform at a municipal level.

In the 1895 general election, the Independent Labour Party put up 28 candidates but won only 44,325 votes. Keir Hardie, the leader of the party, believed that to obtain success in parliamentary elections, it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. Hardie's roots as a Methodist lay preacher contributed to an ethos in the party which led to the comment by 1950s General Secretary Morgan Phillips that "Socialism in Britain owed more to Methodism than Marx".

Labour Representation Committee

Keir Hardie, one of the Labour Party's founders and its first leader

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 left-wing organisations and form them into a single body that would sponsor Parliamentary candidates. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, and the proposed conference was held at the Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street on 26 and 27 February 1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations — trades unions represented about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates.

After a debate, the 129 delegates passed Hardie's motion to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy, which must embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the time being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests of labour." This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and represent the working-class population. It had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party 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 campaign effectively; total expenses for the election only came to £33. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful; Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.

Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union being 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 to industrial and business interests (traditionally the allies of the Liberal Party in opposition to the Conservative's landed interests) intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared to have little concern for the industrial proletariat and its problems.

Labour Party Plaque from Caroone House, 8 Farringdon Street

In the 1906 election, the LRC won 29 seats—helped by a secret 1903 pact between Ramsay MacDonald and Liberal Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone that aimed to avoid splitting the opposition vote between Labour and Liberal candidates in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office.

In their first meeting after the election the group's Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name "The Labour Party" formally (15 February 1906). 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 individual membership until 1918 but operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies. 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, while Labour parliamentarians encouraged and supported progressive measures such as the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906, the Mines Act 1908, the Old Age Pensions Act 1908, and compulsory medical inspections in state schools. In 1906, the Labour Party scored its first ever legislative success in the new Parliament with the passage of a bill put forward by the Labour MP Fred Jowett in the form of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906.

Early years and the rise of the Labour Party

The 1910 election saw 42 Labour MPs elected to the House of Commons, a significant victory since, a year before the election, the House of Lords had passed the Osborne judgment ruling that Trades Unions in the United Kingdom could no longer donate money to fund the election campaigns and wages of Labour MPs. The governing Liberals were unwilling to repeal this judicial decision with primary legislation. The height of Liberal compromise was to introduce a wage for Members of Parliament to remove the need to involve the Trade Unions. By 1913, faced with the opposition of the largest Trades Unions, the Liberal government passed the Trade Disputes Act to allow Trade Unions to fund Labour MPs once more.

By 1914, there were about 420 labour representatives sitting on municipal Councils of various kinds, not including a few County councilors in the mining areas, or a much larger number on Boards of Guardians, Parish Councils, and District Councils. Aside from education, and the feeding and medical inspection and treatment of schoolchildren, the issues which the Labour Party pressed most urgently in local government were the local provision of work for the unemployed, the eight-hour workday, the adoption and enforcement of the fair Wages Clause in public contracts, and fair wages and conditions for local authority employees. In some areas (particularly Birmingham And Glasgow) there was active pressure in support of municipal housing and slum clearance schemes, while there was also continued agitation (in relation to the Board of guardians) for improved treatment both of the unemployed and other classes of paupers, particularly the disabled and the aged. House-building, midway between a public health service and a trading enterprise, became one of the main planks in the Labour municipal platform.

During the First World War, the Labour Party split between supporters and opponents of the conflict but opposition to the war grew within the party as time went on. Ramsay MacDonald, a notable anti-war campaigner, resigned as leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party and Arthur Henderson became the main figure of authority within the party.

In 1915, the Labour Party experienced ministerial office for the first time when leading members of the party were invited to join Herbert Asquith’s wartime government. The rationale behind this was that the government needed the co-operation of the trade union movement, and felt that one way of achieving was to provide Labour with ministerial positions. From that time onwards, the Labour Party remained a part of the wartime coalition until the end of hostilities in November 1918. The secretary of the Labour Party, Arthur Henderson, was accepted into Prime Minister Asquith's war cabinet (becoming the first Labour Party member to serve in government) as both President of the Board of Education and as unofficial adviser on labour issues, while minor positions were given to G.H. Roberts (a printer, who became a government whip) and William Bruce (a miner, who acquired an under-secretaryship). In December 1916, when the wartime coalition was reconstructed by David Lloyd George (Asquith’s successor as prime minister), Henderson was promoted to the inner war cabinet, while George Barnes of the engineers became Minister of Pensions and John Hodge of the steel workers became Minister of Labour. William Bruce, G.H. Roberts, and James Parker (another Labour MP) were offered minor posts.

Despite mainstream Labour Party's support for the coalition, the Independent Labour Party was instrumental in opposing conscription through organisations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship while a Labour Party affiliate, the British Socialist Party, organised a number of unofficial strikes. Arthur Henderson resigned from the Cabinet in 1917 amid calls for party unity to be replaced by George Barnes.

During the course of the First World War, while serving both inside and outside of government, the Labour Party was able to influence a number of progressive developments in social policy. At a time when 90% of housing was privately rented, landlords sought to increase rents in the face of rising wartime prices (and in some cases as a means of profiteering). This resulted in a range of largely spontaneous protests in 1915 which were then often co-ordinated by local Labour movements, such as that in Glasgow, where the ILP played a leading role. This forced the government to pass legislation which fixed wartime rents at pre-war levels. This was significant in that it showed labour to be the party that would defend working-class interests in housing, more than its rivals, while also helping Labour to move away from trade union related issues towards areas which some direct appeal to women, in particular. In addition, as argued by Andrew Thorpe, it also “added credibility to the idea of state action to control market forces which disadvantaged the working class.”

The Labour Party also campaigned for “fair shares,” attacking profiteering and unrestricted market forces, and secured some advances by applying pressure on the government. The Labour Party pushed hard for high taxation of war profits, rationing, and other controls, and in 1917, price controls were introduced which stabilised food prices, while rationing, which came into operation at the beginning of 1918, ensured degree of “fair play.” An excess profits duty was also introduced in 1915 which stood at 80% by 1917, and Labour’s credentials were further established by the WEC’s “Conscription of Riches” campaign, launched in 1916. As noted by Andrew Thorpe,

“Since ‘fair play’ was one of the great traditions of British radicalism, it was clearly to Labour’s advantage to push in this direction, and the fact that such policies could be implemented greatly enhanced labour’s general credibility.”

The wartime experience of the Labour ministers made them feel more confident of their party’s ability to use the machinery of state to bring about social change, and encouraged them to resist policies “direct action” urged by local “Soviets” and the fledgling Communist Party of Great Britain.

The growth in Labour's local activist base and organisation was reflected in the elections following the war, the co-operative movement now providing its own resources to the Co-operative Party after the armistice. The Co-operative Party later reached an electoral agreement with the Labour Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain was refused affiliation between 1921 and 1923. Meanwhile the Liberal Party declined rapidly and the party suffered a catastrophic split that allowed the Labour Party to co-opt much of the Liberals' support.

With the Liberals in disarray Labour won 142 seats in 1922, making it the second largest political group in the House of Commons and the official opposition to the Conservative government. After the election the now-rehabilitated Ramsay MacDonald was voted the first official leader of the Labour Party.

First Labour government (1924)

Ramsay MacDonald: First Labour Prime Minister, 1924 and 1929–31

The 1923 general election was fought on the Conservatives' protectionist proposals but, although they got the most votes and remained the largest party, they lost their majority in parliament, necessitating the formation of a government supporting free trade. Thus, with the acquiescence of Asquith's Liberals, Ramsay MacDonald became the first ever Labour Prime Minister in January 1924, forming the first Labour government, despite Labour only having 191 MPs (less than a third of the House of Commons).

Because the government had to rely on the support of the Liberals it was unable to get any legislation of an arguably socialist nature passed by the House of Commons. The most significant and long-lasting measure was the Wheatley Housing Act, which began a building programme of 500,000 homes for rental to working-class families. Legislation on education, unemployment and social insurance were also passed.

The government collapsed after only nine months when the Liberals voted for a Select Committee inquiry into the Campbell Case, a vote which MacDonald had declared to be a vote of confidence. The ensuing general election saw the publication, four days before polling day, of the notorious Zinoviev letter, which implicated Labour in a plot for a Communist revolution in Britain. The Conservatives were returned to power although Labour increased its vote from 30.7% to a third of the popular vote, most Conservative gains being at the expense of the Liberals. The Zinoviev letter is now known to have been a forgery.

In opposition Ramsay MacDonald continued his policy of presenting the Labour Party as a moderate force. During the General Strike of 1926 he opposed strike action, arguing that the best way to achieve social reforms was through the ballot box.

Second Labour government (1929–1931)

The original "Liberty" logo, in use until 1983

In the 1929 general election, the Labour Party became the largest in the House of Commons for the first time, with 287 seats and 37.1% of the popular vote. However MacDonald was still reliant on Liberal support to form a minority government. MacDonald went on to appoint Britain's first female cabinet minister, Margaret Bondfield, who was appointed Minister of Labour.

The government, however, soon found itself engulfed in crisis: the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and eventual Great Depression occurred soon after the government came to power, and the crisis hit Britain hard. By the end of 1930 unemployment had doubled to over two and a half million. The government had no effective answers to the crisis. A sudden budgeting crisis in the summer of 1931 split the cabinet over whether the rate of unemployment benefit should be reduced; when it became clear that leading Ministers who were opposed would resign, the Government could no longer continue.

To the surprise of fellow Ministers, MacDonald returned from seeing the King having agreed to head a "National Government" with Conservative and Liberal Ministers. A small number of Labour ministers joined him, causing great anger among those within the Labour Party who felt betrayed by MacDonald's actions: he and his supporters were later expelled from the Labour Party. Arthur Henderson returned to the party leadership and repudiated all spending cuts. When the economic crisis did not abate, the National Government called a general election and won an overwhelming victory (MacDonald's supporters having formed a scratch National Labour group). The election was a disaster for the Labour Party which won only 46 seats, together with 3 for the Independent Labour Party and 3 Labour candidates who did not have official endorsement. The total of 52 was 225 fewer than in 1929.

In opposition during the 1930s

Arthur Henderson, elected in 1931 to succeed MacDonald, lost his seat in the 1931 general election. The only former Labour cabinet member who had retained his seat, the pacifist George Lansbury, accordingly became party leader.

The party experienced another split in 1932 when the Independent Labour Party, which for some years had been increasingly at odds with the Labour leadership, opted to disaffiliate from the Labour Party and embarked on a long, drawn-out decline.

Lansbury resigned as leader in 1935 after public disagreements over foreign policy. He was promptly replaced as leader by his deputy, Clement Attlee, who would lead the party for two decades. The party experienced a revival in the 1935 general election, winning 154 seats and 38% of the popular vote, the highest that Labour had achieved. In 1938, the Labour Party scored a parliamentary victory with the passage of Ellen Wilkinson’s High Purchase Act. Aimed at protecting working-class consumers which required traders to display on goods the actual cash price plus the sum added for interest, and safeguarding hirers "who had paid at least one third of the sum contracted."

As the threat from Nazi Germany increased in the 1930s the Labour Party gradually abandoned its earlier pacifist stance and supported re-armament, largely due to the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton who by 1937 had also persuaded the party to oppose Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.

Local Labour reforms in the inter-war period

Although Labour remained out of office for most of the inter-war period, it was able to control of many local authorities and put its socialist principles into practice on a small scale. A noted by G.D.H Cole,

“the Labour-controlled local authorities, and also those in which Labour was the strongest single party, had in practice to concentrate mainly on making the most of the opportunities offered to them by national legislation – especially in the fields of housing, education, public health services, and, after 1929, the services transferred to them from the Boards of Guardians. In all these fields, Labour had a notably good local government record”.

During the interwar period, Labour in local government sought to use the power of municipal authority to improve the working and living environments of its primarily working-class constituents. The functions of local government provided Labour Party members with experience in office, and provided them with the opportunity to improve the living standards of its constituents through measures such as improvements in housing and health care, the provision of maternity clinics, and free milk and meals for schoolchildren. Following the end of World War I, Labour councillors returned in 1919 adopted a policy of municipal socialism (particularly in boroughs of London to tackle social problems such as poor health, inadequate housing, and general insecurity. As noted by Harry Harmer, Labour in local government sought to establish a “proto-welfare state” through, for instance, the elected Boards of Guardians, paying more generous levels of poor relief to the jobless and encouraging the construction of clinics, houses, and municipal baths which, apart from providing necessary services, also provided employment opportunities. Also, although Labour groups often remained in the minority on their respective councils, they and their supporters mounted campaigns to safeguard and extend people’s standard of living. For example, minority Labour groups could block council initiatives that they saw as going against the interests of their constituents.

Housing was one of the most pressing concerns of the Labour Party from 1918 onwards. In response to David Lloyd George’s promise of “homes fit for heroes,” Labour borough councils in London which were elected in 1919 acted quickly to improve the standard of living of their constituents. In Camberwell, the Labour council of 1919-22 constructed 450 council houses, while in Poplar, the labour council embarked on a house-building programme, extended the borough’s electricity undertaking, and put pressure on landlords to make essential repairs. As noted by David Feldman, Labour-controlled authorities also directly intervened in the working of casual labour markets

“by improving the conditions of direct employees, implementing drastic changes in the treatment of the unemployed, and enforcing as far as possible these changes on the work-forces of other employers. Municipal workers employed permanently or casually on direct works, often funded by the central government under unemployment relief or public housing schemes but administered locally under very loose guidelines, received high minimum wages and generous conditions.”

The Labour Metropolitan Councils of Poplar, Stepney, Shoreditch, and Bethnal Green all introduced minimum wages of £4 a week for male employees, a provision that Poplar extended to female workers. Casual staffs were also provided with sick pay and holiday pay at the same time, while fair wages clauses extended these provisions and trade unionism to firms supplying local government contracts.

Worthwhile reforms, such as allowing working-class families with no bathrooms to use public baths for free, formed an integral part of the council agenda of the Labour Party. In Islington, where the Labour party had a council majority, the borough party’s 1937 election campaign involved campaigns for a gynaecological clinic, a convalescence home, and improvements in maternity and child welfare. In 1919, Fulham set up a municipal laundry service, and in 1932, Walthamstow set up a municipal savings bank. In Hackney, the municipality profitably administrated the borough’s electricity supply, council houses were constructed, a municipal insurance scheme was established, and council employees replaced contractors in collecting the refuse of the borough.

In Bermondsey, the Labour council led by Alfred Salter and his wife Ada Salter introduced an extensive network of health centres and clinics, while also making improvements to environmental and housing conditions. Municipal health centres, clinics, and baths were established, while 2,700 houses were built between 1929 and 1938. A “beautification committee” was set up to brighten up the borough, which planted over 9,000 trees and launched gardening competitions to encourage public participation. The Salters also converted their country house at Fairby Grange into a convalescence home for mothers, and although they had lost their own daughter to scarlet fever, the Salters strove to raise the health of the borough through the distribution of free milk, food, and insulin to those in need, the opening of a solarium to fight off TB, and the launching of health propaganda campaigns. In Tredegar, efforts were made to improve access to health care with the introduction of a Medical Aid Association, which covered 90% of the town’s population by 1944. in Lincoln, the council’s maternity and child welfare centre was, in the words of Matthew Worley, “the jewel in Labour’s municipal crown.”

In Norwich, where Labour took office in 1933, a housing programme was carried out which led to the construction of 5,000 houses by 1935, with “fair rents” set for council tenants. Improvements were also made in health care and unemployment relief, while labour councillors emphasised their provision of nutritious school meals and building of hygienic schools and nurseries to provide an “equal opportunity to every child, however poor their parents may be.” In Kingston, during the Thirties, Labour members campaigned to ensure the enforcement of housing regulations, organising tenants’ rallies of some 2,000 people. In Poplar, a wide range of reforms were carried out, including the organisation of social events on Saturday nights, an expansion of library services, the introduction of a free milk scheme, the opening of public baths on Sundays, and the opening of a TB dispensary. Certain labour councils, such as in Swindon, also placed greater emphasis on the quality of working-class housing than others. In Islington, the council had limited success in converting houses into flats.

Some other Labour councils such as West Ham and Bedwellty also continued to provide levels of poor relief above the government recommendation into the mid-to-late Twenties, although they remained the exception rather than the rule.

In Barnsley, the Labour council raised the school leaving age, while in St. Helens, a massive investment was made in education. In Glasgow (where a minority Labour administration took office in 1933), 60,000 houses had built by Glasgow Corporation by the Labour council and its predecessors by 1947. Labour briefly controlled the (then) middle-class borough in Hackney from 1919 to 1922, during which time it reduced the rate demand to the lowest in England. A plan in Leeds to demolish and replace all the back-to-back houses by five-year stages was accepted by the council in 1933 under the inspiration of the Reverend Charles Jenkinson, a Labour Party member who became the leader of their council when Labour won control of it in 1933. Out of the 72,000 back-to-back houses in Leeds, 8,000 were replaced by 1935. Although problems in the building industry prevented the plan from being completed, as noted by Lewis Baston,

“the face of Leeds was being transformed well before the blitz and post-war planning policy took place elsewhere”

In 1926, Sheffield came under the control of the Labour Party, and became the first major city in Britain to enjoy sustained Labour control. The first Labour administration in Sheffield carried out a broad range of important social reforms which made it a source of immense pride for many in the Labour party and, until London county Council was gained by Labour in 1934, was “labour’s municipal showcase.” The Sheffield Labour group, led by Ernest Rowlinson, widened educational opportunities and standards, extended Sheffield’s transport network, built improved municipal housing, carried out slum clearances, and erected public abattoirs and a hospital for people who suffered from tuberculosis. After the holding of a referendum in 1939, the Labour council agreed to provide land and leases for the building of local pubs, while money was set aside in 1939 for the construction of recreational facilities. A massive slum clearance programme was carried out, with 10,000 new houses constructed and some the old slum areas renovated, while investments were made in schools and health centres. A cheap transport policy was launched, with a 25% reduction in fares and the introduction of free travel for he disabled on trams. Welfare provisions were also extended, with workless households compensated in full for the 1931 cut in unemployment benefit. Profits from municipal trams, electricity, and their trading were used to improve services instead of reducing rates. The Sheffield Labour council also invested in baths and other public services. Various provisions were made for maternity and child welfare, public abattoirs were constructed (together with a fever hospital for tuberculosis cases), and frequent quality checks on milk were carried out as a public health measure. Altogether, these policies contributed to a dramatic fall in the local death rate.

During the Great Depression, Labour councils made great efforts to protect unemployed people from the worst effects of the slump, and sought to ensure that the public assistance system for the needy was made as generous as possible. In Durham and Glamorgan, the Labour administrations there paid more than the minimum, while operating the means test more humanely than they were supposed to. In Hackney, the London Labour Party secretary Herbert Morrison resorted to charitable methods to counteract the effects of unemployment. In Nelson, the Labour council of the Thirties invested in essential servicse like education and child welfare. In Glasgow, Patrick Dollan’s Glasgow corporation carried out a slum-clearance programme that resulted in the construction of some 200,000 homes between 1934 and 1939. In Barnsley, the school-leaving age was raised by six months in order to promote education and keep some 500 teenagers off the unemployment figure. In addition, priority was given to housing construction and slum clearances.

Labour authorities also sought to humanise the services provided by local authorities, together with enabling reducing the harshness of the way in which welfare services operated and enabling working-class people to enjoy the benefits of open space and culture. In Norwich, Labour ensured that school architecture was made bright and modern, while the Labour administration in Glasgow put an end to a controversial system in which elderly couples claiming poor relief could be split up into separate hostel units. In many Labour authorities such as Norwich and West Ham, assistance was given to poor mothers as well as the disabled. As noted by Lewis Baston,

“’Compassionate professionalism’ – humanised but efficient and honest welfare services – became the theme of local labour government, and in some areas helped the part assemble a base of support reaching well beyond the trade union core.”

Labour representatives on the Boards of Guardians in the Twenties and on the Public Assistance Committees of the early Thirties sought to offset the effects of unemployment and poverty as best as they could within existing structures. This often led to interventionist measures such as the provision of free school meals or ensuring that benefit claimants received the relief that was owed to them. Labour councils sought to administer the means test in the most favourable terms possible, which involved accepting a higher percentage of applications for transitional benefit than in non-Labour localities and providing the maximum rate of relief available. In Poplar, Bethnal Green, and Stepney, for instance, Labour took positive steps on behalf of its working-class supporters, providing protection, jobs, and relief at a time of economic uncertainty.

Female Labour members played an active role in the policy-making of local labour councils, and as noted by Matthew Worley, “the extension of accepted (or expected) municipal responsibility brought politics into areas to which women were the acknowledged experts.” As recalled by Hannah Mitchell, when she sat on relief committees she “knew just how much food could be bought out of the allowance, knew the cost of children’s clothes and footwear, could tell at a glance if an applicant was in ill health.” Through first-hand knowledge of such issues, women contributed to the implementation of reforms which benefited their constituents, such as the building of wash houses, maternity centres, health clinics, playgrounds, and parks. These reforms not only extended Labour’s appeal, but also provided women with “a distinctive place within Labour and municipal politics.”

The Labour Party also enjoyed a strong following in Wales, where in the 1935 general election it won 8 out of 35 seats. In regards to social legislation (including health, housing, and education), the Labour-controlled authorities were both progressive in outlook and generous in spending. This meant that, despite extreme poverty, South Wales (where Labour was strong), had better outcomes in health, housing, and education than other parts of Wales, and this despite the poverty of the councils themselves. For instance, Glamorgan, Carmarthenshire, parts of Monmouthshire and Wrexham provided free school meals, while provision of this kind was exceptional in most of North Wales. A move towards expanding secondary school places to be filled on merit was also far more evident in authorities controlled by the Labour Party. In the most industrialised parts of Wales, Labour-dominated councils successfully tried not only to increase the number of secondary-school places (even during the years of the Great depression), but also worked towards providing these places free, and therefore on merit, instead of on ability to pay. By 1932, over 60% of places were free, a far higher figure than in England. In Rhondda, the dominant Labour council introduced progressive measures such as free milk for children from poor households which helped to counteract some of the worst effects of the Great Depression, while in Swansea, a government grant was obtained to finance a number of civic building projects, the means test was exercised relatively humanely, and a nursery school was opened.

The biggest breakthrough for Labour in local government came in 1934, with the capture of the most powerful local authority in Britain, the LCC. Under the leadership of Herbert Morrison, the Labour-run LCC implemented a wide range of progressive social democratic reforms which transformed London into a model of responsible and progressive local Labour government. A year after taking office, Morrison took steps to raised the rates of London householders to 31% (seven shillings in the pound), and had run through what was termed a “nest egg” of £2,000,000 he had found upon taking office, salted away in London County Council’s treasury by Conservatives. This money was used in treating London’s poor more humanely, providing more homes for the aged poor, more free education, and modernising hospitals, improving their dietary and increasing their numbers of staff.

As leader of the LCC, Morrison presided over the development of London's housing, health, education and transport services, together with the unification of the transport system and creating a 'green belt' around London's suburbs. In addition, new schools were constructed, measures to combat corruption and inefficiency were carried out, a major programme of slum clearance and council house construction was carried out, and a municipal health service was set up, which became a model for the NHS. Led by Morrison and his “presidium” of Charles Latham, Isaac Hayward, and Lewis Silkin, the LCC provided to be a successful local Labour administration. An offensive was carried out against London’s slums, with new homes built, repairs carried out, and rents reduced for those moving to new municipal accommodation from slum areas. Spending on welfare services, education, and health care was increased from 1934 onwards, with more staff employed in hospitals and enjoying better pay and conditions. More free places in secondary education were offered, improvements were made in patient care, new schools were constructed, and more amenities were provided, with the initiation of more milk, playing fields, and health visits. The LCC also made efforts to ensure that reforms were carried out to reduce the harshness of public assistance. Morrison’s plans for a “green belt” surrounding London also came to fruition, which provided the relevant local authorities with funds to purchase and maintain land.

As summed up by the historian John Vaizey,

“Herbert Morrison, by putting London ahead in social welfare, hospitals, and education, and by establishing a statutory board, set the pattern for social development.”

One Labour council that acquired great notoriety during the inter-war period was that of Poplar. Dedicated to improving the lives of poor working-class people, the Labour Poor Law Guardians paid generous scales of relief to the poor that led them to fall into debt. The Labour Guardians refused to hand over payments to London County Council that they were supposed to make, and were imprisoned in 1921.

The Poplar Guardians justified the generous scales of relief they paid out, together with their abandonment of principles of less eligibility in terms of a politics of redistribution of the financial burden of unemployment, stating that

“If society cannot organize its economic affairs so as to provide work for all its able-bodied members, then society as a whole should provide them with adequate maintenance from national funds, obtained under existing conditions by increased taxation upon the large and superfluous incomes of those whose social position is maintained only as a result of ‘preying on the poor.’

The actions of the Labour Guardians were arguably justified on the grounds that Poplar carried a heavier burden than many other boroughs in carrying the costs of poor relief. In 1921, for instance, Poplar had a rateable value of £4m and 86,500 unemployed persons to support, while other, richer councils could call on a rateable value of £15 to support only 4,800 unemployed. George Lansbury, the new mayor of Poplar, proposed that the Council stop collecting the rates for outside, cross-London bodies. This was agreed and on 31st March 1921, Poplar Council set a rate of 4s 4d instead of 6s 10d.

Despite their imprisonment, the Labour Guardians refused to give way, and were released six weeks after their imprisoned. In addition,the actions of the Poplar councillors in demanding that the burden of the rates be shared more equitably between poorer and richer boroughs led to the passage of legislation which provided for the greater equality between boroughs that they had demanded. Poplar no longer had to carry an unduly heavy burden as all London areas now shared the costs of poor relief in the future. Poplar continued to provide relatively generous scales of relief, paying £2 19s 6d to a family of seven instead of the agreed London rate of London rate of £2 14s.

Labour councils also endeavoured to present themselves as model employers. By the Thirties, for instance, most Labour councils had set up municipal works departments, carrying out repair work and construction without having to use a private contractor. Labour council employees also tended to be paid at (or above) trade union wage rates and were subject to union-recognised conditions. In Poplar, the Labour council that was elected in 1919 immediately agreed to, and increased, a minimum wage for all employees. Labour councils sought to employ direct labour to embark on their municipal building schemes, such as in Wigan, where people who were employed to build the town’s municipal houses were subject to trade union pay, conditions, and holidays. As noted by Matthew Worsley,

“Labour councils not only brought relief to the poorest sections of the community, they provided opportunities for employment and, through the funding of education and library facilities, self-improvement.”

Wartime coalition (1940-1945)

The party returned to government in 1940 as part of the wartime coalition. When Neville Chamberlain resigned in the spring of 1940, incoming-Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to bring the other main parties into a coalition similar to that of the First World War. Clement Attlee was appointed Lord Privy Seal and a member of the war cabinet, eventually becoming the United Kingdom's first Deputy Prime Minister.

A number of other senior Labour figures also took up senior positions; the trade union leader Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour, directed Britain's wartime economy and allocation of manpower, the veteran Labour statesman Herbert Morrison became Home Secretary, Hugh Dalton was Minister of Economic Warfare and later President of the Board of Trade, while A. V. Alexander resumed the role he had held in the previous Labour Government as First Lord of the Admiralty. Labour also filled eight junior posts, a number which rose to seventeen by 1945. According to G.D.H. Cole, the basis of the Wartime Coalition was that the labour ministers would look after the “Home Front” (including the maintenance of important social services and the mobilisation of manpower). Although the Exchequer remained in the hands of the Conservative Party, a firm understanding was made with Labour regarding the equitable distribution of tax burdens.

While serving in coalition with the Conservatives, the Labour members of Churchill's cabinet were able put their democratic socialist ideals into practice, implementing a wide range of progressive social and economic reforms which did much to improve the living standards and working conditions of working-class Britons. As observed by Kenneth O. Morgan, “Labour ministers were uniquely associated with the triumphs on the home front.” Herbert Morrison at the Home Office, assisted by his friend Ellen Wilkinson, was noted for his effective involvement in home defence and presiding over the repairs carried out on major cities affected by the Blitz. Arthur Greenwood, in his capacity as minister without portfolio, commissioned the Beveridge Report which would lay the foundations for the post-war British welfare state.

During the war years, the Labour Party was continuously active (with some success) in pushing for better arrangements of housing and billeting both of evacuees and of workers transferred for war services to already congested industrial areas, for fair systems of food rationing and distribution, for more effective control of prices, and for improvements in service pay and allowances. Labour also pressed hard for better provisions for the victims of air warfare, for more and better civic and industrial restaurants and canteens, and for war-time nurseries for the children of female workers.

In a manifesto on "The Peace," adopted by the 1941 Labour Party Annual Conference, it was claimed that Labour’s participation in the Wartime coalition Government had been effective in that, a year after Labour had joined the government, the war was now being fought not only with much greater efficiency, but with a higher regard for social equity as well:

“The area of the social services has been increased. Largely through the care and determination of the Trade unions, the standard of life has been well safeguarded. The health of the workers has been protected by the maintenance of the factory codes, and by the institution of factory doctors, canteens, and nurseries. Labour, national and local, has taken its share in civil defence; and in every sphere its activities have done much to improve the provision for the safety and comfort of citizens. The social protection of our people has been facilitated by the alert and continuous watch which has been kept over financial policy. Interest rates have been kept down. The Treasury has assumed powers over the Banks which assure their full co-operation in the policy upon which Parliament decides. The dangers of inflation, ever present in war-time, have been kept to a minimum.”

According to the historian G.D.H. Cole, Labour’s claims were arguably justified: profiteering was kept down, and there was greater equity both in the allocation of supplies and in taxation. In addition, social services were not merely kept up, but also expanded to meet wartime needs.

Tom Johnston used his position as Secretary of State for Scotland to push through a range of important developmental initiatives, such as the development of hydroelectricity in the Highlands, while Hugh Dalton’s regional policies directly assisted some of the Labour Party’s strongest cores of support. The Distribution of Industry Act 1945, pushed through by Hugh Dalton before the end of the wartime coalition, launched a vigorous policy of regenerating “depressed areas” such as industrial Scotland, the North-East of England, Cumbria, and South Wales, while diversifying the economic base of these regions. This foundation of this vigorous regional policy were actually laid during the Second World War, with the extension of the role of the trading estates and the linking of the industrial base of areas like the Welsh mining areas with the operations of government ordinance and armaments plants. James Chuter Ede, a Labour politician who served as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, worked together with the conservative politician Rab Butler in drafting the 1944 Education Act, while also playing a major role in its passage.

Co-operators, in common with the trade unions and labour, pressed hard from the outset of the war for the extension of the food rationing system to cover all essential supplies, arguing that the existence of an unrationed “sector” would create class injustices and result in time wasted on seeking supplies from shop to shop. Labour responded to Co-operative demands on these issues in March 1941 by establishing a Food Deputation Committee to work for more effective control and rationing of food supplies, together with the creation of an effective Consumers’ Council.

As Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin did much to improve working conditions, raising the wages of the lowest paid male workers, such as miners, railwaymen, and agricultural labourers, while also persuading and forcing employers, under threat of removal of their Essential Works Order, to improve company medical and welfare provision, together with sanitary and safety provisions. This was important both for improving working conditions and for cementing worker consent to the war effort, and as a result of Bevin’s efforts, doctors, nurses, and welfare officers multiplied on the shop floor while there was a threefold increase in the provision of works canteens. Almost 5,000 canteens were directly created by Bevin in controlled establishments, while a further 6,800 were set up by private employers by 1944. During the course of the war, the number of works doctors increased from 60 to about 1,000. This provision, however, was much more extensive within larger factories, with smaller employers continuing “to barely comply with the minimum provision of a first aid box.” Accident rates did, however, decline after 1942.

The Second World War also saw significant improvements in the position of trade unions, which were encouraged by Bevin. Trade unions were integrated into joint consultation at all levels of government and industry, with the TUC drawn in to represent labour on the National Joint Advisory Council (1939) and the joint Consultative Committee (1940). A similar status was bestowed upon employers’ organisations, which led Middlemass to argue that capital and organised labour had become “governing institutions” within a tripartite industrial relations system “with the state at the fulcrum.” The elevation of the status of organised labour to one of parity with capital in Whitehall was effectively summed up by Bevin’s biographer as such:

“The organised working class represented by the trade unions was for the first time brought into a position of partnership in the national enterprise of war – a partnership on equal not inferior terms, as in the First World War.”

Collective bargaining was further extended by Bevin, who radically extended both the Wages Boards (the renamed Trades Boards) and the Whitley Committees, 46 of the latter were formed during the Second World War, and by the end of the war 15.5 million workers were covered by the minimum wage provisions by the Wages Boards. On the shop floor, Bevin directly encouraged the formation of joint production committees to extend worker’s participation in industry. By June 1944, almost 4,500 such committees were in existence, covering 3.5 million workers. By the end of the war, the joint production committees were intervening in areas once considered to be the sacrosanct domain of employers, such as health, welfare, transfers of labour, machine staffing, technology, piece rate fixing, and wage payment systems. These developments brought about significant improvements to conditions in the workplace, with a Mass Observation survey carried out in 1942 noting that “the quick sack and the unexplained instability” of the 1930s had practically vanished. During the 1940s, significant improvements in occupational health and safety standards were brought about both by the rising bargaining power of workers within the older “staple” sectors of the economy and the rise of “the pro-active wartime and post-war state.”

Also in the 1940s, trade union power and authority was extended further than in British history up until that point, with labour’s ability to regulate and control work significantly enhanced during this period. This was assisted by developments such as full employment, the growth of union membership, rising from 32% to 45% of the workforce from 1939 to 1950 and increasing workplace representation, as characterised by the large increase in the number of shop stewards. The progressive social changes were continued in the initial post-war period, with the creation of the Welfare State (which placed a floor under wages) and the extension of the legal rights of unions through the repeal of the Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act (1927) in 1946, while the 1948 Industrial Injuries Act provided compensation for accidents in the workplace.

The war years also witnessed a significant extension of collective bargaining, which was directly encouraged by Bevin. By 1950, between nine and ten million workers were covered by collective voluntary bargaining. Bevin also established 46 new Joint Industrial Councils and extended the coverage of the Wages Boards between 1943 and 1945. By 1950, as a result of these changes, virtually all of the poorly organised and low-paid categories of workers were subject to state sponsored wage regulation and collective bargaining. This transformation in worker’s protection and bargaining power had the definitive effect of reducing long-established local and regional wage differences.

Bevin was also responsible for the passage of the Determination of Needs Act in 1941, which finally abolished the long-detested household means test. After the passage of the Determination of Needs Act, the Labour Movement continued to press for improvements, particularly for the extension of the principles of the new legislation to cover Public Assistance and other services as well (at that time, it only covered the Assistance Board). In 1943, this was achieved by further legislation, which also improved conditions relating to supplementary pensions. Throughout the war period, the Labour movement (both in and out of Parliament) pressed successfully for a number of changes liberalising the administration of the social services.

The Catering Wages Act (1943), another initiative by Bevin, established a Catering Wages Commission to oversee wages and working conditions in restaurants and hotels. Inspectors were also appointed to ensure that employers complied with Bevin’s insistence on the provision of canteens, welfare officers, and personnel officers in factories. Bevin also did much to improve conditions for those with disabilities, of which little had been done for before the outbreak of the war. In 1941, Bevin introduced an interim retraining scheme, which was followed by the interdepartmental Tomlinson Committee of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement of the Disabled. According to the historian Pat Thane, the Committee served as “a mouthpiece for Bevin’s own aspirations,” and its proposals for improving the lives of the disabled culminated in the Disabled Persons Employment Act of 1944.

Bevin and the other Labour ministers were also able to ensure that, compared with the First World War, there was greater equality of sacrifice within society. Profiteering was effectively controlled, while rent controls and food subsidies helped to keep down wartime inflation. Wartime wages were allowed to increase in line with, and earnings to surpass, the rate of price inflation, while the tax system became more progressive, with taxation becoming heavier on the very rich (this movement towards greater progressivity was maintained under the Attlee government, with the top rate of income tax reaching 98% in 1949). These policies led to a narrowing of wealth inequalities, with the real value of wage incomes increasing by some 18% between 1938 and 1947, while the real value of property income fell by 15% and salaries by some 21% over that same period.

Post-war victory under Attlee

Clement Attlee: Labour Prime Minister, 1945–51

At the end of the war in Europe, in May 1945, Labour resolved not to repeat the Liberals' error of 1918 and promptly withdrew from government to contest the 1945 general election in opposition to Churchill's Conservatives. Surprising many observers, Labour won a formidable victory, winning just under 50% of the vote with a majority of 145 seats.

Clement Attlee's government proved itself to be one of the most radical British governments of the 20th century, implementing the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, presiding over a policy of nationalising major industries and utilities including the Bank of England, coal mining, the steel industry, electricity, gas, telephones and inland transport including railways, road haulage and canals. It developed and implemented the "cradle to grave" welfare state conceived by the economist William Beveridge. To this day the party considers the 1948 creation of Britain's publicly funded National Health Service under health minister Aneurin Bevan its proudest achievement. Attlee's government also began the process of dismantling the British Empire when it granted independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, followed by Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) the following year. At a secret meeting in January 1947, Attlee and six cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, decided to proceed with the development of Britain's nuclear weapons programme, in opposition to the pacifist and anti-nuclear stances of a large element inside the Labour Party.

Labour went on to win the 1950 general election but with a much reduced majority of five seats. Soon afterwards defence became a divisive issues within the party, especially defence spending (which reached a peak of 14% of GDP in 1951 during the Korean War), straining public finances and forcing savings elsewhere. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Gaitskell, introduced charges for NHS dentures and spectacles, prompting Bevan, along with Harold Wilson (then President of the Board of Trade), to resign over the dilution of the principle of free treatment on which the NHS had been established.

In the 1951 general election, Labour narrowly lost to the Conservatives despite receiving the larger share of the popular vote, its highest ever vote numerically. Most of the changes introduced by the 1945–51 Labour government were accepted by the Conservatives and became part of the "post war consensus" that lasted until the late 1970s.

Opposition during the 1950s

In the decade following the Second World War, Labour councils stood as important players in the reconstruction of housing and city centres. In Newcastle, under the leadership of the visionary but corrupt T. Dan Smith, an accelerated “modernisation” of the city took place, as characterised by an ambitious programme of road construction and public building and the replacement of slum terraces with new innovative estates such as the Byker “wall.”

Following the defeat of 1951 the party underwent a long period of thirteen years in opposition. The party suffered an ideological split during the 1950s while the postwar economic recovery, given the social effects of Attlee's reforms, made the public broadly content with the Conservative governments of the time. Attlee remained as leader until his retirement in 1955.

His replacement Hugh Gaitskell, a man associated with the right-wing of the party, struggled to deal with internal divisions in the late 1950s and early 1960s and Labour lost the 1959 general election. In 1963 Gaitskell's sudden death from a heart-attack made way for Harold Wilson to lead the party.

Labour in government under Wilson (1964–1970)

A down-turn in the economy along with a series of scandals in the early 1960s (the most notorious being the Profumo affair) engulfed the Conservative government by 1963. The Labour Party returned to government with a four-seat majority under Wilson in the 1964 election but increased its majority to 96 in the 1966 election.

Harold Wilson: Labour Prime Minister, 1964–1970 and 1974-1976

Wilson's government was responsible for a number of sweeping social and educational reforms such as the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality (initially only for men aged 21 or over) and a significant expansion of the welfare state. In addition, comprehensive education was expanded and the Open University was created. As noted by one historian, in summing up the reform record of Wilson's government,

"In spite of the economic problems encountered by the First Wilson Government and in spite of (and to some degree in response to) the criticisms of its own supporters, Labour presided over a notable expansion of state welfare during its time in office."

Wilson's government had inherited a large trade deficit that led to a currency crisis and an ultimately doomed attempt to stave off devaluation of the pound. Labour went on to lose the 1970 election to the Conservatives under Edward Heath.

In opposition (1970-1974)

After losing the 1970 general election, Labour returned to opposition, but retained Harold Wilson as Leader. Heath's government soon ran into trouble over Northern Ireland and a dispute with miners in 1973 which led to the "three-day week". The 1970s were a difficult time to be in government for both the Conservatives and Labour due to the 1973 oil crisis which caused high inflation and a global recession. The Labour Party was returned to power again under Wilson a few weeks after the February 1974 general election, forming a minority government with the support of the Ulster Unionists. The Conservatives were unable to form a government as they had fewer seats despite receiving more votes numerically. It was the first general election since 1924 in which both main parties had received less than 40% of the popular vote and the first of six successive general elections in which Labour failed to reach 40% of the popular vote. In a bid to gain a proper majority, a second election was soon called for October 1974 in which Labour, still with Harold Wilson as leader, managed a majority of three, gaining just 18 seats and taking its total to 319.

Return to government (1974-1979)

James Callaghan: Labour Prime Minister, 1976-1979

For much of its time in office the Labour government struggled with serious economic problems and a precarious majority in the Commons, while the party's internal dissent over Britain's membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), which Britain had entered under Edward Heath in 1972, led in 1975 to a national referendum on the issue in which two thirds of the public supported continued membership.

Harold Wilson's personal popularity remained reasonably high but he unexpectedly resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, citing health reasons and was replaced by James Callaghan. The Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1970s tried to control inflation (which reached 23.7% in 1975) by a policy of wage restraint. This was fairly successful, reducing inflation to 7.4% by 1978, but led to increasingly strained relations between the government and the trade unions. The Labour governments of the 1970s did, however, manage to protect many people from the economic storm, with pensions increasing by 20% in real terms between 1974 and 1979, while measures such as rent controls and food and transport subsidies prevented the incomes of other people from deteriorating further.

Legislation was introduced which guaranteed annual uprating of benefits in line with increases in prices or average earnings, whichever was the highest. In addition, new benefits for the disabled and infirm were introduced whilst pensioners benefited from the largest ever increase in pensions up until that period. New employment legislation strengthened equal pay provisions, guaranteed payments for workers on short-time and temporarily laid-off and introduced job security and maternity leave for pregnant women. Housing rehabilitation was encouraged via the establishment of Housing Action Areas and better improvement grants, whilst public sector housing completions rose 40,000 from the 111,500 achieved in 1974, before falling to barely 95,000 by 1979. In addition, furnished tenants were finally provided with security of tenure.

A more effective system of workplace inspection was set up, together with the Health and Safety Executive, in response to the plight of many workers who suffered accidents or ill-health as a result of poor working conditions (whose plight which had long been ignored by the media). Industrial tribunals also provided protection through compensation for unfair dismissal, while the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service performed an effective function in the management of industrial disputes.

Although the Wilson and Callaghan governments were accused by many socialists of failing to put the Labour Party's socialist ideals into practice, it did much to bring about a greater deal of social justice in British society, as characterised by a significant reduction in poverty during the course of the 1970s, and arguably played as much as a role as the Attlee Government in advancing the cause of social democracy and reducing social and economic inequalities in the United Kingdom. As noted by one historian,

“In the seventeen years that it occupied office, Labour accomplished much in alleviating poverty and misery, and in giving help and sustenance to groups – the old, the sick, the disabled – least capable of protecting themselves in a market economy.”

Fear of advances by the nationalist parties, particularly in Scotland, led to the suppression of a report from Scottish Office economist Gavin McCrone that suggested that an independent Scotland would be 'chronically in surplus'. By 1977 by-election losses and defections to the breakaway Scottish Labour Party left Callaghan heading a minority government, forced to trade with smaller parties in order to govern. An arrangement negotiated in 1977 with Liberal leader David Steel, known as the Lib-Lab Pact, ended after one year. After this deals were forged with various small parties including the Scottish National Party and the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru, prolonging the life of the government slightly.

The nationalist parties, in turn, demanded devolution to their respective constituent countries in return for their supporting the government. When referenda for Scottish and Welsh devolution were held in March 1979 Welsh devolution was rejected outright while the Scottish referendum returned a narrow majority in favour without reaching the required threshold of 40% support. When the Labour government duly refused to push ahead with setting up the proposed Scottish Assembly, the SNP withdrew its support for the government: this finally brought the government down as it triggered a vote of confidence in Callaghan's government that was lost by a single vote on 28 March 1979, necessitating a general election.

Callaghan had been widely expected to call a general election in the autumn of 1978 when most opinion polls showed Labour to have a narrow lead. However he decided to extend his wage restraint policy for another year hoping that the economy would be in a better shape for a 1979 election. But during the winter of 1978-79 there were widespread strikes among lorry drivers, railway workers, car workers and local government and hospital workers in favour of higher pay-rises that caused significant disruption to everyday life. These events came to be dubbed the "Winter of Discontent".

In the 1979 election Labour suffered electoral defeat by the Conservatives, now led by Margaret Thatcher. The number of people voting Labour hardly changed between February 1974 and 1979 but in 1979 the Conservative Party achieved big increases in support in the Midlands and South of England, benefiting from both a surge in turnout and votes lost by the ailing Liberals.

The "Wilderness Years" (1979–1997)

After its defeat in the 1979 election the Labour Party underwent a period of internal rivalry between the left-wing, represented by Michael Foot and Tony Benn, and the right-wing represented by Denis Healey. The election of Michael Foot as leader in 1980 saw the party shift to the left, and in 1981 four former cabinet ministers from the right of the Labour Party (Shirley Williams, William Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and David Owen) broke away to form the Social Democratic Party.

The Labour Party was defeated heavily in the 1983 general election, winning only 27.6% of the vote, its lowest share since 1918, and receiving only half a million votes more than the SDP-Liberal Alliance who leader Michael Foot condemned for "siphoning" Labour support and enabling the Conservatives to win more seats.

Neil Kinnock, leader of the party in opposition.

Michael Foot resigned and was replaced as leader by Neil Kinnock who was elected on 2 October 1983 and progressively moved the party towards the centre. Labour improved its performance in 1987, gaining 20 seats and so reducing the Conservative majority from 143 to 102. They were now firmly established as the second political party in Britain as the Alliance had once again failed to make a breakthrough with seats and it subsequently collapsed, prompting a merger of the SDP and Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats.

The Seventies and Eighties were significant for Labour in the rise of left-wing Labour councils (derided by the political right as the “loony left,” which emphasised participation and rights for women and minorities, workers’ control, decentralisation, and opposition to neoliberalism. The left regarded local councils as part of an extra-parliamentary mode of opposition, alongside community groups and town halls. David Blunkett, once a member of labour’s left-wing, described Labour town halls as “a rudimentary opposition movement against the ruling party in Westminster.” The left councils greatly advanced the cause of blacks, women, and homosexuals within the political system, while also opening up council-decision making.

The Greater London Council, under the leadership of Ken Livingstone from 1981 to 1986, carried out a number of progressive policies such as a programme of grants to voluntary groups (which cost £47 million in 1984-85: £100 million in 1999 prices) and a “Fares Fair” policy, which cut London Transport fares by 25%. Although this policy was controversially ruled out by a House of Lords judgement, it was replaced by a more subtle cheap fares policy before London Transport was removed from GLC control by the government in 1984.

In 1983, The Liverpool Labour party (then under the effective control of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency group) embarked upon an ambitious programme of municipal reform. Apart from promoting propaganda for class conflict, as characterised by continual protests and “days of action” in which council workers and even school pupils were encouraged to participate, the Militant Labour council devoted much time and effort to improving the quality of the inner-city environment. New houses were constructed, while new parks, sports centres, and other leisure facilities were created. In addition, within a short space of time, 8,000 housing units were refurbished and 4,000 units had been built. Altogether, the results were an improvement on previous councils run by all parties.

Following the 1987 election, Kinnock began expelling Militant Tendency members from the party. They would later form the Socialist Party of England and Wales and the Scottish Socialist Party although a remnant of Militant continues to operate within the Labour Party through the newspaper Socialist Appeal.

During the course of the 1980s, the GLC and several other Labour councils attempted to promote local economic recovery by setting up a network of enterprise boards and agencies. In addition, the GLC, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, and smaller London councils like Lambeth, Camden, and Islington adopted policies that challenged the Thatcher Government’s insistence on budgetary cuts and privatisation.

The Labour councils in old metropolitan counties of West Midlands, South Yorkshire, Greater London, and Greater Manchester led the way in developing interventionist economic policies. In the met county areas, Inward Investment Agencies, Enterprise Boards, Low Pay Units, and Co-operative Development Agencies proliferated, while parts of the country such as Salford Quays and Cardiff Bay were redeveloped. The Labour council in Birmingham in the 1980s worked to diversify the business visitor economy, as characterised by the decision to build a new, purpose-built convention centre in a decaying, inner-city district around Broad Street. By the mid-1990s, the success of this strategy was evident by the success of the International convention centre leading to wider redevelopment, as characterised by the building of a Sea Life Centre, the National Indoor Arena, bars, hotels, and thousands of newly constructed and refurbished flats and houses. This helped to revitalise the city centre and brought in people and money to both and the city and the West Midlands region as a whole.

During the Eighties and Nineties, Labour councils vied to attract inward investment and build themselves up as tourist and retail centres. The relatively left-wing Labour council in Southampton was popular among property developers for its ambitious city centre plans, while the labour council in Sheffield set up a partnership with business to redevelop a large part of Sheffield that had been abandoned by steel closures. Some labour councils also remedied the neglect of management and service delivery during the mid-Eighties under the Thatcher Government and introduced charters and guaranteed standards of service for local residents before a similar “Citizen’s Charter” was launched by the Major Government.

In November 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by John Major. Most opinion polls had shown Labour comfortably ahead of the Tories for more than a year before Mrs Thatcher's resignation, with the fall in Tory support blamed largely on the introduction of the unpopular poll tax, combined with the fact that the economy was sliding into recession at the time. One of the reasons Mrs Thatcher gave for her resignation was that she felt the Tories would stand a better chance of re-election with a new leader at the helm.

Labour Party logo under Kinnock, Smith and Blair's leaderships

The change of leader in the Tory government saw a turnaround in support for the Tories, who regularly topped the opinion polls throughout 1991 although Labour regained the lead more than once.

The "yo yo" in the opinion polls continued into 1992, though after November 1990 any Labour lead in the polls was rarely sufficient for a majority. Major resisted Kinnock's calls for a general election throughout 1991. Kinnock campaigned on the theme "It's Time for a Change", urging voters to elect a new government after more than a decade of unbroken Conservative rule. However, the Conservatives themselves had undergone a dramatic change in the change of leader from Margaret Thatcher to John Major, at least in terms of style if not substance, whereas Kinnock was now the longest serving leader of any of the major political parties at the time and was now the longest-serving opposition leader in British political history.

From the outset, it was clearly a well-received change, as Labour's 14-point lead in the November 1990 "Poll of Polls" was replaced by an 8% Tory lead a month later.

The election on 9 April 1992 was widely tipped to result in a hung parliament or a narrow Labour majority, but in the event the Conservatives were returned to power, though with a much reduced majority of 21 in 1992. Despite the increased number of seats and votes, it was still an incredibly disappointing result for members and supporters of the Labour party, and for the first time in over 30 years there was serious doubt among the public and the media as to whether Labour could ever return to government.

Even before the country went to the polls, it seemed doubtful as to whether Labour could form a majority as an 8% electoral swing was needed across the country for this to be achieved.When Labour lost the election, there was widespread public and media debate as to whether the party could ever return to government, as had happened in 1959, not least due to the fact that it had failed to beat an incumbent Conservative government during a time of recession and high unemployment.

Kinnock then resigned as leader and was replaced by John Smith, who tragically died from a heart attack in May 1994.

The Black Wednesday economic disaster in September 1992 left the Conservative government's reputation for monetary excellence in tatters, and by the end of that year Labour had a comfortable lead over the Tories in the opinion polls. Although the recession was declared over in April 1993 and a period of strong and sustained economic growth followed, coupled with a relatively swift fall in unemployment, the Labour lead in the opinion polls remained strong.

The growing strength of the Labour Party during the Nineties was demonstrated by its success in preventing the passage of two major policy initiatives of the Major Government. Plans to privatise the post office were abandoned as a result of pressure from Labour, the Communications Workers Union and voters in conservative rural heartlands who sought to protect post office services. Another major policy abandonment came as a result of Norman Lamont’s 1993 announcement that VAT on domestic fuel and lighting would be introduced, starting at a rate of 8% in April 1994 and reaching the full rate the following April. The Labour Party launched a massive public campaign against the controversial tax, collecting 1.5 million signatures on a petition. An important House of Commons vote on introducing the second stage of the tax took place in December 1994. Concerted pressure was put on Conservative backbenchers from marginal seats to vote against the controversial tax, and in the end the Major Government was narrowly defeated, with 319 voting against the tax compared to 311 for. This not only represented a victory for the Labour party’s campaign, but it further demonstrated Labour’s social-democratic credentials and its growing political strength. During this period party membership increased dramatically, rising from 305,000 in 1994 to a high point of 405,000 in 1998.

"New Labour" – in government (1997–2010)

"New Labour" redirects here. For other uses, see New Labour (disambiguation).

Main articles: Blair-Brown government, Premiership of Tony Blair, and Premiership of Gordon Brown

Tony Blair: Labour Prime Minister, 1997-2007

Gordon Brown: Labour Prime Minister, 2007-2010

Tony Blair continued to move the party further to the centre, abandoning the largely symbolic Clause Four at the 1995 mini-conference in a strategy to increase the party's appeal to "middle England". More than a simple re-branding, however, the project would draw upon a new political third way, particularly informed by the thought of the British sociologist Anthony Giddens.

"New Labour" was first termed as an alternative branding for the Labour Party, dating from a conference slogan first used by the Labour Party in 1994, which was later seen in a draft manifesto published by the party in 1996, called New Labour, New Life For Britain. It was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. "New Labour" as a name has no official status, but remains in common use to distinguish modernisers from those holding to more traditional positions, normally referred to as "Old Labour".

'New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern.'

The Labour Party won the 1997 general election with a landslide majority of 179; it was the largest Labour majority ever, and the largest swing to a political party achieved since 1945. Over the next decade, a wide range of progressive social reforms were enacted, with millions lifted out of poverty during Labour's time in office largely as a result of various tax and benefit reforms.

Among the early acts of Tony Blair's government were the establishment of the national minimum wage, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the re-creation of a city-wide government body for London, the Greater London Authority, with its own elected-Mayor. Combined with a Conservative opposition that had yet to organise effectively under William Hague, and the continuing popularity of Blair, Labour went on to win the 2001 election with a similar majority, dubbed the "quiet landslide" by the media.

A perceived turning point was when Tony Blair controversially allied himself with US President George W. Bush in supporting the Iraq War, which caused him to lose much of his political support. The UN Secretary-General, among many, considered the war illegal. The Iraq War was deeply unpopular in most western countries, with Western governments divided in their support and under pressure from worldwide popular protests. At the 2005 election, Labour was re-elected for a third term, but with a reduced majority of 66. The decisions that led up to the Iraq war and its subsequent conduct are currently the subject of Sir John Chilcot's Iraq Inquiry.

Tony Blair announced in September 2006 that he would quit as leader within the year, though he had been under pressure to quit earlier than May 2007 in order to get a new leader in place before the May elections which were expected to be disastrous for Labour. In the event, the party did lose power in Scotland to a minority Scottish National Party government at the 2007 elections and, shortly after this, Tony Blair resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by his Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Although the party experienced a brief rise in the polls after this, its popularity soon slumped to its lowest level since the days of Michael Foot. During May 2008, Labour suffered heavy defeats in the London mayoral election, local elections and the loss in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, culminating in the party registering its worst ever opinion poll result since records began in 1943, of 23%, with many citing Brown's leadership as a key factor. Membership of the party also reached a low ebb, falling to 156,205 by the end of 2009: over 40 per cent of the 405,000 peak reached in 1997 and thought to be the lowest total since the party was founded.

Finance proved a major problem for the Labour Party during this period; a "cash for peerages" scandal under Tony Blair resulted in the drying up of many major sources of donations. Declining party membership, partially due to the reduction of activists' influence upon policy-making under the reforms of Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, also contributed to financial problems. Between January and March 2008, the Labour Party received just over £3 million in donations and were £17 million in debt; compared to the Conservatives' £6 million in donations and £12 million in debt.

In the 2010 general election on 6 May that year, Labour with 29.0% of the vote won the second largest number of seats (258). The Conservatives with 36.5% of the vote won the largest number of seats (307), but no party had an overall majority, meaning that Labour could still remain in power if they managed to form a coalition with at least one smaller party. However, the Labour Party would have had to form a coalition with more than one other smaller party to gain an overall majority; anything less would result in a minority government. On 10 May 2010, after talks to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats broke down, Gordon Brown announced his intention to stand down as Leader before the Labour Party Conference but a day later resigned as both Prime Minister and party leader.

In opposition (2010–present)

Harriet Harman became the Leader of the Opposition and acting Leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, pending a leadership election subsequently won by Ed Miliband. This period has to date witnessed a revival in Labour's opinion poll fortunes, with the first Labour lead recorded since the commencement of Gordon Brown's premiership in 2007 being reported in a YouGov poll for The Sun on 27 September 2010 during the 2010 Labour Party Conference. This phenomenon has been speculatively attributed to the sharp decline in Liberal Democrat support since May 2010, with disillusioned Liberal Democrat supporters defecting their support to Labour. Such poll leads, up to 6% above the Conservatives in a 20 December 2010 opinion poll, are in contrast to Ed Miliband's low public satisfaction ratings; +1% in an Ipsos MORI poll, interpreted by a spokesperson for the said pollster as "...bad news for Ed Miliband. We have to go back to Michael Foot who led the party to a crushing defeat in 1983 to find a lower satisfaction rating at this stage". Foot, in fact, had actually enjoyed a lead in the opinion polls over the Tories wide enough to win an election with a majority of up to 130 seats immediately after becoming leader in 1980, although that lead was wiped out in 1981 following the advent of the Social Democratic Party. In September 2010 the party reported a surge of 32,000 new members since the general election; at the end of 2011 this figure had reached 65,000 new members - however these figures are believed not to take lapsed membership or resignations into account.

The new leadership of the party has been seeking a coherent ideological position to answer Cameron's 'Big Society' rhetoric, and also mark a seachange from the neoliberal ideology of Blair and 'New Labour'. Blue Labour is a recent, and had been increasingly influential ideological tendency in the party that advocates the belief that working class voters will be won back to Labour through more conservative policies on certain social and international issues, such as immigration and crime, a rejection of neoliberal economics in favour of ideas from guild socialism and continental corporatism, and a switch to local and democratic community management and provision of services, rather than relying on a traditional welfare state that is seen as excessively 'bureaucratic'. These ideas have been given an endorsement by Ed Miliband who in 2011 wrote the preface to a book expounding Blue Labour's positions However, it lost influence after comments by Maurice Glasman in the Telegraph newspaper.

Electoral performance

A graph showing the percentage of the popular vote received by major parties in general elections, 1832-2005. The rapid rise of the Labour Party after its founding during the Victorian era shows clearly, and the party is now considered as one of the dominant forces in British politics

Election	Number of votes for Labour	Share of votes	Seats	Outcome of election
1900	62,698	1.8%	2	Conservative victory
1906	321,663	5.7%	29	Liberal victory
1910 (January)	505,657	7.6%	40	Hung parliament (Liberal minority government)
1910 (December)	371,802	7.1%	42	Hung parliament (Liberal minority government)
1918†	2,245,777	21.5%	57	Coalition victory
1922	4,076,665	29.7%	142	Conservative victory
1923	4,267,831	30.7%	191	Hung parliament (Labour minority government)
1924	5,281,626	33.3%	151	Conservative victory
1929‡	8,048,968	37.1%	287	Hung parliament (Labour minority government)
1931	6,339,306	30.8%	52	National Government victory
1935	7,984,988	38.0%	154	National Government victory
1945	11,967,746	49.7%	393	Labour victory
1950	13,266,176	46.1%	315	Labour victory
1951	13,948,883	48.8%	295	Conservative victory
1955	12,405,254	46.4%	277	Conservative victory
1959	12,216,172	43.8%	258	Conservative victory
1964	12,205,808	44.1%	317	Labour victory
1966	13,096,629	48.0%	364	Labour victory
1970	12,208,758	43.1%	288	Conservative victory
1974 (February)	11,645,616	37.2%	301	Hung parliament (Labour minority government)
1974 (October)	11,457,079	39.2%	319	Labour victory
1979	11,532,218	36.9%	269	Conservative victory
1983	8,456,934	27.6%	209	Conservative victory
1987	10,029,807	30.8%	229	Conservative victory
1992	11,560,484	34.4%	271	Conservative victory
1997	13,518,167	43.2%	419	Labour victory
2001	10,724,953	40.7%	413	Labour victory
2005	9,562,122	35.3%	356	Labour victory
2010	8,601,441	29.1%	258	Hung parliament (Conservative/Lib Dem coalition)

^†The first election held under the Representation of the People Act 1918 in which all men over 21, and most women over the age of 30 could vote, and therefore a much larger electorate

^‡The first election under universal suffrage in which all women aged over 21 could vote

Leaders of the Labour Party since 1906

Main article: Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

• Keir Hardie, 1906–1908
• Arthur Henderson, 1908–1910
• George Nicoll Barnes, 1910–1911
• Ramsay MacDonald, 1911–1914
• Arthur Henderson, 1914–1917
• William Adamson, 1917–1921
• John Robert Clynes, 1921–1922
• Ramsay MacDonald, 1922–1931
• Arthur Henderson, 1931–1932
• George Lansbury, 1932–1935
• Clement Attlee, 1935–1955
• Hugh Gaitskell, 1955–1963

• George Brown, 1963 (acting)

• Harold Wilson, 1963–1976
• James Callaghan, 1976–1980
• Michael Foot, 1980–1983
• Neil Kinnock, 1983–1992
• John Smith, 1992–1994

• Margaret Beckett, 1994 (acting)

• Tony Blair, 1994–2007
• Gordon Brown, 2007–2010

• Harriet Harman, 2010 (acting)

• Ed Miliband, since 2010

Deputy Leaders of the Labour Party since 1922

Main article: Deputy Leader of the Labour Party (UK)

• John Robert Clynes, 1922–1932
• William Graham, 1931–1932
• Clement Attlee, 1932–1935
• Arthur Greenwood, 1935–1945
• Herbert Morrison, 1945–1955
• Jim Griffiths, 1955–1959
• Aneurin Bevan, 1959–1960
• George Brown, 1960–1970
• Roy Jenkins, 1970–1972
• Edward Short, 1972–1976
• Michael Foot, 1976–1980
• Denis Healey, 1980–1983
• Roy Hattersley, 1983–1992
• Margaret Beckett, 1992–1994
• John Prescott, 1994–2007
• Harriet Harman, 2007–present

Leaders of the Labour Party in the House of Lords since 1924

• Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane, 1924–1928
• Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor, 1928–1931
• Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede, 1931–1935
• Harry Snell, 1st Baron Snell, 1935–1940
• Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison, 1940–1952
• William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt, 1952–1955
• Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough, 1955–1964
• Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, 1964–1968
• Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton, 1968–1974
• Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd, 1974–1976
• Fred Peart, Baron Peart, 1976–1982
• Cledwyn Hughes, Baron Cledwyn of Penrhos, 1982–1992
• Ivor Richard, Baron Richard, 1992–1998
• Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington, 1998–2001
• Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn, 2001–2003
• Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos, 2003–2007
• Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, 2007–2008
• Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, 2008–present

Labour Prime Ministers

Name	Portrait	Country of birth	Periods in Office
Ramsay MacDonald		Scotland	1924; 1929-1931
Clement Attlee		England	1945–1950; 1950-1951
Harold Wilson		England	1964-1966; 1966-1970; 1974; 1974-1976
James Callaghan		England	1976-1979
Tony Blair		Scotland	1997-2001; 2001-2005; 2005-2007
Gordon Brown		Scotland	2007-2010

Current elected members

258 Labour MPs were elected at the 2010 election. The MPs as of August 2011 are:

Member of Parliament	Constituency	First elected	Notes
Diane Abbott	Hackney North and Stoke Newington	1987
Debbie Abrahams	Oldham East and Saddleworth	2011
Bob Ainsworth	Coventry North East	1992
Douglas Alexander	Paisley and Renfrewshire South	1997	Member for Paisley South 1997-2005, Paisley and Renfrewshire South 2005-
Heidi Alexander	Lewisham East	2010
Rushanara Ali	Bethnal Green and Bow	2010
Graham Allen	Nottingham North	1987
David Anderson	Blaydon	2005
Jon Ashworth	Leicester South	2011
Ian Austin	Dudley North	2005
Adrian Bailey	West Bromwich West	2000
William Bain	Glasgow North East	2009
Ed Balls	Morley and Outwood	2005	Member for Normanton 2005-2010, Morley and Outwood 2010-
Gordon Banks	Ochil and South Perthshire	2005
Kevin Barron	Rother Valley	1983
Hugh Bayley	York Central	1992	Member for York 1992-1997, City of York 1997-2010, York Central 2010-
Margaret Beckett	Derby South	1974	Member for Lincoln 1974-1979, Derby South 1983-2010
Anne Begg	Aberdeen South	1997
Stuart Bell	Middlesbrough	1983
Hilary Benn	Leeds Central	1999
Joe Benton	Bootle	1990
Luciana Berger	Liverpool Wavertree	2010
Clive Betts	Sheffield South East	1992	Member for Sheffield Attercliffe 1992-2010, Sheffield South East 2010-
Roberta Blackman-Woods	City of Durham	2005
Hazel Blears	Salford and Eccles	1997	Member for Salford 1997-2010, Salford and Eccles 2010-
Tom Blenkinsop	Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland	2010
Paul Blomfield	Sheffield Central	2010
David Blunkett	Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough	1987	Member for Sheffield Brightside 1987-2010, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough 2010-
Ben Bradshaw	Exeter	1997
Kevin Brennan	Cardiff West	2001
Gordon Brown	Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath	1983	Member for Dunfermline East 1983-2005, Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath 2005-
Lyn Brown	West Ham	2005
Nick Brown	Newcastle upon Tyne East	1983	Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East 1983-1997, Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend 1997-2010, Newcastle upon Tyne East 2010-
Russell Brown	Dumfries and Galloway	1997	Member for Dumfries 1997-2005, Dumfries and Galloway 2005-
Chris Bryant	Rhondda	2001
Karen Buck	Westminster North	1997	Member for Regent’s Park and Kensington North 1997-2010, Westminster North 2010-
Richard Burden	Birmingham Northfield	1992
Andy Burnham	Leigh	2001
Liam Byrne	Birmingham Hodge Hill	2004
Alan Campbell	Tynemouth	1997
Ronnie Campbell	Blyth Valley	1987
Martin Caton	Gower	1997
Jenny Chapman	Darlington	2010
Katy Clark	Ayrshire North and Arran	2005
Tom Clarke	Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill	1982	Member for Coatbridge and Airdrie 1982-1983, Monklands West 1983-1997, Coatbridge and Chryston 1997-2005, Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill 2005-
Ann Clwyd	Cynon Valley	1984
Ann Coffey	Stockport	1987
Michael Connarty	Linlithgow and East Falkirk	1992	Member for Falkirk East 1992-2005, Linlithgow and East Falkirk 2005-
Rosie Cooper	West Lancashire	2005
Yvette Cooper	Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford	1997	Member for Pontefract and Castleford 1997-2010, Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford 2010-
Jeremy Corbyn	Islington North	1983
David Crausby	Bolton North East	1997
Mary Creagh	Wakefield	2005
Stella Creasy	Walthamstow	2010
Jon Cruddas	Dagenham and Rainham	2001	Member for Dagenham 2001-2010, Dagenham and Rainham 2010-
John Cryer	Leyton and Wanstead	1997	Member for Hornchurch 1997-2005, Leyton and Wanstead 2010-
Alex Cunningham	Stockton North	2010
Jim Cunningham	Coventry South	1992	Member for Coventry South East 1992-1997, Coventry South 1997-
Tony Cunningham	Workington	2001
Margaret Curran	Glasgow East	2010	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Glasgow Baillieston 1999-2011
Nic Dakin	Scunthorpe	2010
Simon Danczuk	Rochdale	2010
Alistair Darling	Edinburgh South West	1987	Member for Edinburgh Central 1987-2005, Edinburgh South West 2005-
Wayne David	Caerphilly	2001
Geraint Davies	Swansea West	1997	Member for Croydon Central 1997-2005, Swansea West 2010-
Ian Davidson	Glasgow South West	1992	Member for Glasgow Govan 1992-1997, Glasgow Pollok 1997-2005, Glasgow South Wes 2005-
John Denham	Southampton Itchen	1992
Gloria De Piero	Ashfield	2010
Jim Dobbin	Heywood and Middleton	1997
Frank Dobson	Holborn and St Pancras	1979
Thomas Docherty	Dunfermline and West Fife	2010
Brian Donohoe	Central Ayrshire	1992	Member for Cunninghame South 1992-2005, Central Ayrshire 2005-
Frank Doran	Aberdeen North	1987	Member for Aberdeen South 1987-1992, Aberdeen Central 1997-2005, Aberdeen North 2005-
Jim Dowd	Lewisham West and Penge	1992	Member for Lewisham West 1992-2010, Lewisham West and Penge 2010-
Gemma Doyle	West Dunbartonshire	2010
Jack Dromey	Birmingham Erdington	2010
Michael Dugher	Barnsley East	2010
Angela Eagle	Wallasey	1992
Maria Eagle	Garston and Halewood	1997	Member for Liverpool Garston 1997-2010, Garston and Halewood 2010-
Clive Efford	Eltham	1997
Julie Elliott	Sunderland Central	2010
Louise Ellman	Liverpool Riverside	1997
Natascha Engel	North East Derbyshire	2005
Bill Esterson	Sefton Central	2010
Chris Evans	Islwyn	2010
Paul Farrelly	Newcastle-under-Lyme	2001
Frank Field	Birkenhead	1979
Jim Fitzpatrick	Poplar and Limehouse	1997	Member for Poplar and Canning Town 1997-2010, Poplar and Limehouse 2010-
Robert Flello	Stoke-on-Trent South	2005
Caroline Flint	Don Valley	1997
Paul Flynn	Newport West	1987
Yvonne Fovargue	Makerfield	2010
Hywel Francis	Aberavon	2001
Mike Gapes	Ilford South	1992
Barry Gardiner	Brent North	1997
Sheila Gilmore	Edinburgh East	2010
Pat Glass	North West Durham	2010
Mary Glindon	North Tyneside	2010
Roger Godsiff	Birmingham Hall Green	1992	Member for Birmingham Small Heath 1992-1997, Birmingham Sparkbrook and Small Heath 1997-2010, Birmingham Hall Green 2010-
Paul Goggins	Wythenshawe and Sale East	1997
Helen Goodman	Bishop Auckland	2005
Tom Greatrex	Rutherglen and Hamilton West	2010
Kate Green	Stretford and Urmston	2010
Lilian Greenwood	Nottingham South	2010
Nia Griffith	Llanelli	2005
Andrew Gwynne	Denton and Reddish	2005
Peter Hain	Neath	1991
David Hamilton	Midlothian	2001
Fabian Hamilton	Leeds North East	1997
David Hanson	Delyn	1992
Harriet Harman	Camberwell and Peckham	1982	Member for Peckham 1982-1997, Camberwell and Peckham 1997-
Tom Harris	Glasgow South	2001	Member for Glasgow Cathcart 2001-2005, Glasgow South 2005-
Dai Havard	Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney	2001
John Healey	Wentworth and Dearne	1997	Member for Wentworth 1997-2010, Wentworth and Dearne 2010-
Mark Hendrick	Preston	2000
Stephen Hepburn	Jarrow	1997
David Heyes	Ashton-under-Lyne	2001
Meg Hillier	Hackney South and Shoreditch	2005
Julie Hilling	Bolton West	2010
Margaret Hodge	Barking	1994
Sharon Hodgson	Washington and Sunderland West	2005	Member for Gateshead East and Washington West 2005-2010, Washington and Sunderland West 2010-
Kate Hoey	Vauxhall	1989
Jim Hood	Lanark and Hamilton East	1987	Member for Clydesdale 1987-2005, Lanark and Hamilton East 2005-
Kelvin Hopkins	Luton North	1997
George Howarth	Knowsley	1986	Member for Knowsley North 1986-1997, Knowsley North and Sefton East 1997-2010, Knowsley 2010-
Lindsay Hoyle	Chorley	1997
Tristram Hunt	Stoke-on-Trent Central	2010
Huw Irranca-Davies	Ogmore	2002
Glenda Jackson	Hampstead and Kilburn	1992	Member for Hampstead and Highgate 1992-2010, Hampstead and Kilburn 2010-
Sian James	Swansea East	2005
Cathy Jamieson	Kilmarnock and Loudoun	2010	Member of the Scottish Parliament for Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley 1999-2011
Dan Jarvis	Barnsley Central	2011
Alan Johnson	Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle	1997
Diana Johnson	Kingston upon Hull North	2005	Member for Hull North 2005-2010, Kingston upon Hull North 2010-
Graham Jones	Hyndburn	2010
Helen Jones	Warrington North	1997
Kevan Jones	North Durham	2001
Susan Elan Jones	Clwyd South	2010
Tessa Jowell	Dulwich and West Norwood	1992	Member for Dulwich 1992-1997, Dulwich and West Norwood 1997-
Eric Joyce	Falkirk	2000	Member for Falkirk West 2000-2005, Falkirk 2005-
Gerald Kaufman	Manchester Gorton	1970	Member for Ardwick 1970-1983, Manchester Gorton 1983-
Barbara Keeley	Worsley and Eccles South	2005	Member for Worsley 2005-2010, Worsley and Eccles South 2010-
Liz Kendall	Leicester West	2010
Sadiq Khan	Tooting	2005
David Lammy	Tottenham	2000
Ian Lavery	Wansbeck	2010
Mark Lazarowicz	Edinburgh North and Leith	2001
Christopher Leslie	Nottingham East	1997	Member for Shipley 1997-2005, Nottingham East 2010-
Ivan Lewis	Bury South	1997
Tony Lloyd	Manchester Central	1983	Member for Stretford 1983-1997, Manchester Central 1997-
Andy Love	Edmonton	1997
Ian Lucas	Wrexham	2001
Dennis MacShane	Rotherham	1994
Fiona Mactaggart	Slough	1997
Khalid Mahmood	Birmingham Perry Barr	2001
Shabana Mahmood	Birmingham Ladywood	2010
Seema Malhotra	Feltham and Heston	2011
John Mann	Bassetlaw	2001
Gordon Marsden	Blackpool South	1997
Steve McCabe	Birmingham Selly Oak	2010	Member for Birmingham Hall Green 1997-2010, Birmingham Selly Oak 2010-
Michael McCann	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow	2010
Kerry McCarthy	Bristol East	2005
Gregg McClymont	Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East	2010
Siobhain McDonagh	Mitcham and Morden	1997
John McDonnell	Hayes and Harlington	1997
Pat McFadden	Wolverhampton South East	2005
Alison McGovern	Wirral South	2010
Jim McGovern	Dundee West	2005
Anne McGuire	Stirling	1997
Ann McKechin	Glasgow North	2001	Member for Glasgow Maryhill 2001-2005, Glasgow North 2005-
Iain McKenzie	Inverclyde	2011
Catherine McKinnell	Newcastle upon Tyne North	2010
Michael Meacher	Oldham West and Royton	1970	Member for Oldham West 1970-1997, Oldham West and Royton 1997-
Alan Meale	Mansfield	1987
Ian Mearns	Gateshead	2010
Alun Michael	Cardiff South and Penarth	1987
David Miliband	South Shields	2001
Ed Miliband	Doncaster North	2005
Andrew Miller	Ellesmere Port and Neston	1992
Austin Mitchell	Great Grimsby	1977	Member for Grimsby 1977-1983, Great Grimsby 1983-
Madeleine Moon	Bridgend	2005
Jessica Morden	Newport East	2005
Graeme Morrice	Livingston	2010
Grahame Morris	Easington	2010
George Mudie	Leeds East	1992
Meg Munn	Sheffield Heeley	2001
Jim Murphy	East Renfrewshire	1997	Member for Eastwood 1997-2005, East Renfrewshire 2005-
Paul Murphy	Torfaen	1987
Ian Murray	Edinburgh South	2010
Lisa Nandy	Wigan	2010
Pamela Nash	Airdrie and Shotts	2010
Fiona O’Donnell	East Lothian	2010
Chi Onwurah	Newcastle upon Tyne Central	2010
Sandra Osborne	Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock	1997	Member for Ayr 1997-2005, Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock 2005-
Albert Owen	Ynys Mon	2001
Teresa Pearce	Erith and Thamesmead	2010
Toby Perkins	Chesterfield	2010
Bridget Phillipson	Houghton and Sunderland South	2010
Stephen Pound	Ealing North	1997
Dawn Primarolo	Bristol South	1987
Yasmin Qureshi	Bolton South East	2010
Nick Raynsford	Greewich and Woolwich	1992	Member for Greenwich 1992-1997, Greenwich and Woolwich 1997-
Jamie Reed	Copeland	2005
Rachel Reeves	Leeds West	2010
Emma Reynolds	Wolverhampton North East	2010
Jonathan Reynolds	Stalybridge and Hyde	2010
Linda Riordan	Halifax	2005
John Robertson	Glasgow North West	2000	Member for Glasgow Anniesland 2000-2005, Glasgow North West 2005-
Geoffrey Robinson	Coventry North West	1976
Steve Rotherham	Liverpool Walton	2010
Frank Roy	Motherwell and Wishaw	1997
Lindsay Roy	Glenrothes	2008
Chris Ruane	Vale of Clwyd	1997
Joan Ruddock	Lewisham Deptford	1987
Anas Sarwar	Glasgow Central	2010
Alison Seabeck	Plymouth Moor View	2005	Member for Plymouth Devonport 2005-2010, Plymouth Moor View 2010-
Virendra Sharma	Ealing Southall	2007
Barry Sheerman	Huddersfield	1979	Member for Huddersfield East 1979-1983, Huddersfield 1983-
Jim Sheridan	Paisley and Renfrewshire North	2001	Member for West Renfrewshire 2001-2005, Paisley and Renfrewshire North 2005-
Gavin Shuker	Luton South	2010
Marsha Singh	Bradford West	1997
Dennis Skinner	Bolsover	1970
Andy Slaughter	Hammersmith	2005	Member for Ealing, Acton and Shepherd’s Bush 2005-2010, Hammersmith 2010-
Andrew Smith	Oxford East	1987
Angela Smith	Penistone and Stocksbridge	2005	Member for Sheffield Hillsborough 2005-2010, Penistone and Stocksbridge 2010-
Nick Smith	Blaenau Gwent	2010
Owen Smith	Pontypridd	2010
John Spellar	Warley	1982	Member for Birmingham Northfield 1982-1983, Warley West 1992-1997, Warley 1997-
Jack Straw	Blackburn	1979
Graham Stringer	Blackley and Broughton	1997	Member for Manchester Blackley, Blackley and Broughton 2010-
Gisela Stuart	Birmingham Edgbaston	1997
Gerry Sutcliffe	Bradford South	1994
Mark Tami	Alyn and Deeside	2001
Gareth Thomas	Harrow West	1997
Emily Thornberry	Islington South and Finsbury	2005
Stephen Timms	East Ham	1994	Member for Newham North East 1994-1997, East Ham 1997-
Jon Trickett	Hemsworth	1996
Karl Turner	Kingston upon Hull East	2010
Derek Twigg	Halton	1997
Stephen Twigg	Liverpool West Derby	1997	Member for Enfield Southgate 1997-2005, Liverpool West Derby 2010-
Chuka Umunna	Streatham	2010
Keith Vaz	Leicester East	1987
Valerie Vaz	Walsall South	2010
Joan Walley	Stoke-on-Trent North	1987
Tom Watson	West Bromwich East	2001
David Watts	St Helens North	1997
Alan Whitehead	Southampton Test	1997
Malcolm Wicks	Croydon North	1992	Member for Croydon North West 1992-1997, Croydon North 1997-
Chris Williamson	Derby North	2010
Phil Wilson	Sedgefield	2007
David Winnick	Walsall North	1966	Member for Croydon South 1966-1970, Walsall North 1979-
Rosie Winterton	Doncaster Central	1997
Mike Wood	Batley and Spen	1997
John Woodcock	Barrow and Furness	2010
Shaun Woodward	St Helens South and Whiston	1997	Member for Witney 1997-2001, St Helens South 2001-2010, St Helens South and Whiston 2010- (Conservative 1997-1999, Labour 1999-)
David Wright	Telford	2001
Iain Wright	Hartlepool	2004

Changes

1. Phil Woolas was removed as MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth following a decision that he had breached electoral law. Debbie Abrahams won the subsequent by-election on 13 January 2011 for Labour.

2. Eric Illsley resigned as MP for Barnsley Central after he was convicted for expenses fraud. Dan Jarvis won the by-election for Labour.

3. Peter Soulsby resigned as MP for Leicester South in order to contest the election for the newly created position of directly-elected Mayor of Leicester. Jon Ashworth won the following by-election for Labour.

4. The MP for Inverclyde David Cairns died on 9 May 2011. He was replaced as MP for Inverclyde in the by-election held on the 30th June 2011.

See also

Labour Co-operative History of British Socialism Labour leadership election List of organisations associated with the British Labour Party List of Labour Party (UK) MPs List of other Labour Parties Politics of the UK Young Labour

Welsh Labour Scottish Labour Party Blue Labour Liberal Democrats Conservative Party Socialist Party (England and Wales) Socialist Labour Party (UK) Labour Students List of UK Labour Party general election manifestos

Further reading

• Davies, A.J, To Build A New Jerusalem (1996) ISBN
• Better or Worse?: Has Labour Delivered? By Polly Toynbee and David Walker
• Did Things Get Better? An Audit of Labour's Successes and Failures
• Stephen Driver and Luke Martell, New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism, Polity Press, 1998 and 2006
• Geoffrey Foote, The Labour Party's Political Thought: A History, Macmillan, 1997 ed.
• Martin Francis, Ideas and Policies under Labour 1945–51, Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN
• Roy Hattersley, New Statesman, 10 May 2004, 'We should have made it clear that we too were modernisers'
• David Howell, British Social Democracy, Croom Helm, 1976
• David Howell, MacDonald's Party, Oxford University Press, 2002
• H. C. G. Matthew, R. I. McKibbin, J. A. Kay. "The Franchise Factor in the Rise of the Labour Party," English Historical review Vol. 91, No. 361 (Oct., 1976), pp. 723–752 in JSTOR
• Ralph Miliband, Parliamentary Socialism, Merlin, 1960, 1972, ISBN
• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945-51, OUP, 1984
• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock OUP, 1992, ISBN
• Henry Pelling and Alastair J. Reid, A Short History of the Labour Party, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005 ed. ISBN
• Ben Pimlott, Labour and the Left in the 1930s, Cambridge University Press, 1977.
• Raymond Plant, Matt Beech and Kevin Hickson (2004), The Struggle for Labour's Soul: understanding Labour's political thought since 1945, Routledge, ISBN
• Clive Ponting, Breach of Promise, 1964-70, Penguin, 1990, ISBN
• Greg Rosen, Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001, ISBN
• Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005, ISBN
• Eric Shaw, The Labour Party since 1979: Crisis and Transformation, Routledge, 1994
• Andrew Thorpe, A History of the British Labour Party, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, ISBN
• Phillip Whitehead, The Writing on the Wall, Michael Joseph, 1985
• Patrick Wintour and Colin Hughes, Labour Rebuilt, Fourth Estate, 1990
• John Pilger, Freedom Next Time, Bantam Press, 2006, ISBN
• Tom Scholes-Fogg, What next for Labour?, Queensferry Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1908570008

External links

Official party sites

• Labour
• Scottish Labour
• Welsh Labour
• London Assembly Labour
• Young Labour - Party youth wing
• Labour Party in Northern Ireland
• Labour Party in Westminster

Other

• "Tony Benn, former Labour MP for 51 years in Parliament, Quotations"
• Unofficial website with an archive of electoral manifestos and a directory of related websites
• Labourhome - unofficial Labour Party grassroots
• Labour History Group website
• Unofficial history website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics—Special Report: Labour Party
• Labour Party aggregated news (multilingual)
• Labour History Archive and Study Centre holds archives of the National Labour Party
• Template:Fr icon "Déroute historique des travaillistes". L'Humanité. 5 May 2008. (Template:En icon Translation accessible on www.humaniteinenglish.com)