The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century and surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it stressed national planning, using nationalisation of industry as a tool, in line with Clause IV of the original constitution of the Labour Party which called for the "common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service" (this clause was eventually revised in 1994).

Labour has had several spells in government, first as minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929–1931. MacDonald and half his cabinet split with the mainstream of the party and were denounced as traitors. Labour was a junior partner in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945. Following the 1945 general election landslide under Clement Attlee (1945–1951) it set up the welfare state with the National Health Service, nationalised a fifth of the economy, joined NATO and opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Under Harold Wilson in 1964–1970 it promoted economic modernisation. Labour was in government again in 1974–1979 under Wilson and then James Callaghan. Escalating economic crises (the "Winter of Discontent") and a split with David Owen and others forming the Social Democratic Party, resulted in opposition status during the Thatcher years from 1979 to 1990.

Labour returned with a 179-seat majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair. The party's large majority in the House of Commons was slightly reduced to 167 in the 2001 general election and more substantially reduced to 66 in the 2005 general election. Under Gordon Brown, it was defeated in the 2010 general election, becoming the opposition to a Conservative/Liberal-Democrat coalition. The party remained in opposition until Keir Starmer won a landslide victory for Labour in the 2024 general election, returning Labour to government.

Founding of the party Background

The Labour Party's origins lie in the growth of the urban proletariat in the late 19th century and the extension of the franchise to working class males, when it became apparent that there was a need for a political party to represent the interests and needs of those groups.See, for instance, the 1899 Lyons vs. Wilkins judgement, which limited certain types of picketing. Some members of the trade union movement became interested in moving into the political field, and after the extensions of the 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.

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 adopted 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 Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, 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 became the first borough council in Britain to have a socialist and labour majority.British Socialists and the Politics of Popular Culture, 1884-1914 By Chris Waters, Publisher: Manchester University Press, 1990, P.142 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.Speak for Britain! A New History of the Labour Party by Martin Pugh. 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.The Longman Companion to The Labour Party 1900–1998 by Harry Harmer.

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.

Labour Representation Committee

In 1899, a Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that the Trades 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 Congregational Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street, London 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.'The formation of the Labour Party – Lessons for today' Jim Mortimer, 2000; Jim Mortimer was a General Secretary of the Labour Party in the 1980s.

Following 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 trades 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.Wright T. & Carter M, (1997) "The People's Party" Thames & Hudson, 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.Norman McCord, "Taff Vale Revisited," History 78#253 (1993), pp. 243–260 in JSTOR

Rise of the Labour Party

In the 1906 election, the LRC won 29 seats—helped by the 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.Frank Bealey, "The Electoral Arrangement between the Labour Representation Committee and the Liberal Party," Journal of Modern History 28#4 (1956), pp. 353–373 in JSTOR

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 Coal Mines Regulation Act 1908,British Economic and Social History 1700–1964 by C. P. Hill. 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 William Tyson Wilson in the form of the Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906.Child Welfare Historical Dimensions, Contemporary Debate By Harry Hendrick, Publisher: Policy Press 2003, P.70 In a symbolic move, in regards to provisions for retirement, Labour MP James O'Grady moved a resolution on the 14th of March 1906 calling for the urgent need to provide universal old age pensions;HOW OLD AGE PENSIONS BEGAN TO BE BY FRANCIS HERBERT STEAD, M.A., METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON, 1909, P.203-204 a resolution that was passed without a division.The Politics of Retirement in Britain, 1878-1948 By John Macnicol, 2002, P.153-154

The design of several of the Liberal welfare reforms was influenced to some extent by Labour. For instance, as the Education (Provision of Meals) Act 1906 was only permissive, the Labour Party put forward an amending Act under which local authorities (as noted by one study) “would be required to provide meals if a medical report showed a child’s need, and to have medical inspectors making periodical examinations and regular reports.” The Act failed to pass, although it resulted in a circular that permitted local authorities to arrange for schoolchildren to have medical inspections and also to set up treatment centres.The Origins of the BRITISH LABOUR PARTY by J.H. Stewart Reid, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 1955, P.135 In regards to the Merchant Shipping Act 1906, a Labour member’s proposal for a clause to require all ships that were over 2,000 tons to have a certified ship’s carpenter. The member received a promise (as noted by one observer) “of an investigation and of action by the Board of Trade if this provision should be shown to be necessary to prevent accident or loss of life.”The Origins of the BRITISH LABOUR PARTY by J.H. Stewart Reid, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 1955, P.139-140 In addition, a Labour Party resolution from March 1906 that called upon the government to pay its employees in national dockyards standard union wage rates won (as one study has noted) “an official promise of compliance” while a similar resolution from June that year concerning government employees in the Woolwich Arsenal “was similarly received” as one observer has noted.The Origins of the BRITISH LABOUR PARTY by J.H. Stewart Reid, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 1955, P.121