A downturn 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 wafer-thin 4 seat majority under Wilson in the 1964 election, and increased their majority to 96 in 1966 election remaining in power until the 1970 election which, contrary to expectations during the campaign, they lost. Main articles: Labour Party leadership of Ed Miliband and Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband Ed Miliband, leader of the party in opposition (2010–2015) This alienated many of the party's more right-wing supporters. The Bennites were in the ascendency and there was very little that the right could do to resist or water down the manifesto, many also hoped that a landslide defeat would discredit Michael Foot and the hard left of the party moving Labour away from explicit Socialism and towards weaker social-democracy. Main articles: Labour Party leadership of Keir Starmer and Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer Keir Starmer, leader of the party in opposition (2020–present) The 1923 general election was fought on the Conservatives' protectionist proposals; although they got the most votes and remained the largest party, they lost their majority in parliament, requiring a government supporting free trade to be formed. So with the acquiescence of Asquith's Liberals, Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister in January 1924 and formed the first ever Labour government, despite Labour only having 191 MPs (less than a third of the House of Commons).

Following the defeat in 1951, the party became split over the future direction of socialism. The " Gaitskellite" right of the party led by Hugh Gaitskell and associated with thinkers such as Anthony Crosland wanted the party to adopt a moderate social democratic position whereas the " Bevanite" left led by Aneurin Bevan wanted the party to adopt a more radical socialist position. This split, and the fact that the 1950s saw economic recovery and general public contentment with the Conservative governments of the time, helped keep the party out of power for thirteen years. One junior minister, Oswald Mosley, put forward a memorandum in January 1930, calling for the public control of imports and banking as well as an increase in pensions to boost spending power. When this was repeatedly turned down, Mosley resigned from the government in February 1931 and went on to form the New Party, and later the British Union of Fascists after he converted to Fascism. [38] a b Yeowell, Nathan; Bates, Dennis (2008). Leading the Way: Labour Local Government's Response to the Credit Crunch (PDF). Local Government Association. ISBN 978-0-9560346-1-8 . Retrieved 19 May 2019. 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, [148] [149] [150] with millions lifted out of poverty during Labour's time in office largely as a result of various tax and benefit reforms. [151] [152] [153] Labour's time in office also saw a steady rise in living standards, with real earnings for all employees going up by about 18% between 1997 and 2009. [154] 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:

Join & Support

Main articles: Great Depression in the United Kingdom, National Government (United Kingdom), and National Labour Organisation On 18 April 2017, the Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would seek an unexpected snap election on 8 June 2017. [219] Corbyn said he welcomed May's proposal and said his party would support the government's move in the parliamentary vote announced for 19 April. [220] [221] The necessary super-majority of two-thirds was achieved when 522 of the 650 Members of Parliament voted in support. [219] Some of the opinion polls had shown a 20-point Conservative lead over Labour before the election was called, but this lead had narrowed by the day of the 2017 general election, which resulted in a hung parliament. Despite remaining in opposition for its third election in a row, Labour at 40.0% won its greatest share of the vote since 2001, made a net gain of 30 seats to reach 262 total MPs, and achieved the biggest percentage-point increase in its vote share in a single general election since 1945. [222] Immediately following the election party membership rose by 35,000. [223] 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. [2] 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.

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. [73] The far left rallied to the support of the Republican forces during the Spanish Civil War and against the threat from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in 1936 to 38. Spain discredited the once-dominant pacifist element. [51] The Party came out in favour of rearmament. This shift largely came about due to the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton who by 1937 also persuaded the party to oppose Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement. [52] 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.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 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Thorpe, Andrew. (2001) A History of the British Labour Party, Palgrave, ISBN 0-333-92908-X The Thatcher government was determined not to be deflected from its agenda as the Heath government had been. A deflationary budget in 1980 led to substantial cuts in welfare spending and an initial short-term sharp rise in unemployment. The Conservatives reduced or eliminated state assistance for struggling private industries, leading to large redundancies in many regions of the country, notably in Labour's heartlands. However, Conservative legislation extending the right for residents to buy council houses from the state proved very attractive to many Labour voters. (Labour had previously suggested this idea in their 1970 election manifesto, but had never acted on it.)

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. [10]

Philip Snowden

During the winter of 1978–79 there were widespread strikes in favour of higher pay rises which caused significant disruption to everyday life. The strikes affected lorry drivers, railway workers, car workers and local government and hospital workers. These came to be dubbed as the " Winter of Discontent". 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. [169] 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. [170] 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. [171] 2010–present: Return to opposition and internal conflict [ edit ] Mark Drakeford is the current First Minister of Wales, since 13 December 2018 Smith's leadership once again saw the re-emergence of tension between those on the party's left and those identified as "modernisers", both of whom advocated radical revisions of the party's stance albeit in different ways. At the 1993 conference, Smith successfully changed the party rules and lessened the influence of the trade unions on the selection of candidates to stand for Parliament by introducing a one member, one vote system called OMOV – but only barely, after a barnstorming speech by John Prescott which required Smith to compromise on other individual negotiations.