First MacDonald Ministry - The Fall of The Government

The Fall of The Government

What eventually helped to bring down the First Labour Government was the fear surrounding the alleged Communist threat. Conservative were quick to point out any 'Red' (Soviet) influence in Britain, one example of this was the 'Campbell Case'. The Communist J. R. Campbell had been prosecuted by the government for publishing an article calling on troops not to fire on strikers. When Labour withdrew the prosecution, it was seen by many as a 'red' influence on the leadership. Herbert Asquith, the Leader of the Liberal Party, called for the appointment of a committee of enquiry as this would allow Labour time to survive the scandal, but MacDonald would not allow it. He said that if MPs voted in favour of the enquiry then the government would resign. They consequently voted for the enquiry with a large majority, so MacDonald announced that the Labour government would resign after only nine months in office. Soon after this resignation, came the emergence of the Zinoviev letter, which has become part of Labour party mythology.

The 'Daily Mail' published a letter apparently written by Zinoviev, the head of the Communist International (Comintern), which asked supporters to prepare for imminent revolution. It is now known that the Zinoviev letter was a fake (documents released by the Public Record Office in 1998 finally revealed the letter to have been a forgery), but it scarcely helped Labour during their election campaign. The Liberals were also becoming increasingly restive about continuing to support the government, while MacDonald's inability to delegate tasks to subordinates was also a factor in Labour's demise. He had taken the position of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister and by the end of the nine months it seemed as if MacDonald had wanted to give up power through fatigue. He once wrote in his diary that he worked from '7am to 1am, with occasional extras'. However, the First Labour Government ultimately showed that Labour was 'fit to govern' and it returned to office five years later.