History of The British Labour Party - Early Years and The Rise of The Labour Party

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.

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. —Andrew Thorpe, A History of The British Labour Party

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.

Progess continued in local government. In 1919 John Adams (later Baron Adams of Ennerdale) led a successful election challenge to the sitting members of Arlecdon and Frizington District Council in Cumberland. This established the first all-Labour local council to be elected in England.

Elections for the Women's Sections were carried out by postal ballot in 1931. They resulted in the appointment of Clarice Shaw, Ald. Rose Davies, Mrs. Hyde and Jessie Stephen.