National Labour Organisation - Later Years

Later Years

On 18 October 1937, Ramsay MacDonald officially opened the new headquarters of the National Labour Organisation at 57 Tufton Street.A month later MacDonald was dead. The National Labour Organisation continued, although it postponed its conference until March 1938. When the conference happened, The Times greeted it with a leader commending the party for striking "deeper roots than a group formed around a particular personality". Malcolm MacDonald took the leadership in Parliament and National Labour members retained office; the party issued a declaration of support for Neville Chamberlain over the Munich Agreement.

In the first edition of the News-Letter for 1939, a declaration from National Labour was printed. It pledged support for a united Empire, a strong League of Nations ("for bringing about constructive schemes of world appeasement, economic as well as political"), the national planning of our economic life, preservation of the countryside and the improvement of social services. When Germany invaded the whole of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, an editorial called for "a Government of national concentration" which would have to include "the trusted leaders of the trade unions and the Opposition parties". A Parliamentary motion from Anthony Eden and Winston Churchill calling for a National government "on the widest possible basis" was given support from the News-Letter in the following issue.

In the run-up to an expected general election in autumn 1939, several National Labour candidates were adopted and the party attracted some high-profile figures to defect to it (including former MP Michael Marcus). The outbreak of war, delaying the election, forced the group to reconsider. In February 1940 it was announced that the party would not be holding an annual conference that year, and had suspended publication of "News Letter". In February 1942, Stephen King-Hall resigned from the Parliamentary Party stating that he wanted to oppose the involvement of party political considerations in wartime. In May 1943 he was followed by Kenneth Lindsay reducing the Parliamentary group to 5. Earl De La Warr resigned in August 1943, succeeded as Chairman by Richard Denman.