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Emergence of the Labour Party, 1890-1914
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The Labour Party, 1890-1951
In this course, Professor Keith Laybourn (University of Huddersfield) considers the early history of the Labour Party from its foundations in the trade union movement of the late nineteenth century to the achievements of Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government. We begin in the first module by critically examining historians’ explanations for the rapid growth of the Labour Party in the early twentieth century. In the second module, we think about the development of the Labour Party from the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 to the formation of the second Labour minority government under Ramsay MacDonald in 1929. In the third module, we focus on the collapse of the 1929 Labour government and the establishment in 1931 of a National Government, focusing in particular on the debate about MacDonald’s role in the 1929 government’s collapse. Finally, in the fourth module we focus on Labour’s post-war achievements during its first majority governments under Clement Attlee from 1945-51.
Emergence of the Labour Party, 1890-1914
In this module, we think about how and why the Labour Party grew so rapidly in the early twentieth century, focusing in particular on four historiographical theses: (i) the role of class politics, (ii) the impact of the First World War, (iii), the decline of the Liberal Party and, (iv) regional variation in Labour support.
I'm Professor Keith Ledger,
00:00:06born I'm the Professor of history at the University
00:00:07of Huddersfield but also the Diamond Jubilee professor.
00:00:10The first section I want to deal with is the
00:00:16emergence of the early Labour Party.
00:00:18And remember the Labour Party's formed
00:00:21as the Labour Representation Committee in 1900
00:00:23the Labour Party in 19 oh six.
00:00:26But in fact this does not come from nowhere. There is obviously a long pedigree
00:00:28of
00:00:32development associated with groups like the Socialists, the Ielpi
00:00:33and other bodies
00:00:39that were active
00:00:41and putting forward
00:00:42the demands of labour in the 18 nineties
00:00:44of the 18 eighties. Indeed, the late 19th century.
00:00:47Now to start with, however,
00:00:50before one can really look at the development of the Labour Party in those 50 years.
00:00:51Once I got to really understand that there is a
00:00:57debate going on and has been for many years,
00:01:00why was the Labour Party, um so successful?
00:01:03Why did it grow so rapidly?
00:01:07Really, it divides into four
00:01:09major
00:01:12explanations or theories or ideas.
00:01:14The first is
00:01:17the traditional one, formed in the 19 twenties thirties,
00:01:19written up by Chap called George Dangerfield, who wrote a book called The decline.
00:01:22The strange death of liberal England
00:01:28written in the foothills of California, not in in Britain and it really was
00:01:30an examination of Labour Party saying that really,
00:01:36the Labour Party began to win trade union support, got 29 MPs in the 1960 election
00:01:39and thereafter became the party of the working class.
00:01:49Now that's been developed by people like
00:01:52Henry pulling
00:01:55many, many books, he wrote on the Labour Party, short histories, et cetera,
00:01:57and also more recently in the 19 seventies by Ross McKibbin,
00:02:02who wrote a book called The Evolution of the Labour
00:02:06Party 1910 to 20 for and also by myself.
00:02:09I've written quite a lot of books on the Labour Party.
00:02:12Look at them by them, Um that, uh,
00:02:14the main theme is that class politics was the
00:02:18reason for the growth of the Labour Party.
00:02:22In other words,
00:02:25the Labour Party attracted trade union support and whether the class support
00:02:26and therefore it really, in a sense,
00:02:31as the working class got the vote in the
00:02:33ninth in the 20th century 19th and 20th century,
00:02:35it became much more associated with the emerging Labour Party.
00:02:38The alternative to that is a viewpoint presented by Trevor Wilson.
00:02:43Uh, and his decline
00:02:49of liberal England book 1914 to 1935.
00:02:51And what he argues is that what really destroyed the Liberal Party
00:02:58and allowed the Labour Party in was the first World War.
00:03:01The First World War saw the division and destruction of liberal values,
00:03:05destruction of their values in terms of peace.
00:03:10Well,
00:03:13we had war retrenchment when we spent money free trade.
00:03:14that went all those liberal values that have made
00:03:19liberalism great in the 19th and early 20th century.
00:03:22Uh, we're gone.
00:03:24And also in the first World War,
00:03:27the Liberal Party split because the wartime government
00:03:29was initially led by ask with HHS,
00:03:33Smith was was replaced by David Lloyd.
00:03:36George and the party split over that change of leadership. Um
00:03:38what they argue, I suppose,
00:03:44Is that the reason why there were 400 liberal MPs in the 19 oh six election?
00:03:46And I mean the 14 1924 was to do with the war rather than the growth of trade unionism
00:03:51and working class politics which encouraged the labour growth.
00:03:57There are, you know, there are other historians like PF Clark,
00:04:02who's wrote a book on language and then liberalism and said, Well,
00:04:06the Liberal Party was strong on the evil war destroyed by war.
00:04:10There is a variant to that. A third one by Michael Bentley.
00:04:14Michael Bentley focuses upon the liberal Mining says
00:04:17the war find it under under undermined the Liberal Party. But it also undermined
00:04:20the Labour Party.
00:04:25And what the reason for the Liberal Party's failure
00:04:27has nothing to do with the war really is much
00:04:30more to do with the fact that liberals could not
00:04:33adjust to the fact that politics was widened out.
00:04:36The 1918 franchise act tripled the parliamentary electorate
00:04:39that the Liberal Party looked to the past rather than to the present and the future
00:04:44of the 1924 when they were down to 40 MPs.
00:04:50The Keith Liberals, for instance. Uh ah, but there certainly is around the corner,
00:04:53and we're still singing the old songs when
00:04:59they should have been looking to the future.
00:05:02They didn't really adjust to the changed politics of the day, And that's what
00:05:04is written by Michael Bentley and his various
00:05:08articles and books on the liberal mind.
00:05:10There's 1/4 theory, which none of these are without some credence
00:05:13put forward by people like David Howell and David Howell, Uh,
00:05:17in his book on the British labour movement of the Ielpi
00:05:21and more recently,
00:05:24the book by,
00:05:26um,
00:05:29I couldn't remember the title,
00:05:30so I have to go to hear the late Don't antenna
00:05:31wrote a book called Political Change From the Labour Party.
00:05:36I should remember that because he attacked many of my views.
00:05:39But anyway, um uh, and, uh, and one or two other people, most particularly recently,
00:05:41Martin Pugh has written a book called Speak for Britain.
00:05:47A New History of the Labour Party.
00:05:50And what they argue is that actually, there was never a national Labour Party.
00:05:53All you had were regions of strong support for labour,
00:05:56and he has some credence. Does Martin Pugh in this and
00:06:00David Howell and others by the fact that Liverpool, for instance,
00:06:04didn't really have a strong Labour party until after the Second World War
00:06:07and the same of the Midlands Midlands was very much conservative territory.
00:06:11So their fourth arguments really was the growth of labour,
00:06:14product of class politics,
00:06:19an accident of war, a problem of the liberal mind or fourthly,
00:06:21was it simply a regional variation
00:06:26and the regional variations account for the fluctuating
00:06:30success or not of the Labour Party.
00:06:33Now I want to start very quickly with the first area and the first area is really
00:06:36the growth of the Labour Party or the labour movement from the 18 nineties to 1914.
00:06:41And if one looks at that period, I think what you start really, in a sense,
00:06:47with the UH an organisation which is the
00:06:51most important for shaping the Labour Party,
00:06:55and that was the independent Labour Party.
00:06:57It was formed in 18 93 out of many socialist groups,
00:07:00labour unions in Bradford et cetera.
00:07:03It was formed at Bradford in January 18 93
00:07:05and that party became a party that was relatively successful in the 18 nineties.
00:07:09Under people like James Keir Hardie.
00:07:15I'm sure you've heard of who became an MP for West Ham
00:07:17South and later on method did feel and so forth in Wales.
00:07:21He was, uh,
00:07:24you know, a successful politician until his death in 1915,
00:07:26and that party developed and that movement developed because of a number of things.
00:07:30What is that? Working men didn't feel represented by the middle class liberals.
00:07:35There's an anti liberalism developing, Uh, for instance,
00:07:42in Bradford in the 18 eighties,
00:07:45the leading trade units was a chap called Sam Schefter.
00:07:47Now he was a liberal. He wanted to stand for council.
00:07:50The liberals rejected it his application
00:07:54and put in his place
00:07:57an unfair employer that mounted in Patriot Union rates.
00:07:59Uh, coldfield, and it was called the Field Affairs. That's insensitive.
00:08:02You're just ignoring. And the same thing happens in Halifax and other areas, Um
00:08:08and really the sense that anti liberalism begins to develop.
00:08:13But the early Socialists begin to emerge.
00:08:15The Socialist League and the independent Labour Party organise,
00:08:19and what they do is to put forward policies to
00:08:24demand some type of public ownership, usually communal ownership,
00:08:27usually local communities.
00:08:31They wanted municipal isation,
00:08:33and these began to develop,
00:08:36but also a culture began to develop around the labour movement.
00:08:38You began to have things like socialist Sunday schools.
00:08:42You began to have things like labour churches, clarion clubs,
00:08:45clarion cycling clubs, where people try to live the life of a socialist cycling's.
00:08:50I mean, Philip Snowden with the great Socialist leaders or great labour leaders,
00:08:55Chancellor of the Exchequer, into labour governments.
00:09:00Uh, records are where you used to go cycling from Keith later hole
00:09:02and, you know,
00:09:08get off at various points and stick on the back side
00:09:09of Cowell's posters proclaiming Socialism the hope of the world.
00:09:12And you know, there is a culture going on.
00:09:17There are many other things. Rich men. I mean, in Halifax,
00:09:19the leader of the treasurer of the I'll pee in the early years was John Lister.
00:09:22He owns 3000 acres. He was a rich man. He financed the movement.
00:09:26Much do they discussed.
00:09:31I mean, there's a beautiful comment in the Labour leader,
00:09:32James Kier Hardy's newspaper,
00:09:34the Help newspaper in which says all the Gangel
00:09:36elements of the labour movement descend upon Shipton Hall,
00:09:40Halifax, where John Lister lived,
00:09:43uh, much to the disgust of the butler.
00:09:45So it really shows you that sort of circle we're going in.
00:09:48But remember, none of this really would have occurred without trade union support.
00:09:51You can have all these activities a few 100 people here, a few 1000 there.
00:09:56But really, what underpinned?
00:10:00Labour's early growth was trade unionism,
00:10:02many so trade unionism and the help as alternative
00:10:05sides to the coin reverse side of the coin.
00:10:09And really,
00:10:12what happened is that the trade union movement
00:10:13began to associate increasingly with the Labour Party
00:10:15that the trade union movement wasn't very powerful.
00:10:20In the 18 eighties, half a million members 18. 90 there was new unionism.
00:10:22Uh, people will never been organised before. We're organising the docks in London
00:10:27and in textile areas of Yorkshire, etcetera.
00:10:32And by the by about 1900 you probably had around two million trade unionists
00:10:36in 1900 or 18 99. It was actually the year before.
00:10:43In 18 99 the LP on the trade union movement
00:10:47of some of them met together at a trade union congress.
00:10:51They decided to form a new party
00:10:55and that party with the Labour Representation Committee,
00:10:57and it would probably not get very far to begin with 30 1900
00:11:00a company in Wales, A tough veil,
00:11:05real world company um,
00:11:07it
00:11:11it was on strike with the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants.
00:11:12Let's put it this way around the railway workers without and strike.
00:11:16The company demanded
00:11:20that the union cover the costs
00:11:22of the strike to the firm,
00:11:25but that was turned down in court. But the company appealed to the House of Lords.
00:11:28Got £23,000 compensation plus the costs of £23,000.
00:11:32Now, just think what that means to trade unions. If you hold a strike
00:11:37the employer
00:11:43and under that rubble it actually wasn't changed until 1986.
00:11:45The employer can actually charge you the cost of the strike.
00:11:49Now what Socialist failed to do in capturing a wide support
00:11:52and trade union support the House of Lords did for them,
00:11:58it drew of trade unionists, uh, to the, uh, Labour Representation Committee, Uh,
00:12:01the embryonic Labour Party which came into existence in 19 Oh, six
00:12:08A. Really. The sense that's when Labour began to develop
00:12:14other events occurred.
00:12:18I mean, some of the early leaders when James Keir Hardie from Scotland,
00:12:20James Ramsay MacDonald.
00:12:25I've got a picture of interest. I'm going to talk about him later on.
00:12:27But this is a book on his life by David Marquand
00:12:30And what, uh, Verdian was to dominate the new Labour Party.
00:12:34McDonald was quite successful. Employers and the Liberal party particularly.
00:12:40We're very concerned. So in 1983 they did a secret agreement with McDonald.
00:12:43The Lib lab pact. You don't know about it from Labour records.
00:12:50We could know about it from liberal records.
00:12:53And what happened is that they agreed that about 30 seats would be
00:12:55not contested
00:13:01on either side by the Labour or
00:13:03the Liberals. 30 seats.
00:13:05It was a liberal against conservative,
00:13:06another 30 seats Labour against a conservative.
00:13:08The secret pact which was always denied but was there
00:13:11and really in a sense,
00:13:16that helped to bring Labour success in 19 oh six general election.
00:13:17When 29 MPs were returned
00:13:22shortly afterwards, one other joined that made it 30
00:13:25and really sets. The Labour Party was growing and also 19 oh six.
00:13:29The Taff Vale decision was overturned, so things seem to be developing.
00:13:32But there were other problems. In 19,
00:13:369 10, a gentleman named Osborne
00:13:40found that trade unions were paying money. This is why you get trade union support.
00:13:43They've got money into the Labour Party coffers.
00:13:47And he said he didn't want to do that
00:13:50and the House of Lords came up with the Osborne judgement which said
00:13:53that you have to contract in
00:13:57to pay money
00:13:59as an individual member
00:14:00to the Labour Party,
00:14:02not
00:14:03as it existed before contract out people contract out, people don't do it,
00:14:04it's the money goes across contract in.
00:14:08You've got to commit people
00:14:10that obviously affected the finances of the Labour Party.
00:14:12But the real turning point for Labour is the total winning
00:14:15of the trade union support in 19 9 January first,
00:14:20the largest union, uh,
00:14:24probably four or 500,000 members by then in Britain was the miners union,
00:14:26the minus federation of Great Britain and what the minus
00:14:32federation of Great Britain did was to join uh,
00:14:35the Labour, the Labour Party
00:14:39Now that gave the Labour Party enormous representation.
00:14:41It gave the trade unions a block vote.
00:14:45They could vote on many issues and when they are away,
00:14:47so the Labour Party becomes a party of liberalism.
00:14:50It has socialists in it
00:14:53like the I L P. But they are not. It's not a socialist party.
00:14:54It's a party representing labour interest, trade union interests.
00:14:58Now that really tremendously grew.
00:15:02By 1914, there were about four million trade unions in this country.
00:15:05Probably around 70% were
00:15:09connected with the labour party affiliated to.
00:15:13And of course, one thing I ought to say It goes on for what I'm saying next section,
00:15:16and that is that in 1914,
00:15:20there were about just over four million by 1918 6.5 million trade units.
00:15:22By 1928 million lives is going to do well. After that, it's got membership now.
00:15:27That's not to say all these trade units vote for Labour.
00:15:33Takes a long time for people to change their views about,
00:15:36uh, their political background.
00:15:40You know, if they've been liberal, takes a long time to become labour.
00:15:43But increasingly, the Labour Party is doing well out of that association.
00:15:46So on the eve of war, labour is a very strong position and a growing position.
00:15:50Although it's increasingly seen as a Laborite group that, generally speaking,
00:15:58support the liberal government
00:16:03
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Laybourn, K. (2019, September 26). The Labour Party, 1890-1951 - Emergence of the Labour Party, 1890-1914 [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/the-labour-party-1890-1951/1914-1929
MLA style
Laybourn, K. "The Labour Party, 1890-1951 – Emergence of the Labour Party, 1890-1914." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 17 Dec 2019, https://massolit.io/courses/the-labour-party-1890-1951/1914-1929