Records of the Labour Party

Lab

Records of the Labour Party

1839-1986

A54; A430

Not Public Record(s)

English

The Labour Party is a British centre-left political party, encompassing a spectrum of political ideology from socialist to social democratic. It overtook the Liberal Party as the major centre-left party in the early 20th century, and is one of the 21st century?s three major parties.

The Labour Party grew out of the broader trade union and reform movements: from the mid-19th century on, more urban working-class men became eligible to vote, and workers in increasing numbers of settings organised to improve their pay and working conditions. As these working-class voters became a bloc, trade unions strove to gain representation in Parliament as a means of advancing their goals.

By the turn of the 20th century, there were a number of political parties and pressure groups calling for trade union-affiliated Parliamentary candidates, including the Independent Labour Party (ILP, founded 1893), the Fabian Society (founded 1884), the Social Democratic Federation (founded 1881), and the Labour Representation League (founded 1869).

In February 1900, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) convened a special conference to bring all these groups together and create a single body to sponsor Parliamentary candidates affiliated with organised Labour. This conference created the Labour Representation Committee; in 1906, after winning 26 seats in Parliament, it adopted the name Labour Party, with Keir Hardie as its first leader.

The Labour Party held outright majorities from 1945-1951, 1964-1970, 1974-1979, and 1997-2010; Labour also formed minority governments in 1924 and 1929-1931 and took part in the National Governments of 1931-1945.

Until 1918, individuals could not join the Labour Party: much of its activist base was drawn from the ILP, which was affiliated with the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932. In 1947 all three ILP MPs defected to Labour; in 1975, it reaffiliated to Labour as the pressure group Independent Labour Publications.

The Labour Party?s organisation is built around local political structures. Branch parties are the most local, and are based on local government ward boundaries. Constituency parties are based, as the name suggests, on parliamentary constituency areas.