Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is the main centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. It is a social democratic party. It has been one of the UK's two main political parties from the early 20th century to the present day. It is the second largest party in the British House of Commons, with 195 out of 650 seats. It forms the Official Opposition. The current Labour Party leader is Sir Keir Starmer, who took over in April 2020 from Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Governing body | National Executive Committee |
| Leader | Keir Starmer |
| Deputy Leader | Angela Rayner |
| General Secretary | David Evans |
| Lords Leader | Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon |
| Founded | 27 February 1900[1][2] (as the Labour Representation Committee) |
| Headquarters |
|
| Youth wing | Young Labour |
| LGBT wing | LGBT+ Labour |
| Membership (March 2024) |  366,604[5] |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Centre-left[15] |
| European affiliation | Party of European Socialists |
| International affiliation | Progressive Alliance Socialist International (observer) |
| Affiliate party | Co-operative Party (Labour and Co-operative) Former affiliates
|
| Other affiliations | Social Democratic and Labour Party (Northern Ireland) Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (Gibraltar)[16] |
| Colours | Red |
| Slogan | "Britain's future" / "Let's get Britain's future back" (2024)[17][18] |
| Anthem | "The Red Flag" |
| Devolved or semi-autonomous branches |
|
| Parliamentary party | Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) |
| House of Commons | 205 / 650 |
| House of Lords | 172 / 777 |
| Scottish Parliament | 22 / 129 |
| Senedd | 30 / 60 |
| Regional mayors[nb] | 11 / 12 |
| London Assembly | 11 / 25 |
| PCCs and PFCCs | 17 / 37 |
| Directly elected mayors | 10 / 16 |
| Councillors[nb][19] | 6,561 / 18,646 |
| Website | |
| labour | |
^ Mayor of London and 11 combined authority mayors. ^ Councillors of local authorities in England (including 25 aldermen of the City of London) and Scotland, principal councils in Wales and local councils in Northern Ireland. | |
| Part of a series on |
| Socialism in the United Kingdom |
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The Labour Party was in power in the United Kingdom government from 1997 to 2010. Now it sits in opposition. It was in power in the Scottish Parliament (in coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats) until 2007. It is the largest group in the London Assembly, although until May 2016 the Mayor of London was a Conservative party member. It is also the second largest party in local government.
History
The party was officially formed in 1906, just after the general election, as a successor of the Labour Representative Committee formed in 1900. In 1918, the party made a new constitution with the commitment to socialism, or the socialization of the industry. This could be found in Clause 4. The Labour Party won the general election in 1945 for the first time. From 1951 Labour was in opposition for thirteen years, during which there were serious fights between the left and right wings of the party. The leader of the left wing was Aneurin Bevan. His supporters were called the "Bevanites". They wanted a less confrontational policy in foreign affairs and more socialist actions. The leaders of the right wing were Clement Attlee and Hugh Gaitskell. They believed that Western capitalism had changed a lot and that socialism and public ownership was not so important. Gaitskell tried to remove Clause 4 from the party constitution at the 1959 conference, but he could not.
In 1994, Tony Blair forced the Labour Party to drop Clause 4. This was an important step to change the party into "New Labour".
In 2015, dark horse candidate Jeremy Corbyn announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party. At the beginning, he was thought of as a socialist fringe candidate, but he later became the lead candidate in polls and got the support of the majority of trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party, along with those of three non-affiliated unions. On 12 September 2015, he was elected Leader of the Labour Party, with a majority vote of 59.5% in the first round of the ballot.
Past Leaders (since 1906)
- Keir Hardie, 1906–1908
- Arthur Henderson, 1908–1910
- George Nicoll Barnes, 1910–1911
- Ramsay MacDonald, 1911–1914
- Arthur Henderson, 1914–1917
- William Adamson, 1917–1921
- John Robert Clynes, 1921–1922
- Ramsay MacDonald, 1922–1931
- Arthur Henderson, 1931–1932
- George Lansbury, 1932–1935
- Clement Attlee, 1935–1955
- Hugh Gaitskell, 1955–1963
- George Brown, 1963 (Acting)
- Harold Wilson, 1963–1976
- James Callaghan, 1976–1980
- Michael Foot, 1980–1983
- Neil Kinnock, 1983–1992
- John Smith, 1992–1994
- Margaret Beckett, 1994 (Acting)
- Tony Blair, 1994–2007
- Gordon Brown, 2007–2010
- Harriet Harman, 2010 (Acting)
- Ed Miliband, 2010–2015
- Harriet Harman, 2015 (Acting)
- Jeremy Corbyn, 2015–2020
- Keir Starmer, 2020–present
Labour Prime Ministers
| Name | Portrait | Country of birth | Time in Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ramsay MacDonald |  |
Scotland | 1924; 1929–1931 |
| Clement Attlee |  |
England | 1945–1951 |
| Harold Wilson |  |
England | 1964–1970; 1974–1976 |
| James Callaghan | .jpg.webp) |
England | 1976–1979 |
| Tony Blair |  |
Scotland | 1997–2007 |
| Gordon Brown | .jpg.webp) |
Scotland | 2007–2010 |
References
- Brivati & Heffernan 2000: "On 27 February 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was formed to campaign for the election of working class representatives to parliament."
- Thorpe 2008, p. 8.
- O'Shea, Stephen; Buckley, James (8 December 2015). "Corbyn's Labour party set for swanky HQ move". CoStar. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
- "Contact". Labour Party. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
- Helm, Toby (30 March 2024). "Labour membership falls by 23,000 over Gaza and green policies". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
- Worley, Matthew (2009). The Foundation of the British Labour Party: Identities, Cultures, and Perspectives,1900–39. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6731-5 – via Google Books.
- Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "United Kingdom". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
- Adams, Ian (1998). Ideology and Politics in Britain Today (illustrated, reprint ed.). Manchester: Manchester University Press. pp. 144–145. ISBN 978-0-7190-5056-5. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 March 2015 – via Google Books.
- Busky, Donald F. (2000). "Democratic Socialism in Great Britain and Ireland". Democratic Socialism: A Global Survey. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-275-96886-1.
- Bakker, Ryan; Jolly, Seth; Polk, Jonathan (14 May 2015). "Mapping Europe's party systems: which parties are the most right-wing and left-wing in Europe?". London School of Economics / EUROPP – European Politics and Policy. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- Giddens, Anthony (17 May 2010). "The rise and fall of New Labour". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- Peacock, Mike (8 May 2015). "The European centre-left's quandary". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
A crushing election defeat for Britain's Labour party has laid bare the dilemma facing Europe's centre-left.
- Dahlgreen, Will (23 July 2014). "Britain's changing political spectrum". YouGov. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
- Budge 2008, pp. 26–27.
- [10][11][12][13][14]
- https://archive.today/20140523051814/http://www.gbc.gi/news/news-details.php?id=3695
- "National Flag Usage & Straplines". General Election Brand Guidelines 2024 (PDF). Labour party. 2024. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
- "Labour vow to 'get Britain's future back' as conference kicks off in Liverpool". Sky News. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
- "Open Council Data UK – compositions councillors parties wards elections". opencouncildata.co.uk.