Labour Party (UK)

Labour Party
Leader	Tony Blair MP until special Labour conference on 24 June 2007 when Gordon Brown is to be declared leader
Chairman	Hazel Blears
Founded	February 27, 1900
Headquarters	39 Victoria Street London, SW1H 0HA
Ideology	Social democracy (majority of PLP) Democratic socialism (official position) Third Way
Political position	Left-Wing, Centre-left, Centre
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
International affiliation	Socialist International
European Parliament group	Party of European Socialists
Colours	Red
Website
www.labour.org.uk

The Labour Party has been, since its founding in the early 20th century, the principal political party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales. It is currently the party of government in the United Kingdom, the largest party in the Welsh Assembly and holds the the London mayoralty (although only the second largest grouping on the London Assembly). It is also the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament, in UK Local Government and among the UK parties in the European Parliament.

The Labour Party surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives during the 1920s. It has had several spells in government, the first being briefly in 1924. It returned to power 1929-31, 1945-51, 1964-70, 1974-79.

Labour won a landslide 179 seat majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair—its first general election victory since October 1974 and the first general election since 1970 in which it had exceeded 40% of the popular vote. The Labour Party's large majority in the House of Commons was slightly reduced to 167 in the 2001 general election and more substantially reduced to 66 in 2005.

The Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19th century, and continues to describe itself as a party of democratic socialism. Under Tony Blair's leadership, however, the party has adopted a number of Thatcherite policies after losing in four consecutive general elections; this has led many observers to describe the Labour Party as social democratic or neo-liberal rather than democratic socialist. Blair himself has described New Labour's political position as a "Third Way".

Party constitution and structure

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Tony Blair, Leader of the Labour Party 1994 - 2007

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies, and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the National Executive Committee (NEC), Labour Party Conference, and National Policy Forum (NPF) — although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on. Questions of internal party democracy have frequently provoked disputes in the party.

For many years, Labour has held to a policy of uniting Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by consent, and had not allowed residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership , instead supporting the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) which takes the Labour whip. Yet Labour has a unionist faction in its ranks, many of whom assisted in the foundation in 1995 of the UK Unionist Party lead by Robert McCartney. The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining , but the National Executive has decided not to organise or contest elections there.

The party had 201,374 members on 31 December, 2004 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission. In that year it had an income of about £29,000,000 (£3,500,000 from membership fees) and expenditure of about £32,000,000. [2]

Party electoral manifestos have not contained the term socialism since 1992, although when Clause 4 was abolished the words "the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party" were added to the party's constitution.

History

Early years

The Labour Party's origins lie in the late 19th century numeric increase of the urban proletariat and the extension of the franchise to working-class males, when it became apparent that there was a need for a political party to represent the interests and needs of those groups . Some members of the trade union movement became interested in moving into the political field, and after the extensions of the franchise in 1867 and 1885, the Liberal Party endorsed some trade-union sponsored candidates. In addition, several small socialist groups had formed around this time with the intention of linking the movement to political policies. Among these were the Independent Labour Party, the intellectual and largely middle-class Fabian Society, the Social Democratic Federation and the Scottish Labour Party.

James Keir Hardie, one of Labour's first MPs

In 1899 a Doncaster member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that the Trade Union Congress call a special conference to bring together all the left-wing organisations and form them into a single body which would sponsor Parliamentary candidates. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, and this special conference was held at the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, London on February 27-28, 1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations; trade unions representing about one third of the membership of the TUC delegates.

The Conference created an association called the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs, MPs sponsored by trade unions and representing the working-class population. It had no single leader. In the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nominee Ramsay MacDonald was elected as Secretary. He had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. The October 1900 'Khaki election' came too soon for the new party to effectively campaign. Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful: Keir Hardie in Merthyr Tydfil and Richard Bell in Derby.

Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901 Taff Vale Case, a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union ordered to pay £23,000 damages for a strike. The judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. The apparent acquiescence of the Conservative government of Arthur Balfour to industrial and business interests (traditionally the allies of the Liberal Party in opposition to the Conservative's landed interests) intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared to have little concern for the industrial proletariat and its problems. The LRC won two by-elections in 1902–1903.

Labour Party Plaque from Caroone House 8 Farringdon Street (demolished 2004)

In the 1906 election, the LRC won 29 seats — helped by the secret 1903 pact between Ramsay Macdonald and Liberal Chief Whip Herbert Gladstone, which aimed at avoiding Labour/Liberal contests in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office.

In their first meeting after the election, the group's Members of Parliament decided adopt the name "The Labour Party" (February 15, 1906). James Keir Hardie, who had taken a leading role in getting the party established, was elected as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (in effect, the Leader), although only by one vote over David Shackleton after several ballots. In the party's early years, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) provided much of its activist base as the party did not have an individual membership until 1918 and operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies until that date. The Fabian Society provided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement.

The recession of 1908-09 and subsequent rise in unemployment led to increased industrial unrest and the desire for radical change among the working class. There was increasing support both for syndicalism and for change through parliament. In the two 1910 elections, Labour gained 40 and then 42 seats. Support grew further for Labour during the 1910–1914 period along with an unprecedented level of industrial action with Seamen, rail workers, cotton workers, coal miners, dockers and many other groups all organising strikes. This was called the period of 'Great Unrest' with many sympathy strikes also occurring. This was no doubt helped by the sometimes heavy-handed measures of the Liberal government (e.g., Winston Churchill's sending troops to the Rhondda valley in 1910 against coal miners, with some fatalities resulting).

The lead up to the first Labour government (1923)

During the First World War the Labour Party split between supporters and opponents of the conflict and opposition within the party to the war grew 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 and was soon accepted into H. H. Asquith's War Cabinet.

Despite mainstream Labour Party's support for the Coalition, the Independent Labour Party was instrumental in opposing mobilisation through organisations such as the Non-Conscription Fellowship and a Labour Party affiliate, the British Socialist Party organised a number of unofficial strikes.

Arthur Henderson resigned from the Cabinet in 1917 amidst calls for Party unity. The growth in Labour's local activist base and organisation was reflected in the elections following the War, with 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 Liberal Party splitting between supporters of leader David Lloyd George and former leader H. H. Asquith allowed the Labour Party to co-opt some of the Liberals' support, and by the 1922 general election Labour had supplanted the Liberal Party as the second party in the United Kingdom and as the official opposition to the Conservatives.

Labour's electoral base resided in the industrial areas of Northern England, the Midlands, Scotland and Wales. In these areas Labour Clubs were founded to provide recreation for working men, with many of these clubs becoming affiliated to The Working Men's Club and Institute Union. Because of the concentrated geographical nature of Labour's support, industrial downturns tended to hit Labour voters directly. Anecdotal evidence suggests that party membership was often working-class but also included many middle-class radicals, former liberals and socialists. Accordingly, the more middle-class branches in London and the South of England tended to be more left-wing and radical than those in the primary industrial areas.

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Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister, 1924, 1929–35 (National from 1931-35)

The first Labour government (1924)

Main article: First Labour Government (UK)

Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister in January 1924 and with Liberal support formed the first ever Labour government, despite Labour only having 191 MPs (less than a third of the House of Commons); the government collapsed after only nine months when the Liberals voted for a Select Committee inquiry, a vote which MacDonald had declared to be a vote of confidence. The ensuing general election saw the publication, four days before polling day, of the notorious Zinoviev letter, which implicated Labour in a plot for a Communist revolution in Britain, and the Conservatives were returned to power, although Labour increased its vote from 30.7% of the popular vote to a third of the popular vote. The Zinoviev letter is now generally believed to have been a forgery.

The General Strike (1926)

The new Conservative government lead by Stanley Baldwin faced a number of labour problems most notably the General Strike of 1926, Ramsay MacDonald continued with his policy of opposing strike action including the General Strike arguing that the best way to achieve social reforms was through the ballot box, although Labour claimed that the BBC was biased in its reporting against the party over the issue.

The split under MacDonald

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the original 'liberty' logo, in use until 1983

The election of May 1929 left the Labour Party for the first time as the largest grouping in the House of Commons with 287 seats, and 37.1% of the popular vote (actually slightly less than the Conservatives). However, MacDonald was still reliant on Liberal support to form a minority government.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and eventual Great Depression occurred soon after this election, and the crisis hit Britain hard. Under pressure from its Liberal allies as well as the Conservative opposition, the Labour government appointed a committee to review the state of public finances. The May Report of July 1931 urged public-sector wage cuts and large cuts in public spending (notably in payments to the unemployed) in order to avoid a budget deficit.

This proposal proved deeply unpopular within the Labour Party grass roots, the trade unions, which along with several government ministers refused to support any such measures. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, insisted that the Report's recommendations must be adopted to avoid incurring a budget deficit.

The dispute over spending and wage cuts split the Labour government; as it turned out, fatally. The resulting political deadlock caused investors to take fright, and a flight of capital and gold further de-stabilised the economy. In response, MacDonald, on the urging of King George V, decided to form a National Government, with the Conservatives and the Liberals.

On August 24 1931 MacDonald submitted the resignation of his ministers and led his senior colleagues in forming the National Government with the other parties. MacDonald and his supporters were then expelled from the Labour Party and adopted the label "National Labour". The remaining Labour Party and some Liberals led by David Lloyd George went into opposition. The Labour Party denounced MacDonald as a "traitor" and a "rat" for what they saw as his betrayal.

Soon after this, a General Election was called. The 1931 election resulted in a Conservative landslide victory, with the now leaderless Labour Party winning only 52 seats in Parliament. Although MacDonald continued as Prime Minister until 1935, after 1931 the national government would be dominated by the Conservatives.

Opposition during the time of the National Government

Arthur Henderson was elected in 1931 as Labour leader succeeding Ramsay MacDonald but lost his seat in the 1931 General Election (in which Labour got 30.8% of the popular vote and 52 seats) and was succeeded as leader in 1932 by pacifist George Lansbury. However public disagreements between Lansbury and many Labour Party members over Foreign Policy, notably in relation to George Lansbury's opposition to applying sanctions against Italy for its aggression against Abyssinia, caused Lansbury to resign during the 1935 Labour Party Conference.

He was succeeded by Clement Attlee who achieved a revival in Labour's fortunes in the 1935 General Election, winning a similar number of votes to those attained in 1929 and actually, at 38% of the popular vote, the highest percentage that Labour had ever achieved, securing 154 seats.

Labour achieved a number of by-election upsets in the later part of the 1930s despite the world depression having come to an end and unemployment falling.

Clement Attlee at the Potsdam Conference in 1945 - seated on the front left facing

Wartime Coalition

When Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister after the defeat at Dunkirk in 1940, incoming Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided that it was important to bring the other main parties into the government and have a Wartime Coalition similar to that in the First World War, Clement Attlee became Deputy Prime Minister for the remainder of the duration of the War in Europe although the Coalition broke up after Nazi Germany was defeated while the Allies were still fighting the Japanese.

Post-War victory under Attlee

With the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Labour resolved not to repeat the Liberals' error of 1918, and withdrew from the government to contest the subsequent general election (July 5) in opposition to Churchill's Conservatives. Surprising many observers (especially in the United States), Labour won a landslide majority, reflecting voters' perception of it as the party most able to guide the country through the early years of peace.

Clement Attlee: Labour Prime Minister 1945-51

Clement Attlee's government was one of the most radical British governments of the 20th century. It presided over a policy of selective nationalisation of major industries, including the Bank of England, coal, electricity, water, gas, the railways and iron & steel. It developed the "cradle to grave" welfare state under health minister Aneurin Bevan. And to this day the party still considers the creation in 1948 of Britain's tax-funded National Health Service its proudest achievement.

Attlee's government also began the process of dismantling the British Empire when it granted independence to India in 1947. With the Cold War under way, Attlee's government secretly decided to proceed with the development of Britain's nuclear deterrent, in opposition to the pacifist and anti-nuclear stances of a large element inside the Labour Party. Defence became one of the divisive issues for Labour itself, especially defence spending (which reached 10% of GDP in 1950 during the Korean War). Aneurin Bevan eventually left the government over this issue and the introduction of prescription charges which Harold Wilson (President of the Board of Trade) also resigned over. The government also faced a fuel crisis and a balance of payments crisis in 1947. Labour narrowly lost the October 1951 election to the Conservatives (in a coalition with the National Liberals), despite their receiving a larger share of the popular vote and, in fact, their highest vote ever numerically.

Most of the changes inroduced by the 1945-51 Labour government however were accepted by the Conservatives and became part of the "post war consensus", which lasted until the 1970s.

The 1950s

Attlee was replaced as leader by Hugh Gaitskell in 1955. His leadership co-incided with a low period for the Labour Party which became split between moderate modernisers led by Gaitskell (associated with the main trade unions), and the more radical socialist elements within the party. The 1950s also saw economic recovery and public contentment with the Conservative governments of the time.

These factors helped keep the party out of power for thirteen years, although they still got a substantial vote in 1955 comparable to their 1950 vote but the 1959 General Election saw Labour returning almost to their lower levels of support of the 1930s.

The 1960s: Return to power under Wilson

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Harold Wilson, Labour Prime Minister 1964–1970 and 1974-1976

Following Gaitskell's sudden death in 1963, Harold Wilson took over leadership of the party.

A downturn in the economy, along with a series of scandals in the early 1960s (the most notorious being the Profumo affair), engulfed the Conservative government by 1963. The Labour party returned to government with a wafer-thin 4 seat majority under Wilson in the 1964 election, and increased their majority to 96 in 1966 election remaining in power until the 1970 election which contrary to expectations during the campaign they lost.

The 1960s Labour government had a different emphasis from its 1940s predecessor. Harold Wilson famously referred to the "white heat of technology", referring to the modernisation of British industry. This was to be achieved through the swift adoption of new technology, aided by government-funded infrastructure improvements and the creation of large high-tech public sector corporations guided by a Ministry of Technology. Economic planning through the new Department for Economic Affairs was to improve the trade balance, whilst Labour carefully targeted taxation aimed at "luxury" goods and services.

Labour had difficulty managing the economy under the "Keynesian consensus" and the international markets instinctively mistrusted the party. Events derailed much of the initial optimism, especially a currency crisis which mounted until 1967 when the government was forced into devaluation of the pound and pressure on sterling was intensified by disagreements over US foreign policy. Harold Wilson publicly supported America's engagement in Vietnam but refused to provide British assistance. This infuriated President Johnson who in response felt little obligation to support the pound. For much of the remaining Parliament the government followed stricter controls in public spending and the necessary austerity measures caused consternation amongst the Party membership and the trade unions, unions which by this time were gaining ever greater political power.

Labour in the 1960s made major steps in introducing the permissive society notably the legalisation of homosexuality and abortion, and the abolition of Capital punishment (except for a small number of offences - notably high treason) and various legislation addressing race relations and racial discrimination. Another significant achievement was the creation of the Open University. In Wilson's defence, his supporters also emphasise the easing of means testing for non-contributory welfare benefits, the linking of pensions to earnings, and the provision of industrial-injury benefits.

The 1970s

In the 1970 general election, Edward Heath's Conservatives narrowly defeated Harold Wilson's government reflecting some disillusionment amongst many who had voted Labour in 1966. The Conservatives quickly ran into difficulties, alienating Ulster Unionists and many Unionists in their own party after signing the Sunningdale Agreement in Ulster. Enoch Powell resigned the Conservative whip and joined the Ulster Unionist Party, switching from his Wolverhampton South West seat to South Down, and advising those on the British mainland to vote Labour because of the issues of EEC entry and immigration (Edward Heath had decided to admit entry to Ugandans expelled by Idi Amin).

Labour returned to power again under Wilson a few weeks after the February 1974 general election, forming a minority government with Ulster Unionist support. The Conservatives were unable to form a government as they had fewer seats, even though they had received more votes. It was the first General Election since 1924 in which both main parties received less than 40% of the popular vote, and was the first of six successive General Elections in which Labour failed to reach 40% of the popular vote. In a bid for Labour to gain a majority, a second election was soon called for October 1974 in which Labour, still with Harold Wilson as leader, scraped a majority of 5, gaining just 18 seats and taking their total to 319.

The 1970s proved to be a very difficult time for the Heath, Wilson and Callaghan administrations. Faced with a mishandled oil crisis, a consequent world-wide economic downturn, and a badly suffering British economy, governments took an interventionist approach, and companies such as British Leyland were nationalised. Pressure on sterling compounded these problems, and by the middle of the decade 1½ million people were unemployed in the United Kingdom — a previously unthinkable figure.

Britain had entered the EEC in 1973 while Edward Heath was Prime Minister. Although Harold Wilson and the Labour party had opposed this, in government Wilson switched to backing membership, but was defeated in a special one day Labour conference on the issue leading to a national referendum on which the yes and no campaigns were both cross-party - the referendum voted in 1975 to continue Britain's membership by two thirds to one third. This issue later caused catastrophic splits in the Labour Party in the 1980s, leading to the formation of the SDP. In the initial legislation during the Heath Government, the Bill affirming Britain's entry was only passed because of a rebellion of 72 Labour MPs led by Roy Jenkins and including future leader John Smith, who voted against the Labour whip and along with Liberal MPs more than countered the effects of Conservative rebels who had voted against the Conservative Whip.

The Labour Party itself had adopted a left-wing agenda, 'Labour's Programme 1973', a document which pledged to bring about a 'fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families.' This programme referred to a 'far reaching Social Contract between workers and the Government.' Wilson publicly accepted many of the policies of the Programme but the condition of the economy allowed little room for manoeuvre. However, the Government did succeed in replacing the Family Allowance with the more generous child benefit, and introduced redundancy pay.

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James Callaghan: Labour Prime Minster 1976-79

In 1976 Wilson surprisingly stood down as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister claiming a long-standing desire to retire on his sixtieth birthday. There was immense suspicion of his reason for his resignation but it is now known that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's. He feared following his mother's path who had been a towering, impressive personality but who didn't accept her failing abilities and carried on for too long spoiling her reputation. He was replaced by James Callaghan who immediately removed a number of left-wingers (such as Barbara Castle) from the cabinet. The autumn of 1976 saw the Labour Government being forced to ask the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan to ease the economy through its financial troubles. Conditions attached to the loan required the adoption of a more free-market economic programme and a move away from the party's traditional policies. In the end, the Labour Government did not take out the IMF loan, causing some to question if it was actually needed in the first place.

In the same year as Callaghan became leader, the party in Scotland suffered the breakaway of two MPs into the Scottish Labour Party (SLP). Whilst ultimately the SLP proved no real threat to the Labour Party's strong Scottish electoral base it did show that the issue of Scottish devolution was becoming increasingly contentious, especially after the discovery of North Sea Oil.

Ultimately the Labour government of 1974-79 fell victim to a small majority eroded by by-election losses, economic problems, industrial unrest and the political difficulties of Scottish and Welsh devolution, although an arrangement negotiated in 1977 with the Liberals known as the Lib-Lab pact and a succession of deals with nationalist parties did help to prolong the government's life.

The "Winter of Discontent" and defeat by Margaret Thatcher

The 1973 oil crisis had caused a legacy of high inflation in the British economy which peaked at 26.9% in 1975. The Wilson and Callaghan governments attempted to combat this by entering into a social contract with the trade unions, which limited pay rises to limits set by the government. Although this was innitially fairly successful at controlling inflation. By 1978 the government's attempt to impose a '5% limit' on pay rises caused resentment amongst workers and trade unions, with whom relations broke down.

During the winter of 1978-79 there were widespread strikes across many sectors of industry in favour of higher pay rises. These came to be dubbed as the "Winter of Discontent".

The percieved relaxed attitude of Callaghan to the crisis reflected badly upon public opinion of the government's ability to run the country. A vote of no confidence on the government was held and passed on 28 March 1979, forcing a general election.

In the 1979 general election, Labour suffered electoral defeat to the Conservatives led by Margaret Thatcher. The numbers voting Labour hardly changed between February 1974 and 1979, but in 1979 the Conservative Party achieved big increases in support in the Midlands and South of England, mainly from the ailing Liberals, and benefited from a surge in turnout.

Aftermath of 1979 General Election

The aftermath of the 1979 election defeat saw a period of bitter internal rivalry in the Labour Party which had become increasingly divided between the ever more dominant left wingers under Michael Foot and Tony Benn (whose supporters dominated the party organisation at the grassroots level), and the right under Denis Healey.

The Thatcher government was determined not to be deflected from its agenda as the Heath government had been. A deflationary budget in 1980 led to substantial cuts in welfare spending and an initial short-term sharp rise in unemployment. The Conservatives reduced or eliminated state assistance for struggling private industries, leading to large redundancies in many regions of the country, notably in Labour's heartlands. However, Conservative legislation extending the right for residents to buy council houses from the state proved very attractive to many Labour voters. (Labour had previously suggested this idea in their 1970 election manifesto, but had never acted on it.)

The election of Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) veteran Michael Foot to the leadership disturbed many Atlanticists in the Party. Other changes increased their concern; the constituencies were given the ability to easily deselect sitting MPs, and a new voting system in leadership elections was introduced that gave party activists and affiliated trade unions a vote in different parts of an electoral college. It led to the decision by the Gang of Four (former Labour cabinet ministers) on January 26, 1981, to issue the 'Limehouse Declaration', and to form the Social Democratic Party. The departure of even more members from the centre and right further swung the party to the left, but not quite enough to allow Tony Benn to be elected as Deputy Leader when he challenged for the job at the September 1981 party conference.

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Logo introduced in 1983 after Labour's disastrous election campaign

Led by an increasingly unpopular Michael Foot, the party went into the 1983 general election with a manifesto dominated by the politics of the party's hard left. The manifesto contained pledges for abolition of the House of Lords, unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the European Community, withdrawal from NATO and the most radical and extensive nationalisation agenda that Labour had ever stood on including nationalisation of industry and banks. The Bennites were in the ascendency and there was very little that moderates could do to resist or moderate the manifesto, many also hoped that a landslide defeat would discredit Michael Foot and the hard left of the party. Labour MP and former minister Gerald Kaufman famously described the 1983 election manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history". The Conservatives considered the 1983 Labour manifesto as being so unpopular that they actually printed a number of copies of it to distribute it for free and indeed Labour was possibly only saved from far more substantial collapse by tactical voting by Alliance supporters and Conservative supporters worried by the effects of the possible scale of the Conservative majority in removing checks on the Government, notably Conservative cabinet minister Francis Pym's statements during the campaign that big majorities caused bad government.

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New Labour's logo created after 1983

Much of the press attacked both the Labour party's manifesto and its style of campaigning, which tended to rely upon public meetings and canvassing rather than media (although given that Michael Foot was so unpopular a low profile probably lessened Labour's collapse). By contrast, the Conservatives ran a professional campaign which played on the voters' fears of a repeat of the Winter of Discontent. To add to this, the Thatcher government's popularity rose sharply on a wave of patriotic feeling following victory in the Falklands War.

After a landslide defeat at the 1983 election, Michael Foot immediately resigned and was replaced by Neil Kinnock, initially considered a firebrand left-winger, he proved to be more pragmatic than Foot and progressively moved the party towards the centre; banning left-wing groups such as the Militant tendency and reversing party policy on EEC membership and withdrawal from NATO, bringing in Peter Mandelson as Director of Communications to modernise the party's image, and embarking on a policy review which reported back in 1985.

At the 1987 general election, the party was again defeated in a landslide, but had at least re-established itself as the clear challengers to the Conservatives and gained 20 seats reducing the Conservative majority to 102 from 143 in 1983, despite a sharp rise in turnout. Challenged for the leadership by Tony Benn in 1988, Neil Kinnock easily retained the leadership claiming a mandate for his reforms of the party. Re-organisation resulted in the dissolution of the Labour Party Young Socialists, which was thought to be harbouring entryist Militant groups. It also resulted in a more centralised communication structure, enabling a greater degree of flexibility for the leadership to determine policy, react to events, and direct resources.

During this time the Labour Party emphasised the abandonment of its links to high taxation and old-style nationalisation, which aimed to show that the party was moving away from the left of the political spectrum and towards the centre. It also became actively pro-European, supporting further moves to European integration.

John Major and a fourth successive defeat

Margaret Thatcher who had led the Conservative Party to three successive victories resigned as Conservative leader in October 1990 following a leadership challenge from Conservative MP and former cabinet minister Michael Heseltine; Labour faced a new Conservative Prime Minister, John Major.

By the time of the 1992 general election campaign, the party had reformed to such an extent that it was perceived as a credible government-in-waiting. Most opinion polls showed the party to have a slight lead over the Conservatives, although rarely sufficient for a majority. However, the party ended up 8% behind the Conservatives in the popular vote in one of the biggest surprises in British electoral history. Although Labour's support was comparable to the February and October 1974 and May 1979 General Elections, the overall turnout was much larger.

In the party's post mortem on why it had lost, it was considered that the 'Shadow Budget' announced by John Smith had opened the way for Conservatives to attack the party for wanting to raise taxes. In addition, a triumphalist party rally held in Sheffield eight days before the election, was generally considered to have backfired. Kinnock resigned after the defeat, blaming Conservative-supporting newspapers for Labour's failure and John Smith, despite his involvement with the Shadow Budget, was elected to succeed him.

Smith's leadership once again saw the re-emergence of tension between those on the party's left and those identified as 'modernisers', both of whom advocated radical revisions of the party's stance albeit in different ways. At the 1993 conference, Smith successfully changed the party rules and lessened the influence of the trade unions on the selection of candidates to stand for Parliament by introducing a one member, one vote system called OMOV — but only barely, after a barnstorming speech by John Prescott which required Smith to compromise on other individual negotiations.

John Smith died suddenly in May 1994 from a heart attack, prompting a leadership election for his successor, likely to be the next Prime Minister. With 57% of the vote, Tony Blair won a resounding victory in a three-way contest with John Prescott and Margaret Beckett. Prescott became deputy leader, coming second in the poll whose results were announced on 21 July 1994.

New Labour

Origins

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The infamous "New Labour, New Danger" poster, which backfired on the Conservatives

"New Labour" is an alternative branding for the Labour Party dating from a conference slogan first used by the Labour Party in 1994 which was later seen in a draft manifesto published by the party in 1996, called New Labour, New Life For Britain and presented by Labour as being the brand of the new reformed party that had in 1995 ditched Clause IV and reduced the Trade Union vote in the electoral college used to elect the leader and deputy leader to have equal weighting with individual other parts of the electoral college.

Peter Mandelson was a senior figure in this process, and exercised a great deal of authority in the party following the death of John Smith and the subsequent election of Tony Blair as party leader.

The name is primarily used by the party itself in its literature but is also sometimes used by political commentators and the wider media; it was also the basis of a Conservative Party poster campaign of 1997, headlined "New Labour, New Danger". The rise of the name coincided with a rightwards shift of the British political spectrum; for Labour, this was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. "Old Labour" is sometimes used by commentators to describe the older, more left-wing members of the party, or those with strong Trade Union connections.

Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Peter Mandelson and Alastair Campbell are most commonly cited as the creators and architects of "New Labour". They were among the most prominent advocates of the shift in European social democracy during the 1990s, known as the "Third Way". Although this policy was advantageous to the Labour Party in the eyes of the British electorate, it alienated many grass roots members by distancing itself from the ideals of socialism in favour of free market policy decisions.

The "modernisation" of Labour party policy and the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government greatly increased Labour's appeal to "middle England". The party was concerned not to put off potential voters who had previously supported the Conservatives, and pledged to keep to the spending plans of the previous government, and not to increase the basic rate of income tax. After being unexpectedly defeated for a fourth consecutive time in the 1992 election, the party won the 1997 election with a landslide majority of 179. Following a second and third election victory in the 2001 election and the 2005 election, the name has diminished in significance. "New Labour" as a name has no official status but remains in common use to distinguish modernisers from those holding to more traditional positions who normally are referred to as "Old Labour".

In government

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The cover of Labour's 1997 general election manifesto

One of the first acts of the 1997 Labour government was to give the Bank of England operational independence in its setting of interest rates, a move mentioned neither in the manifesto nor during the election campaign. Labour held to its pledges to keep to the spending plans set by the Conservatives, causing strain with those members of the party who had hoped that the landslide would lead to more radical and increased spending. It also started its introduction of a major educational reform programme, in which Labour would introduce new ways of teaching, as well as later on introducing new forms of schools.

Since 1997 Labour's economic policies have sought to take a middle way between the more centralised socialist approach of past Labour governments and the free market approach of the Conservative government from 1979 to 1997. One of the most popular policies introduced was Britain's first National Minimum Wage Act. There have also been various programmes targeted at specific sections of the population; the target for reducing homelessness was achieved by 2000. Chancellor Gordon Brown oversaw the SureStart scheme intended for young families, a new system of tax credits for those working with below-average incomes and an energy allowance provided to pensioners during the winter. By most statistical measures, unemployment has fallen from just over 1.5 million in 1997 to around the one million mark.

The government has also been accused of being overly conservative in a number of policies, for example in December 1997, 47 left-wing Labour MPs rebelled when the government carried through the previous administration's plans to cut the benefits paid to new single-parents. Tuition fees for university students were also introduced with no debate within the Labour Party itself. The government also promoted wider use of Public Private Partnerships and the Private Finance Initiative, which were opposed particularly by trade unions as a form of privatisation.

The New Labour government has been closer to corporate business interests than any previous Labour government. Several Policy Taskforces in 1997 and 1998 included industrialists and business leaders such as Lord Simon, a former chairman of BP, Lord Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, and Alec Reed of Reed Employment. There have been various reports regarding the effect of such close links, in policies such as the Public-Private Partnerships, the deregulation of utilities, privatisation, and the tendency to outsource government services.

Labour's second term saw substantial increases in public spending, especially on the National Health Service, which the government insisted must be linked to the reforms it was proposing. Spending on education was likewise increased, with schools encouraged to adopt "specialisms". Teachers and their trade unions strongly criticized the Prime Minister's spokesman Alastair Campbell when he stated that this policy meant the end of "the bog-standard comprehensive".

File:Labour-rose logo.png

The rose, adopted as Labour's logo in the late 1980s

In terms of foreign policy Labour aspired to put Britain "at the heart of Europe" whilst attempting to maintain military and diplomatic links to the United States. Initially, Robin Cook, as Foreign Secretary of the first Blair Cabinet, attempted to instigate an "ethical foreign policy". Whilst the next Foreign Secretary Jack Straw somewhat downplayed this, the Party has sought to put the promotion of human rights and democracy, and latterly the war against terrorism, at the core of British foreign policy. This was first evidenced when Blair and Cook initiated Operation Palliser, in which British troops intervened to stop massacres in Sierra Leone. This has led to a new emphasis on the Department for International Development, with ministers Clare Short and Hilary Benn holding some influence within the administration. Tony Blair managed to persuade Bill Clinton to take a more active role in Kosovo in 1999, and British forces took part in the international coalition which attacked the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001 after the regime refused to hand over Osama Bin Laden and expel Al Qaeda from the country in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

The decision of the UK to fight alongside the United States and a number of forces in smaller numbers from around the world (a majority of UN member governments opposed the war but a large minority supported it) in the 2003 invasion of Iraq succeeded in removing Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athist regime in Iraq. However, the Government's involvement in the invasion caused much public disapproval in the UK, with many calling Tony Blair's credibility into question when questions were raised as to the veracity of intelligence concerning Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the alleged political pressure on the Foreign Office. This loss of support contributed to the substantial reduction of Labour's majority in the 2005 general election. The Blair government has also attempted to crack down on the perceived threat of terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S., eliciting claims that they are undermining civil liberties and the rule of law.

New Labour in the media

The Labour Party Headquarters at 39 Victoria Street, London

New Labour (as a series of values) is often characterised as a belief in 'no rights without responsibilities' -- that a citizen should recognise that one possesses responsibilities linked with any legal rights they hold. The concept of a 'stakeholder society' is quite prominent in New Labour thinking. As noted above, New Labour thought also embraces the notion of the "Third Way", although critics point to the lack of any concise statement of its meaning. The term "Third Way" has since fallen from use.

The name "New Labour" has also been widely satirised. Critics associate the new name with an unprecedented use of 'spin doctoring' in the party's relationship with media. The Conservative Party attempted to tarnish the new Labour tag during the 1997 election campaign using the slogan 'New Labour, New Danger'. After Gordon Brown's budgets became more and more Keynesian, Private Eye magazine began to call the party 'New' Labour.

Criticism

In left-wing circles, the name "New Labour" or Neo Labour is used pejoratively to refer to the perceived domination of the Labour Party by its right-wing. Indeed, some socialists argue that Labour has become so fond of neo-liberal policies that it is Thatcherite rather than democratic socialist. Some signs of dissatisfaction among working-class voters has seen The Liberal Democrats have been making electoral inroads into Labour areas, as well as support further to the left fragmenting away from the Labour Party i.e. Respect - The Unity Coalition, Forward Wales and a number of other small parties and Independents. Whilst in theory the Labour Party has remained a social democratic organisation, there remain unresolved questions regarding the centralised and highly personalised style of Tony Blair's leadership. Some critics see this as a sign of creeping presidentialism.

Labour's third successive term from 2005

The party's popularity and membership have steadily declined since 2001 [3]. Labour won the 2005 general election with only 35.3% of the total vote and a majority of 66. Their majority is now 62 following a by-election loss to the Liberal Democrats and Claire Short's decision to sit as an Independent MP.

Tony Blair's third term has been dominated even more than the second by dealing with terrorism. Shortly after the General Election, in incidents in July 2005 referred to as 7-7, a number of bombs were detonated on buses and tube trains in London. A fortnight later, further attempts were made by alleged terrorists to launch bombings, although these were thwarted. As a result, relations between Labour and Muslims have become more important.

The Labour government were defeated in a House of Commons vote over the length of time suspected terrorists could be detained without trial although most of the Terrorism Bill passed into law, the 90 day limit the government wanted was rejected, but a compromise limit of 28 days was agreed by the House of Commons and the bill received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006 passing into law.

The introduction of identity cards presents political and logistical difficulties as civil liberties groups increasingly oppose the creation of a biometric identity database. Despite opposition from the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs, the Bill has passed through all of its readings in the Commons so far. However, recent leaked Home Office memos have condemned the scheme as originally devised.

The government faces continued controversy over the Education Reform Bill. This provides for greater financial autonomy for state schools, whilst reducing local government control, and has provoked a large parliamentary rebellion, forcing the leadership to depend on support from the opposition Conservative Party. The Bill has also resulted in outspoken criticism from those formerly in the mainstream of the Party, such as former leader Neil Kinnock.

Party finances

The party has suffered from the recent peerages for cash scandal involving a number of people from a number of parties, where donors could lend large sums of money for undefined periods (effectively giving money). Scotland Yard began investigating allegations in April 2006, and continues to do so as of December 2006. There were suggestions that major donors had been encouraged to describe the money they were giving as loans rather than donations. As a consequence, the Labour Party has run up large debts (some sources put this as much as £40 million), and is having difficulty raising further money. Some of their creditors are calling in their loans, leaving the trade unions in a far more powerful position than before as a vital source of revenue for the party.

This is not exclusively a problem of the Labour Party and other parliamentary parties are facing similar difficulties. Private individuals are less willing to provide donations, and party memberships are falling, leaving all the major parties more heavily reliant on a few rich donors. Both the Labour and Conservative frontbenches are openly considering extending state funding of political parties in the UK, although their rank and file members are dubious, as are the general public.

The May 2006 council elections

In the 4 May 2006 local elections, the Labour Party lost over 300 councillors across England. The gains went largely to the Conservative Party, who saw their best results since 1992. Elsewhere, the British National Party and the Green Party increased their numbers of councillors by 33 and 20 respectively. there were also gains for the left-wing Respect Unity party. [4] The election followed the release by the Home Office of 1,043 foreign prisoners who had been slated for deportation, nurses being made redundant due to deficits within the National Health Service resulting in the Health Secretary being heckled at the annual conference of the Royal College of Nursing, and revelations about the two year extra-marital affair of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and his assistant private secretary Tracey Temple.

Following the poor election results, Tony Blair was forced into a planned cabinet reshuffle. Speculation about the date of his departure as leader and Prime Minister continued and intensified up. He announced that the 2006 TUC and Labour Party Conferences would be his last as leader and Prime Minister.

Tony Blair's and John Prescott's retirement from the leadership

See also Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2007; Labour Party (UK) deputy leadership election, 2007

Tony Blair announced in 2004 that would not fight a fourth general election as Labour leader. He stated that he would serve a full third term. However, he revealed in September 2006 that the TUC and Labour conferences that year were to be his last as leader and Prime Minister. Eventually, on 10 May 2007, he annouced that he would stand down as leader (and Prime Minister) on 27 June 2007. Gordon Brown, the long serving Chancellor of the Exchequer, had long been widely expected to succeed Blair. He duly launched his campaign on 11 May 2007, and a few days later was the only candidate with sufficient nominations to stand. He will therefore take over as Labour leader and Prime Minister on 27 June 2007.

Previous to Gordon Brown's unopposed victory, his potential competitors included:

• Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton -- he has announced that there should be a serious contender;
• John McDonnell -- he, Gordon Brown and Michael Meacher are so far the only declared candidates for the Labour leadership, although he may not be able to get the signatures of the 12.5% of Labour MPs required to proceed as a candidate. He has been a sitting MP since 1997 and is Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, although Alan Simpson is annoyed that he did not consult with other members before putting himself forward as a candidate.
• Michael Meacher - On February 22nd 2007 declared his intention to stand for the leadership of the Labour Party claiming he had the support of a large number of MPs, many members of the Socialist Campaign Group are accusing Michael Meacher of trying to split the nominations and keep John McDonnell off the ballot paper.

Two potential candidates were touted in the media, but made it clear they would not stand:

• Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs David Miliband ruled himself out of both the leadership and deputy leadership contests and backed Gordon Brown for the leadership.
• current Home Secretary John Reid announced he was not planning to run for any other job than Home Secretary, and a few days before Blair's resignation announcement said that he would leave the cabinet at the same time as Blair, and not serve in a Brown government.

Blair's deputy leader John Prescott faced pressure over marital affairs and friendship with Phillip Anschust. John Prescott confirmed that he would stand down as deputy leader at the same time as Tony Blair left Downing Street.

Some Labour MPs and members of the National Executive Committee attempted to get an election for the position of deputy leader abandoned in order to save the £2,000,000 it is estimated that the contest would cost.. However, the nominations process has now been undergone, and the election will proceed, announcing its successful candidate on 24 June 2007.

So far Hilary Benn, Hazel Blears, Jon Cruddas, Peter Hain, Harriet Harman and Alan Johnson have all announced their candidacy for the Deputy Leadership with a number of others considering running or rumoured to be running. Forty Four nominations from Labour MPs are required for a name to proceed onto the ballot paper in either contest which given that there are only 354 Labour MPs (if this was to remain the same) would mean that there will be no more than 8 candidates on the ballot paper in either contest.

Government difficulties with public opinion

It is thought that the Israeli incursions into the Lebanon in August 2006 were carried out with the tacit support of Tony Blair, as the government did not call for an immediate ceasefire. This has intensified calls for Blair's resignation and caused further internal disillusionment over the Party's direction.

Many Labour supporters remain unhappy with the Labour government's policies regarding Iraq, Afghanistan, the pensions crisis, and treatment of public-sector workers. Others have been critical of increased tax (especially stealth taxes) and increased government spending on education and health with limited results and falling productivity.

The Labour party suffered humiliating defeats in local elections in Scotland, Wales and England on May 3 2007.

In Scotland, Labour was reduced to the second largest Party after the Scottish National Party (SNP). In Wales, although still the largest party, it lost its outright control of the Welsh Assembly. In England it lost so many local Councillors that it was reduced from second to third place in local Government, being overtaken by the Liberal Democrats.

The bid for a fourth successive Labour victory

If the pattern of recent elections is followed, the next election will be held around June 2009, probably on European Elections Day, with the Local Elections most likely moved to be on the same day, however under the Parliament Act an election could be any time up to and including 3 June 2010.

David Miliband has said that Labour will need to be bold and reforming to win a fourth successive term and has backed Gordon Brown as the new leader. Tony Blair is urging the Labour Party to remain calm during difficult times in their third term in order to secure a fourth successive victory. However, e.g. Claude Moraes, MEP, calls Gordon Brown as "a racist who will distroy the party".

Leaders of the Labour Party since 1906

Beginning of Leadership	Name	Date of Birth	Date of Death	Length of Leadership
17 February, 1906	Keir Hardie	15 August, 1856	26 September, 1915	1 year, 11 months
22 January, 1908	Arthur Henderson	13 September, 1863	20 October, 1935	2 years
14 February, 1910	George Nicoll Barnes	2 January, 1859	21 April, 1940	11 months
6 February, 1911	James Ramsay MacDonald	12 October, 1866	9 November, 1937	3 years, 5 months
5 August, 1914	Arthur Henderson	13 September, 1863	20 October, 1935	3 years, 2 months
24 October, 1917	William Adamson	2 April, 1863	23 February, 1936	3 years, 3 months
14 February, 1921	John Robert Clynes	27 March, 1869	23 October, 1949	1 year, 9 months
21 November, 1922	James Ramsay MacDonald	12 October, 1866	9 November, 1937	8 years, 9 months
1 September, 1931	Arthur Henderson	13 September, 1863	20 October, 1935	1 year
25 October, 1932	George Lansbury	21 February, 1859	7 May, 1940	2 years, 11 months
8 October, 1935	Clement Attlee	3 January, 1883	8 October, 1967	20 years, 2 months
14 December, 1955	Hugh Gaitskell	9 April, 1906	18 January, 1963	7 years
18 January 1963	George Brown	2 September 1914	2 June 1985	27 days
14 February, 1963	Harold Wilson	11 March, 1916	24 May, 1995	13 years, 1 month
5 April, 1976	James Callaghan	27 March, 1912	26 March, 2005	4 years, 6 months
3 November, 1980	Michael Foot	23 July, 1913	Living	2 years, 10 months
2 October, 1983	Neil Kinnock	28 March, 1942	Living	8 years, 9 months
18 July, 1992	John Smith	13 September, 1938	12 May, 1994	1 year, 9 months
12 May, 1994	Margaret Beckett	15 January, 1943	Living	2 months
21 July, 1994	Tony Blair	6 May, 1953	Living	12 years, 11 months (nearly 13y)

Deputy leaders of the Labour Party since 1922

• John Robert Clynes 1922–1931
• Jointly John Robert Clynes 1931–1932 and William Graham 1931–1932 (died in office)
• Clement Attlee 1932–1935
• Arthur Greenwood 1935–1945
• Herbert Morrison 1945–1955
• James Griffiths 1955–1959
• Aneurin Bevan 1959–1960 (died in office)
• George Brown 1960–1970
• Roy Jenkins 1970–1972
• Edward Short 1972–1976
• Michael Foot 1976–1980
• Denis Healey 1980–1983
• Roy Hattersley 1983–1992
• Margaret Beckett 1992–1994
• John Prescott 1994–present

High-profile supporters of the Labour Party

At the time of the 1997 Labour landslide, the following celebs were backing Labour:

• Claire Rayner, agony aunt
• Greg Dyke, television executive
• Noel Gallagher, musician
• Damon Albarn, musician
• Mick Hucknall, singer

In the run-up to the 2001 UK General Election, the following famous faces came out in support of Labour[5]:

• Geri Halliwell, singer; although, notably, she had declared her support for the Tory Party and the policies of Margaret Thatcher at the 1997 general election
• Kevin Whately, actor; appeared in the aforementioned Halliwell Party Political Broadcast
• Tanni Grey-Thompson, athlete
• Maureen Lipman, comedienne
• Chris Evans, television presenter and radio DJ
• Neil Tennant, singer
• Eddie Izzard, comedian
• Ben Elton, comedian
• Peter Gabriel, singer
• Richard Wilson, actor
• Jeremy Irons, actor
• Stephen Fry, actor and comedian
• Gabrielle, singer

By the next election in 2005, the list added:[6]

• Delia Smith, chef
• Sir Alex Ferguson, football manager
• Liz Dawn, actress
• Prunella Scales, actress
• Beverley Knight, singer
• Lord Richard Attenborough, director

See also

• Co-operative Party
• Labour Co-operative
• History of British Socialism
• Labourhome
• Labour leadership election
• List of organisations associated with the British Labour Party
• List of Labour Party (UK) MPs
• UK topics
• Politics of the UK
• Labour Party (UK) leadership election, 2007
• Welsh Labour
• Scottish Labour Party
• Liberal Democrat Party
• Conservative Party
• Socialist Workers Party

Further reading

• Martin Francis, Ideas and Policies under Labour 1945-51, Manchester University Press, 1997. ISBN 0719048338

• Roy Hattersley, New Statesman, May 10 2004, 'We should have made it clear that we too were modernisers'

• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour in Power, 1945-51,OUP 1984.

• Kenneth O. Morgan, Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock OUP, 1987.

• Ben Pimlott, Labour and the Left in the 1930s,Cambridge University Press, 1977.

• Raymond Plant, Matt Beech and Kevin Hickson (2004), The Struggle for Labour's Soul: understanding Labour's political thought since 1945, Routledge

• Clive Ponting, Breach of Promise (1964-70), Hamish Hamilton 1989.

• Greg Rosen, Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001. ISBN 1902301188

• Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1842750453

• Phillip Whitehead, The Writing on the Wall Michael Joseph, 1985.

• Patrick Wintour and Colin Hughes, Labour Rebuilt Fourth Estate, 1990.

External links

• Official Labour Party website
• Unofficial website with an archive of electoral manifestos and a directory of related websites
• Labourhome - unofficial Labour Party grassroots
• Labour History Group website. [7]
• Unofficial history website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics — Special Report: Labour Party
• The Johnathan Leftwinger MP internet web-browser site page computer documents (satire).