Labour Party

UK political party based on socialist principles, originally formed to represent workers. It was founded in 1900 and first held office in 1924. The first majority Labour government 1945–51 introduced nationalization and the National Health Service, and expanded social security. Labour was again in power 1964–70, 1974–79, and from 1997 (winning the 2001 and 2005 general elections). The party leader (Gordon Brown from 2007) is elected by an electoral college, with a weighted representation of the Parliamentary Labour Party (30%), constituency parties (30%), and trade unions (40%).

The Labour Party, the Trades Union Congress, and the cooperative movement together form the National Council of Labour, whose aims are to coordinate political activities and take joint action on specific issues.

Although the Scottish socialist Keir Hardie and John Burns, a workers' leader, entered Parliament independently as Labour members in 1892, it was not until 1900 that a conference representing the trade unions, the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and the Fabian Society, founded the Labour Party, known until 1906, when 29 seats were gained, as the Labour Representation Committee. All but a pacifist minority of the Labour Party supported World War I, and in 1918 a socialist programme was first adopted, with local branches of the party set up to which individual members were admitted. By 1922 the Labour Party was recognized as the official opposition, and in 1924 formed a minority government (with Liberal support) for a few months under the party's first secretary Ramsay MacDonald.

A second minority government in 1929 followed a conservative policy, and in 1931 MacDonald and other leaders, faced with a financial crisis, left the party to support the national government. The ILP withdrew in 1932.

From 1936 to 1939 there was internal dissension on foreign policy; the leadership's support of non‐intervention in Spain was strongly criticized and Stafford Cripps, Aneurin Bevan, and others were expelled for advocating an alliance of all left‐wing parties against the government of Neville Chamberlain. The Labour Party supported Winston Churchill's wartime coalition, but then withdrew and took office for the first time as a majority government under Clement Attlee, party leader from 1935, after the 1945 elections. The welfare state was developed by nationalization of essential services and industries, a system of national insurance was established in 1946, and the National Health Service was founded in 1948. Defeated in 1951, Labour was split by disagreements on further nationalization, and unilateral or multilateral disarmament, but achieved unity under Hugh Gaitskell's leadership 1955–63.

Under Harold Wilson the party returned to power 1964–70 and, with a very slender majority, 1974–79. James Callaghan, who had succeeded Wilson in 1976, was forced to a general election in 1979 and lost. Michael Foot was elected to the leadership in 1980; Neil Kinnock succeeded him in 1983 after Labour had lost another general election. The party adopted a policy of unilateral nuclear disarmament in 1986 and expelled the left‐wing faction Militant Tendency, but rifts remained. Labour lost the 1987 general election, a major reason being its non‐nuclear policy. In spite of the Conservative government's declining popularity, Labour was defeated in the 1992 general election, following which Neil Kinnock stepped down as party leader. Party membership fell to a low of 260,000 in 1990 and John Smith succeeded Kinnock in July 1992 but died suddenly in May 1994. Tony Blair was elected to succeed him July in 1994, in the first fully‐democratic elections to the post, and launched a campaign to revise the party's constitution by scrapping Clause 4, concerning common ownership of the means of production, and ending trade union direct sponsorship of MPs; a new charter was approved in April 1995.

Under the title New Labour, Blair sought to move the party nearer to the ‘middle ground’ of politics to secure the ‘middle England’ vote. By 1996 Labour Party membership was 365,000 and rising and it led the Conservatives in the opinion polls by more than 20 points. The Labour Party returned to power after a landslide victory in the May 1997 general election. Membership peaked in January 1998, at 405,000, and began to gradually decline for the first time since Blair became leader, amid concerns among traditional members that control over the party had become too centralized. The opinion‐poll rating of Blair slumped to its lowest since he took office in September 2000, following popular protests over fuel prices and general discontent with Labour policies. For the first time since Labour won power in 1997, opinion polls put the popularity of the Conservative Party ahead of Labour by four percentage points. However, in June 2001 Labour won a landslide victory with 412 seats, a 41% share of the vote, and an overall majority of 165.