The Labor Party of Great Britain (LP) is one of two political forces that are really fighting for power in Foggy Albion. Unlike the rival conservative party, the Labor Party was initially more focused on raising social standards for the country's citizens. To fully understand the political processes in the UK, it is very important to find out the role of this organization in society. Let us trace the history of the emergence and development of this political force, as well as find out the ideology that the Labor Party professes.
Occurrence
The Labor Party was founded in 1900. True, its original name sounded like the Committee of the workers' mission. Immediately, she positioned herself as a representative of the interests of the working class, uniting the trade union movement, and sought to intervene in the struggle of the then dominant parties in Great Britain - the Conservative and the Liberal. One of the leaders of the organization from the very first days of its founding was Ramsey MacDonald. His office was located in his apartment. Other notable leaders include James Cair Hardy, Arthur Henderson and George Barnes.
In 1906, the organization acquired its current name, which is written in English as the Labor Party, and translated into Russian as the "Labor Party".
Early stage of development
In the first election in 1900, in which the most recently created party participated, two out of fifteen candidates for the British Parliament passed, and this was only 33 pounds when financing the election campaign.
Already at the next election in 1906, the number of Labor representatives in parliament increased to 27 people. James Hardy became the leader of the parliamentary faction. This also meant informal leadership in the party, since until 1922 there was no separate post of head of the Labor Party.
As mentioned above, initially the Laborites in the UK were in the shadow of the conservative and liberal parties from which they tried to get out. However, at first, due to the small number of seats in parliament, they were forced to cooperate with liberals closer to them in ideology. This close collaboration lasted until 1916. Naturally, in this tandem of the liberal party the role of the older brother was assigned.
At the height of World War I in 1918, the Labor Party adopted its own charter and program, which later became the starting point for forming the organization’s position on major political and social issues.
Ruling party
During the First World War, a split occurred in the ranks of the liberal party, and the labor movement began to gain more and more momentum in connection with the growing revolutionary situation in Europe. And the British Labor Party entered the big game as a separate political force.
In 1924, for the first time in history, they were able to form a government. The Labor Party did not receive a majority in parliament, although a record number of representatives for the party passed in it - 191 people. But the squabble between conservatives and liberals allowed them to form a cabinet of ministers. This broke the hegemony of the conservative and liberal party, which lasted for centuries. Since that time, Labor and conservatives have become the main competitors in the struggle for power.
Labor spokesman James Ramsay MacDonald became British Prime Minister.
However, by the end of the year, the Labor government, due to the pressure and intrigues of the conservatives and liberals united to fight it, was forced to resign. In addition, due to the flood of compromising competitors in the new parliamentary elections, the workers' party was defeated, and the number of its representatives dropped to 151.
But this was only the first of a series of subsequent Labor cabinet ministers.
MacDonald Government
Already in the elections in 1929, the Labor Party for the first time in history received the majority of seats in parliament (287 delegates) and acquired the right to re-form the cabinet. The prime minister of Great Britain again became James MacDonald. But due to a number of political and economic failures of the new government, a split occurred in the Labor Party itself. James MacDonald went on a rapprochement with the conservatives to have more powerful support in parliament. This led to the fact that in 1931 he quit the party, creating the National Labor Organization as a counterweight to it, but continued to hold the premiership until 1935, when he was replaced by a representative of the Conservatives.
The new leader of the Labor Party was one of the people who at one time stood at the origins of this movement - Arthur Henderson. But the split of the party, as well as political scandals, led to the fact that it failed miserably in the new parliamentary elections in 1931, having only 52 representatives to the British legislature.
Era Attlee
The very next year, George Lansbury succeeded Henderson as the head of the party, and Clement Attlee replaced another three years later. This Labor leader has held this post longer than anyone before or after him - 20 years. Attlee's period lasted from 1935 to 1955.
In the 1935 election, the party under his leadership was able to significantly improve its performance by holding 154 representatives in parliament. After resigning from the premier post of Conservative Chamberlain in 1940, Attlee managed to enter the coalition government of Winston Churchill.
Post-war development of the LPV
Due to the outbreak of World War II, the next elections were held only 10 years later in 1945. After them, the Laborites got 393 seats in parliament, which were record for themselves at that time. This result was more than enough to form a cabinet headed by Clement Attlee, who succeeded Winston Churchill, the conservative Prime Minister, who had lost the election. The Laborites could only be congratulated on such a success, because their victory at that time looked like a real sensation.
It must be said that the third coming to power of the Laborites became much more effective than the two previous ones. Unlike MacDonald, Attlee was able to pass a number of significant laws of a social nature, nationalize some large enterprises, and restore the country's economy, battered by the war. These achievements contributed to the fact that the Labor Party again celebrated the victory in the 1950 elections, although this time they were represented in the parliament much more modestly - 315 people.
However, Attlee’s cabinet of ministers had far more than just victories. Unsuccessful financial policies and the devaluation of the pound led to the fact that conservatives led by Winston Churchill won the extraordinary elections in 1951. Labor won 295 seats in parliament, although this was enough to continue to have a significant impact on the country's politics, because the conservatives had only seven more seats.
The new elections in 1955 brought the Labor Party more disappointment, because by their results they won only 277 seats in parliament, and the conservatives won a very convincing victory. This event was one of the reasons that Clement Attlee quit big politics the same year and was replaced by Hugh Gateskell as Labor leader.
Further Party History
However, Gateskell could not become a worthy replacement for Attlee. The Laborites were losing their popularity more and more, as evidenced by the decrease in their number in parliament after the 1959 election to 258 people.
In 1963, after the death of Gateskell, Harold Wilson became the leader of the Labor Party. He led the party for over thirteen years. The very next year, under his leadership, the Laborites won a victory in the parliamentary elections after a fourteen-year hiatus, gaining 317 seats, which is 13 more than the conservatives. Thus, Wilson became the first Labor Prime Minister of Great Britain after Clement Attlee.
However, the leadership of the Labor Party in parliament was so precarious that it did not give them the opportunity to implement the main steps of their program. This situation forced the holding of early elections in 1966, in which the Labor Party won a much more confident victory, gaining 364 seats in parliament, that is, 111 seats more than conservatives.
But by the beginning of the 70s, the UK economy showed statistical numbers far from ideal. This led to the fact that the conservatives convincingly won in the new elections in 1970, having received more than 50% of the seats in parliament, and the Laborites were content with 288 seats (43.1%). Naturally, the consequence of these results was the resignation of Harold Wilson.
The Conservatives did not live up to their expectations, and the Labor Party won the next election in the spring of 1974, albeit with a minimal margin. This fact forced them to hold early elections in the autumn of that year, as a result of which the Labor Party received a stable majority. Wilson again headed the government, but not for very clear reasons, already in 1976 he resigned. James Callaghan became his successor as party leader and in the prime minister’s chair.
In opposition
However, the popularity of Callaghan could not be compared with the popularity of Wilson. The crushing defeat of the Labor Party in the 1979 elections was the logical result of this. The era of the conservative party began, which gave Britain such distinguished prime ministers as Margaret Thatcher (who was the head of government for over 11 years in a row) and John Major. The hegemony of conservatives in parliament lasted 18 years.
During this period, the Laborites were forced to go into opposition. After Callaghan resigned as party leader in 1980, it was led by Michael Foote (1980-1983), Neil Kinnock (1983-1992), and John Smith (1992-1994).
New Labor
After the death of John Smith in 1994 from May to July, the acting head of the party was Margaret Beckett, but the election of the Labor leader was won by the young and ambitious politician Tony Blair, who by that time was only 31 years old. His updated program facilitated the opening of a “second wind” in the party. The period in the history of the party, beginning with the election of Blair as its leader and until 2010, is commonly called the “New Laborism."
At the center of the New Labor program was the so-called third path, which the party positioned as an alternative to capitalism and socialism.
Labor Rematch
How successful was the tactic chosen by Tony Blair was shown in the 1997 parliamentary elections in which Labor won the first time in 18 years. But this was not just a victory, but a real defeat of the conservatives led by John Major, because the Labor Party received 253 more seats. The total number of Labor representatives in parliament was 418, which is still the party’s unbroken record. Tony Blair became British Prime Minister.
In the elections in 2001 and 2005, Labor again won by a significant margin, and won, respectively, 413 and 356 seats in parliament. But, despite the overall good results, the trend indicated a significant decrease in the popularity of PAP among voters. This was largely due to the aggressive foreign policy of the Laborites, led by Tony Blair, expressed, in particular, in active military support for the American intervention in Iraq, as well as in participation in the bombing of Yugoslavia.
In 2007, Tony Blair resigned and was replaced by Gordon Brown as party leader and prime minister. However, the very first parliamentary elections after Blair’s resignation, which took place in 2010, turned out to be a defeat for the Labor Party and a victory for the conservatives led by David Cameron. This result contributed to the fact that Gordon Brown vacated not only the prime minister’s chair, but also left the position of party leader.
Modernity
In the struggle for the post of head of the Labor Party in 2010, Ed Miliband won. But the party’s defeat in the parliamentary elections in 2015, in which it showed an even less convincing result than the last time, forced Miliband to resign.
Currently, the head of the LPV is Jeremy Corbin, who, unlike Blair and Brown, is a representative of the left wing of the party. At one time, he was also known as an opponent of the war in Iraq.
The evolution of ideology
Throughout its history, the ideology of the Labor Party has undergone significant changes. If initially, it was oriented towards the labor and trade union movement, then over time it absorbed capitalist elements more and more, thereby ideologically drawing closer to its eternal rival - the Conservative Party. However, the achievement of social justice in the state has always been included in the party's priorities. Nevertheless, the Labor Party eschewed an alliance with the Communists and other extreme leftist movements.
In general, the ideology of the Laborites can be described as social democratic.
Prospects
The Labor Party’s immediate plans include victory in the next parliamentary elections to be held in 2020. Of course, it will be extremely difficult to implement, given the current loss of sympathy for the party, but there is enough time to change the opinion of voters.
Jeremy Corbin plans to get the favor of voters by returning to the left ideology that was originally inherent in the Labor Party.