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Labour Party
Governing body	National Executive Committee
Leader	Keir Starmer
Deputy Leader	Angela Rayner
Chair	Ellie Reeves
General Secretary	David Evans
Lords Leader	Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon
Founded	27 February 1900; 124 years ago (1900-02-27) (as the Labour Representation Committee)
Headquarters	Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT Labour Central, Kings Manor, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6PA
Youth wing	Young Labour
LGBT wing	LGBT+ Labour
Membership (March 2024)	366,604
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left{{refn|Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page).
Colours	Red
Slogan	Change
Anthem	"The Red Flag"
Devolved or semi-autonomous branches	London Labour Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland
Parliamentary party	Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)
House of Commons	411 / 650
House of Lords	185 / 801
Scottish Parliament	22 / 129
Senedd	30 / 60
Regional mayors	11 / 12
London Assembly	11 / 25
PCCs and PFCCs	17 / 37
Directly elected mayors	10 / 16
Councillors	6,561 / 18,646
Election symbol
Website
labour.org.uk
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The Labour Party is a social democratic political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as being an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists, and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is the incumbent governing party of the United Kingdom, having won the 2024 general election, and is currently the largest UK political party by the number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons. There have been seven Labour prime ministers and fourteen Labour ministries. The party traditionally holds the annual Labour Party Conference during party conference season, at which senior Labour figures promote party policy.

The party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century, and formed an alliance with the Co-operative Party in 1927. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940–1945, after which Clement Attlee's government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfare state from 1945 to 1951. Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979. In the 1990s, Tony Blair took Labour to the centre as part of his New Labour project which governed under Blair and then Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010. In the 2020s, Keir Starmer took Labour to the centre again and has governed since 2024.

Labour is the largest party in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), being the only party in the current Welsh government. The party won most Scottish seats in the 2024 general election. Labour is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, and holds observer status in the Socialist International. The party includes semi-autonomous London, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish branches; however, it supports the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland, while still organising there. As of March 2024, Labour has 366,604 registered members.

History

Origins to 1890s

The origins of what became the Labour Party emerged in the late 19th century. It represented the interests of the labour unions and more generally the growing urban working class. Hundreds of thousands of workers had recently gained voting rights by laws passed in 1867 and 1884. Many different trade unions flourished in the industrial districts. Their leaders used the Methodist revival tradition to find ways to rally the membership. Several small socialist organizations formed and wanted power based on the working class; the most influential was the Fabian Society, which was made up of middle class reformers. Keir Hardie worked for cooperation among the unions and left-wing groups such as his small Independent Labour Party (ILP).

Labour Representation Committee (1900–1906)

The Labour Party was formed by unions and left-wing groups to create a distinct political voice for the working class in Britain. In 1900 the Trades Union Congress (TUC), an umbrella body for most unions, sponsored a national conference to unite into a single party that would sponsor candidates for the House of Commons. The conference created the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), as a coalition of separate groups with Ramsay MacDonald as secretary. The fearsome issue for labour was the 1901 Taff Vale legal decision which made most strikes illegal; the urgent goal was to get Parliament to reverse it. The LRC cut a secret deal with the Liberal Party: they would not compete against each other in the 1906 general election. Voters gave the Liberals a landslide with 397 seats out of 664; the new LRC won 29 seats. The LRC renamed itself "The Labour Party," with veteran MP Keir Hardie narrowly winning the role of leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP).

Early years (1906–1923)

The Labour Party's first national conference in Belfast in 1907 helped shape many of its key policies. Never fully resolved was the puzzle of where the final decisions ought to lie—in the annual conference? the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)? The local chapters? The Trade Union Congress (which brought together the heads of most unions)? The grass roots membership as a whole? When Keir Hardie threatened to resign over a demand to support woman suffrage, the conference created a "conscience clause" allowing diversity of opinions rather than a rigid orthodoxy. Irish politics proved to be so different that the Party simply quit Ireland and worked only in England, Scotland and Wales. In 1908–1910 the Party supported the momentous and largely successful Liberal battles in favor of a welfare state and against the Unionist/Conservative Party and against the veto power of the House of Lords. Growth continued, with 42 Labour MPs elected to the House of Commons in the December 1910 general election. During World War I, the party experienced internal divisions over support for the war effort, but also saw one of its top leaders Arthur Henderson, serve in the powerful war cabinet.

After the war, the party focused on building a strong constituency-based support network and adopted a comprehensive statement of policies titled "Labour and the New Social Order". In 1918, Clause IV was added to Labour's constitution, committing the party to work towards common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Socialism was vaguely promised, but there was no effort made to draw up detailed plans on what that would mean or how it could be accomplished.

The Representation of the People Act 1918 greatly expanded the electorate, enfranchising all men and most women. The party concentrated its appeal on the new electorate with considerable success among working men, but far less success among women. As the Liberal Party broke apart and lost most of its voters, Labour broke free and as the second-largest group in the House of Commons became the official opposition to the Conservative government. A major result of the war years was the demonstration that the Labour Party was a patriotic and moderate force that solved problems and did not threaten class warfare.

Labour forms a government (1923–1924)

The 1923 United Kingdom general election was a pivotal moment in British politics with the formation of the first Labour government. The Conservative government called the 1923 election to seek a mandate for his protectionist trade policies. Labour and Liberals both wanted free trade. Labour leader Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority government with Liberal support, but when that ended after 10 months a new election was called. The major achievement was the Wheatley Housing Act, which expanded the large-scale public housing program that the Lloyd George government had started in 1919. MacDonald was much more successful in foreign policy. He helped negotiate an end to the impasse over German payment of reparations by enlisting Washington to launch the Dawes Plan. Much more controversial was his decision to recognize the Soviet Union. That ignited an anti-Communist backlash that exploded four days before the 1924 election in the fake Zinoviev Letter in which Kremlin supposedly called for revolutionary uprising by British workers. The 1924 election saw the Conservatives return to power, benefiting from the Zinoviev letter and the continuing collapse of the Liberal vote. The Labour share of the popular vote went up, but it lost seats. Above all the moderation of the Macdonald government put to rest the lingering fears that a Labour victory would produce a violent class war.

The failed General Strike (1926-1929)

In 1925-26 coal sales fell and the mining companies demanded an increase in hours and a cut in wages. The miners were totally opposed and planned a strike. The TUC coalition of unions decided it would support the miners by a nationwide general strike that would paralyze most of the national economy. A strike was postponed when the Conservative government offered a subsidy for wages, but it also prepared to deal with the threatened general strike. Meanwhile, the TUC failed to make preparations. It ignored the Labour Party in and out of Parliament and in turn party leaders opposed a national strike. The 1926 United Kingdom general strike failed after 9 days as the government plan devised by Winston Churchill proved highly effective in keeping the economy open while minimizing violence. In the long run, however, the episode tended to strengthen working class support for Labour, and it gained in the 1929 general election, forming a second government with Liberal help.

Second Labour government (1929–1931)

In the 1929 general election, the Labour Party became the largest in the House of Commons for the first time, with 287 seats and 37.1% of the popular vote. However MacDonald was still reliant on Liberal support to form a minority government. MacDonald went on to appoint Britain's first woman cabinet minister; Margaret Bondfield, who was appointed Minister of Labour. MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and in 1930 Labour was able to pass legislation to raise unemployment pay, improve wages and conditions in the coal industry (i.e. the issues behind the General Strike) and pass a housing act which focused on slum clearances.

The government soon found itself engulfed in crisis as the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and eventual Great Depression occurred soon after the government came to power, and the slump in global trade hit Britain hard. By the end of 1930 unemployment had doubled to over two and a half million. The government had no effective answers to the deteriorating financial situation, and by 1931 there was much fear that the budget was unbalanced, which was born out by the independent May Report which triggered a confidence crisis and a run on the pound. The cabinet deadlocked over its response, with several influential members unwilling to support the budget cuts (in particular a cut in the rate of unemployment benefit) which were pressed by the civil service and opposition parties. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden refused to consider deficit spending or tariffs as alternative solutions. When a final vote was taken, the Cabinet was split 11–9 with a minority, including many political heavyweights such as Arthur Henderson and George Lansbury, threatening to resign rather than agree to the cuts. The unworkable split, on 24 August 1931, made the government resign. MacDonald was encouraged by King George V to form an all-party National Government to deal with the immediate crisis.

The financial crisis grew worse, and decisive government action was needed, as the leaders of both the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party met with King George V and MacDonald, at first to discuss support for the spending cuts but later to discuss the shape of the next government. The king played the central role in demanding a National government be formed. On 24 August, MacDonald agreed to form a National Government composed of men from all parties with the specific aim of balancing the Budget and restoring confidence. The new cabinet had four Labourites (who formed a National Labour group) who stood with MacDonald, plus four Conservatives (led by Baldwin, Chamberlain) and two Liberals. MacDonald's moves aroused great anger among a large majority of Labour Party activists who felt betrayed. Labour unions were strongly opposed and the Labour Party officially repudiated the new National government. It expelled MacDonald and his supporters and made Henderson the leader of the main Labour party. Henderson led it into the general election on 27 October against the three-party National coalition. It was a disaster for Labour, which was reduced to a small minority of 52 seats. The Conservative-dominated National Government, led by MacDonald, won the largest landslide in British political history.

In 1931, Labour campaigned on opposition to public spending cuts, but found it difficult to defend the record of the party's former government and the fact that most of the cuts had been agreed before it fell. Historian Andrew Thorpe argues that Labour lost credibility by 1931 as unemployment soared, especially in coal, textiles, shipbuilding and steel. The working class increasingly lost confidence in the ability of Labour to solve the most pressing problem. The 2.5 million Irish Catholics in England and Scotland were a major factor in the Labour base in many industrial areas. The Catholic Church had previously tolerated the Labour Party and denied that it represented true socialism. However, the bishops by 1930 had grown increasingly alarmed at Labour's policies toward Communist Russia, toward birth control and especially toward funding Catholic schools. The Catholic shift against Labour and in favour of the National government played a major role in Labour's losses.

Labour in opposition (1931–1940)

Arthur Henderson, elected in 1931 to succeed MacDonald, lost his seat in the 1931 general election. The only former Labour cabinet member who had retained his seat, the pacifist George Lansbury, accordingly became party leader.

The party experienced another split in 1932 when the Independent Labour Party, which for some years had been increasingly at odds with the Labour leadership, opted to disaffiliate from the Labour Party and embarked on a long, drawn-out decline.

Lansbury resigned as leader in 1935 after public disagreements over foreign policy. As of 2023, he is the only Labour leader to stand down from the role without contesting a general election (excluding acting leaders). He was promptly replaced as leader by his deputy, Clement Attlee, who would lead the party for two decades. The party experienced a revival in the 1935 general election, winning 154 seats and 38% of the popular vote, the highest that Labour had achieved.

As the threat from Nazi Germany increased, in the late 1930s the Labour Party gradually abandoned its pacifist stance and came to support re-armament, largely due to the efforts of Ernest Bevin and Hugh Dalton, who by 1937 had also persuaded the party to oppose Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.

Wartime coalition (1940–1945)

The party returned to government in 1940 as part of the wartime coalition. When Neville Chamberlain resigned in the spring of 1940, incoming Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided to bring the other main parties into a coalition similar to that of the First World War. Clement Attlee was appointed Lord Privy Seal and a member of the war cabinet, eventually becoming the United Kingdom's first Deputy Prime Minister.

A number of other senior Labour figures also took up senior positions: the trade union leader Ernest Bevin, as Minister of Labour, directed Britain's wartime economy and allocation of manpower, the veteran Labour statesman Herbert Morrison became Home Secretary, Hugh Dalton was Minister of Economic Warfare and later President of the Board of Trade, while A. V. Alexander resumed the role he had held in the previous Labour Government as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Attlee government (1945–1951)

At the end of the war in Europe, in May 1945, Labour resolved not to repeat the Liberals' error of 1918, promptly withdrawing from government, on trade union insistence, to contest the 1945 general election in opposition to Churchill's Conservatives. Surprising many observers, Labour won a landslide victory, winning just under 50% of the vote with a majority of 159 seats.

Attlee's government proved one of the most radical British governments of the 20th century, enacting Keynesian economic policies, presiding over a policy of nationalising major industries and utilities including the Bank of England, coal mining, the steel industry, electricity, gas and inland transport (including railways, road haulage and canals). It developed and implemented the "cradle to grave" welfare state conceived by the economist William Beveridge. To this day, most people in the United Kingdom see the 1948 creation of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) under health minister Aneurin Bevan, which gave publicly funded medical treatment for all, as Labour's proudest achievement. Attlee's government also began the process of dismantling the British Empire when it granted independence to India and Pakistan in 1947, followed by Burma (Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) the following year. At a secret meeting in January 1947, Attlee and six cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, decided to proceed with the development of Britain's nuclear weapons programme, in opposition to the pacifist and anti-nuclear stances of a large element inside the Labour Party.

Labour went on to win the 1950 general election, but with a much-reduced majority of five seats. Soon afterwards, defence became a divisive issue within the party, especially defence spending (which reached a peak of 14% of GDP in 1951 during the Korean War), straining public finances and forcing savings elsewhere. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh Gaitskell, introduced charges for NHS dentures and spectacles, causing Bevan, along with Harold Wilson (then President of the Board of Trade), to resign over the dilution of the principle of free treatment on which the NHS had been established.

In the 1951 general election, Labour narrowly lost to Churchill's Conservatives, despite receiving the larger share of the popular vote – its highest ever vote numerically. Most of the changes introduced by the 1945–51 Labour government were accepted by the Conservatives and became part of the "post-war consensus" that lasted until the late 1970s. Food and clothing rationing, however, still in place since the war, were swiftly relaxed, then abandoned from about 1953.

Post-war consensus (1951–1964)

Following the defeat of 1951, the party spent 13 years in opposition. The party suffered an ideological split, between the party's left-wing followers of Aneurin Bevan (known as Bevanites) and the right-wing of the party following Hugh Gaitskell (known as Gaitskellites) while the postwar economic recovery and the social effects of Attlee's reforms made the public broadly content with the Conservative governments of the time. The ageing Attlee contested his final general election in 1955, which saw Labour lose ground, and he retired shortly after.

Under his replacement, Hugh Gaitskell, Labour appeared more united than before and had been widely expected to win the 1959 general election, but did not. Following this internal party infighting resumed, particularly over the issues of nuclear disarmament, Britain's entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) and Clause IV of the Labour Party Constitution, which was viewed as Labour's commitment to nationalisation which Gaitskell wanted scrapped. These issues would continue to divide the party for decades to come. Gaitskell died suddenly in 1963, and this made way for Harold Wilson to lead the party.

Wilson government (1964–1970)

A downturn in the economy and a series of scandals in the early 1960s (the most notorious being the Profumo affair) had engulfed the Conservative government by 1963. The Labour Party returned to government with a 4-seat majority under Wilson in the 1964 general election but increased its majority to 96 in the 1966 general election.

Wilson's government was responsible for a number of sweeping social and educational reforms under the leadership of Home Secretary Roy Jenkins such as the abolishment of the death penalty in 1965, the legalisation of abortion and homosexuality (initially only for men aged 21 or over, and only in England and Wales) in 1967 and the abolition of theatre censorship in 1968. Wilson's government also put heavy emphasis on expanding opportunities through education, and as such, comprehensive education was expanded and the Open University created.

Wilson's first period as Prime Minister coincided with a period of relatively low unemployment and economic prosperity, it was however hindered by significant problems with a large trade deficit which it had inherited from the previous government. The first three years of the government were spent in an ultimately doomed attempt to stave off the continued devaluation of the pound. Labour went on to unexpectedly lose the 1970 general election to the Conservatives under Edward Heath.

Spell in opposition (1970–1974)

After losing the 1970 general election, Labour returned to opposition, but retained Harold Wilson as Leader. Heath's government soon ran into trouble over Northern Ireland and a dispute with miners in 1973 which led to the "three-day week". The 1970s proved a difficult time to be in government for both the Conservatives and Labour due to the 1973 oil crisis, which caused high inflation and a global recession.

The Labour Party was returned to power again under Wilson a few days after the February 1974 general election, forming a minority government with the support of the Ulster Unionists. The Conservatives were unable to form a government alone, as they had fewer seats despite receiving more votes numerically. It was the first general election since 1924 in which both main parties had received less than 40% of the popular vote and the first of six successive general elections in which Labour failed to reach 40% of the popular vote. In a bid to gain a majority, a second election was soon called for October 1974 in which Labour, still with Harold Wilson as leader, won a slim majority of three, gaining just 18 seats taking its total to 319.

Majority to minority (1974–1979)

For much of its time in office the Labour government struggled with serious economic problems and a precarious majority in the Commons, while the party's internal dissent over Britain's membership of the European Economic Community, which Britain had entered under Edward Heath in 1972, led in 1975 to a national referendum on the issue in which two thirds of the public supported continued membership. Harold Wilson's personal popularity remained reasonably high but he unexpectedly resigned as Prime Minister in 1976 citing health reasons, and was replaced by James Callaghan. The Wilson and Callaghan governments of the 1970s tried to control inflation (which reached 23.7% in 1975) by a policy of wage restraint. This was fairly successful, reducing inflation to 7.4% by 1978. However it led to increasingly strained relations between the government and the trade unions.

Fear of advances by the nationalist parties, particularly in Scotland, led to the suppression of a report from Scottish Office economist Gavin McCrone that suggested that an independent Scotland would be "chronically in surplus". By 1977 by-election losses and defections to the breakaway Scottish Labour Party left Callaghan heading a minority government, forced to do deals with smaller parties in order to govern. An arrangement negotiated in 1977 with Liberal leader David Steel, known as the Lib–Lab pact, ended after one year. Deals were then forged with various small parties including the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru, prolonging the life of the government.

The nationalist parties, in turn, demanded devolution to their respective constituent countries in return for their supporting the government. When referendums for Scottish and Welsh devolution were held in March 1979 the Welsh devolution referendum saw a large majority vote against, while the Scottish referendum returned a narrow majority in favour without reaching the required threshold of 40% support. When the Labour government duly refused to push ahead with setting up the proposed Scottish Assembly, the SNP withdrew its support for the government: this finally brought the government down as the Conservatives triggered a vote of confidence in Callaghan's government that was lost by a single vote on 28 March 1979, necessitating a general election.

By 1978, the economy had started to show signs of recovery, with inflation falling to single digits, unemployment falling and living standards starting to rise during the year. Labour's opinion poll ratings also improved, with most showing the party to be in the lead. Callaghan had been widely expected to call a general election in the autumn of 1978 to take advantage of the improving situation. In the event, he decided to gamble that extending the wage restraint policy for another year would allow the economy to be in better shape for a 1979 election. However, this proved unpopular with the trade unions, and during the winter of 1978–79 there were widespread strikes among lorry drivers, railway workers, car workers and local government and hospital workers in favour of higher pay-rises that caused significant disruption to everyday life. These events came to be dubbed the "Winter of Discontent".

These industrial disputes sent the Conservatives now led by Margaret Thatcher into the lead in the polls, which led to Labour's defeat in the 1979 general election. The Labour vote held up in the election, with the party receiving nearly the same number of votes than in 1974. However, the Conservative Party achieved big increases in support in the Midlands and South of England, benefiting from both a surge in turnout and votes lost by the ailing Liberals.

Opposition and internal conflict (1979–1994)

After its defeat in the 1979 general election the Labour Party underwent a period of internal rivalry between the left, represented by Tony Benn, and the right, represented by Denis Healey. The election of Michael Foot as leader in 1980, and the leftist policies he espoused, such as unilateral nuclear disarmament, leaving the European Economic Community and NATO, closer governmental influence in the banking system, the creation of a national minimum wage and a ban on fox hunting led in 1981 to four former cabinet ministers from the right of the Labour Party (Shirley Williams, Bill Rodgers, Roy Jenkins and David Owen) forming the Social Democratic Party. Benn was only narrowly defeated by Healey in a bitterly fought deputy leadership election in 1981 after the introduction of an electoral college intended to widen the voting franchise to elect the leader and their deputy. By 1982, the National Executive Committee had concluded that the entryist Militant tendency group were in contravention of the party's constitution.

The Labour Party was defeated heavily in the 1983 general election, winning only 27.6% of the vote, its lowest share since 1918, and receiving only half a million votes more than the SDP-Liberal Alliance, which leader Michael Foot condemned for "siphoning" Labour support and enabling the Conservatives to greatly increase their majority of parliamentary seats. The party manifesto for this election was termed by critics as "the longest suicide note in history".

Foot resigned and was replaced as leader by Neil Kinnock, with Roy Hattersley as his deputy. The new leadership progressively dropped unpopular policies. The miners' strike of 1984–85 over coal mine closures, which divided the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) as well as the Labour Party, and the Wapping dispute led to clashes with the left of the party and negative coverage in most of the press.

The alliances which campaigns such as Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners forged between lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) and labour groups, as well as the Labour Party itself, also proved to be an important turning point in the progression of LGBT issues in the UK. At the 1985 Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, a resolution committing the party to support LGBT equality rights passed for the first time with block voting support from the NUM.

Labour improved its performance in 1987, gaining 20 seats and so reducing the Conservative majority from 143 to 102. They were now firmly re-established as the second political party in Britain as the Alliance had once again failed to make a breakthrough with seats. A merger of the SDP and Liberals formed the Liberal Democrats. Following the 1987 election, the National Executive Committee resumed disciplinary action against members of Militant, who remained in the party, leading to further expulsions of their activists and the two MPs who supported the group. During the 1980s radically socialist members of the party were often described as the "loony left", particularly in the print media. The print media in the 1980s also began using the pejorative "hard left" to sometimes describe Trotskyist groups such as the Militant tendency, Socialist Organiser and Socialist Action. In 1988, Kinnock was challenged by Tony Benn for the party leadership. Based on the percentages, 183 members of parliament supported Kinnock, while Benn was backed by 37. With a clear majority, Kinnock remained leader of the Labour Party.

In November 1990 following a contested leadership election, Margaret Thatcher resigned as leader of the Conservative Party and was succeeded as leader and Prime Minister by John Major. Most opinion polls had shown Labour comfortably ahead of the Tories for more than a year before Thatcher's resignation, with the fall in Tory support blamed largely on her introduction of the unpopular poll tax, combined with the fact that the economy was sliding into recession at the time. The change of leader in the Tory government saw a turnaround in support for the Tories, who regularly topped the opinion polls throughout 1991 although Labour regained the lead more than once.

The "yo-yo" in the opinion polls continued into 1992, though after November 1990 any Labour lead in the polls was rarely sufficient for a majority. Major resisted Kinnock's calls for a general election throughout 1991. Kinnock campaigned on the theme "It's Time for a Change", urging voters to elect a new government after more than a decade of unbroken Conservative rule. However, the Conservatives themselves had undergone a change of leader from Thatcher to Major and replaced the Community Charge.

The 1992 general election was widely tipped to result in a hung parliament or a narrow Labour majority, but in the event, the Conservatives were returned to power, though with a much-reduced majority of 21. Despite the increased number of seats and votes, it was a disappointing result for the Labour party. For the first time in over 30 years there was serious doubt among the public and the media as to whether Labour could ever return to government.Kinnock resigned as leader and was succeeded by John Smith. Once again the battle erupted between the old guard on the party's left and those identified as "modernisers". The old guard argued that trends showed they were regaining strength under Smith's strong leadership. The new Liberal Democrats seemed to pose a major threat to the Labour base. Tony Blair, the Shadow Home Secretary, had a different vision to traditional Labour politics. Blair, the leader of the "modernising" faction, argued that the long-term trends had to be reversed, arguing that the party was too locked into a base that was shrinking, since it was based on the working-class, on trade unions and on residents of subsidised council housing. Blair argued that the rapidly growing middle class was largely ignored, as well as more ambitious working-class families. Blair said that they aspired to become middle-class and accepted the Conservative argument that traditional Labour was holding ambitious people back to some extent with higher tax policies. To present a fresh face and new policies to the electorate, New Labour needed more than fresh leaders; it had to jettison outdated policies, argued the modernisers. The first step was procedural, but essential. Calling on the slogan, "One Member, One Vote" Blair (with some help from Smith) defeated the union element and ended block voting by leaders of labour unions. Blair and the modernisers called for radical adjustment of Party goals by repealing "Clause IV", the historic commitment to nationalisation of industry. This was achieved in 1995.

Black Wednesday in September 1992 damaged the Conservative government's reputation for economic competence, and by the end of that year, Labour had a comfortable lead over the Tories in the opinion polls. Although the recession was declared over in April 1993 and a period of strong and sustained economic growth followed, coupled with a relatively swift fall in unemployment, the Labour lead in the opinion polls remained strong. However, Smith died from a heart attack in May 1994. As of 2023, he is the last Labour leader not to have contested a general election (excluding acting leaders and the incumbent, whose tenure is ongoing).

New Labour (1994–2010)

Blair continued to move the party further to the centre, abandoning the largely symbolic Clause Four at the 1995 mini-conference in a strategy to increase the party's appeal to "middle England". The political philosophy of New Labour was influenced by the party's development of Anthony Giddens' Third Way which attempted to provide a synthesis between capitalism and socialism.

New Labour was first termed as 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. It was a continuation of the trend that had begun under the leadership of Neil Kinnock. New Labour as a name has no official status, but remains in common use to distinguish modernisers from those holding to more traditional positions, normally referred to as "Old Labour".

New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology. What counts is what works. The objectives are radical. The means will be modern.

The Labour Party won the 1997 general election in a landslide victory with a parliamentary majority of 179; it was the largest ever Labour majority, and at the time the largest swing to a political party achieved since 1945. Over the next decade, a wide range of progressive social reforms were enacted, with millions lifted out of poverty during Labour's time in office largely as a result of various tax and benefit reforms.

Among the early acts of Blair's government were the establishment of the national minimum wage, the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, major changes to the regulation of the banking system and the re-creation of a citywide government body for London, the Greater London Authority, with its own elected-Mayor. Combined with a Conservative opposition that had yet to organise effectively under William Hague, and the continuing popularity of Blair, Labour went on to win the 2001 election with a similar majority, dubbed the "quiet landslide" by the media. In 2003 Labour introduced tax credits, government top-ups to the pay of low-wage workers.

A perceived turning point was when Blair controversially allied himself with US President George W. Bush in supporting the Iraq War, which caused him to lose much of his political support. The UN Secretary-General, among many, considered the war illegal and a violation of the UN Charter. The Iraq War was deeply unpopular in most western countries, with Western governments divided in their support and under pressure from worldwide popular protests. The decisions that led up to the Iraq war and its subsequent conduct were the subject of the Iraq Inquiry.

In the 2005 general election, Labour was re-elected for a third term, but with a reduced majority of 66 and popular vote of only 35.2%. Blair announced in September 2006 that he would step down as leader within the year, though he had been under pressure to quit earlier than May 2007 in order to get a new leader in place before the May elections which were expected to be disastrous for Labour. In the event, the party did lose power in Scotland to a minority Scottish National Party government at the 2007 elections and, shortly after this, Blair resigned as Prime Minister and was replaced by the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. Brown coordinated the UK's response to the 2007–2008 financial crisis. Membership of the party also reached a low falling to 156,205 by the end of 2009: over 40 per cent of the 405,000 peak reached in 1997 and thought to be the lowest total since the party was founded.

In the 2010 general election on 6 May that year, Labour with 29.0% of the vote won the second largest number of seats (258). The Conservatives with 36.5% of the vote won the largest number of seats (307), but no party had an overall majority, meaning that Labour could still remain in power if they managed to form a coalition with at least one smaller party. However, the Labour Party would have had to form a coalition with more than one other smaller party to gain an overall majority; anything less would result in a minority government. On 10 May 2010, after talks to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats broke down, Brown announced his intention to stand down as Leader before the Labour Party Conference but a day later resigned as both Prime Minister and party leader.

Opposition (2010–2024)

Ed Miliband won the subsequent leadership election. Miliband emphasised "responsible capitalism" and greater state intervention to rebalance the economy away from financial services. He advocated for more regulation of banks and energy companies and often addressed the need to challenge vested interests and increase inclusivity in British society. He adopted the "One Nation Labour" branding in 2012. The Parliamentary Labour Party voted to abolish Shadow Cabinet elections in 2011, ratified by the National Executive Committee and Party Conference. Henceforth the leader of the party chose the Shadow Cabinet members.

In March 2014, the party reformed internal election procedures, including replacing the electoral college system with "one member, one vote". Mass membership was encouraged by creating a class of "registered supporters" as an alternative to full membership. Trade union members would also have to explicitly opt in rather than opt out of paying a political levy to the party.

In September 2014, Labour outlined plans to cut the government's current account deficit and balance the budget by 2020, excluding investment. The party carried these plans into the 2015 general election, which Labour lost. Its representation fell to 232 seats in the House of Commons. The party lost 40 of its 41 seats in Scotland to the Scottish National Party.

After the 2015 general election, Miliband resigned as party leader and Harriet Harman again became interim leader. Labour held a leadership election in which Jeremy Corbyn, then a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, was considered a fringe candidate when the contest began, receiving nominations from just 36 MPs, one more than the minimum required to stand, and the support of just 16 MPs. The Labour Party saw a flood of membership applications during the leadership election, with most of the new members thought to be Corbyn supporters. Corbyn was elected leader with 60% of the vote. Membership continued to climb after his victory; one year later it had grown to more than 500,000, making it the largest political party in Western Europe.

Tensions soon developed in the parliamentary party over Corbyn's leadership, particularly after the 2016 Brexit referendum. Many in the party were angered that Corbyn did not campaign strongly against Brexit; he had been only a "lukewarm" supporter of remaining in the European Union and refused to join David Cameron in campaigning for the Remain side. 21 members of the Shadow Cabinet resigned after the referendum. Corbyn lost a no-confidence vote among Labour MPs by 172–40, triggering a leadership election, which he won decisively with 62% support among Labour party members.

In April 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap election for June 2017. Corbyn resisted pressure from within the Labour Party to call for a referendum on the eventual Brexit deal, instead focusing on healthcare, education and ending austerity. Although Labour started the campaign as far as 20 points behind, it defied expectations by gaining 40% of the vote, its greatest share since 2001 and the biggest increase in vote share in a single general election since 1945. The party gained a net 30 seats with the Conservatives losing their overall majority.

From 2016, the Labour Party faced criticism for failing to deal with antisemitism. Criticism was also levelled at Corbyn. The Chakrabarti Inquiry cleared the party of widespread antisemitism but identified an "occasionally toxic atmosphere". High-profile party members, including Ken Livingstone, Peter Willsman and Chris Williamson, left the party or were suspended over antisemitism-related incidents. In 2018, internal divisions emerged over adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, with 68 rabbis criticising the leadership. The issue was cited by a number of MPs who left the party to set up Change UK. An investigation by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission found the party responsible for three Equality Act breaches, including harassment political interference in antisemitism complaints.

During the 2019 general election, Labour campaigned on a manifesto widely considered the most radical in decades, more closely resembling Labour's politics of the 1970s than subsequent decades. These included plans to nationalise the country's biggest energy firms, the National Grid, the water industry, Royal Mail, the railways and the broadband arm of BT. The election saw Labour win its lowest number of seats since 1935. Following Labour's defeat in the 2019 general election Corbyn announced that he would stand down as leader.

Return to government (2024–present)

On 4 April 2020, Keir Starmer was elected as Leader of the Labour Party amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. During his tenure as opposition leader, Starmer repositioned the party from the left toward the centre-left and political centre, and emphasised the importance of eliminating antisemitism within the party. Starmer led Labour to victory in the local elections in 2023 and 2024. In 2023, Starmer set out five missions for his government, targeting issues such as economic growth, health, clean energy, crime and education.

During the 2024 general election, Labour maintained a strong poll lead, with its manifesto focusing on on economic growth, planning system reform, infrastructure, clean energy, healthcare, education, childcare, constitutional reform, and strengthening workers' rights. Starmer led Labour to a landslide victory with a majority of 174, ending fourteen years of Conservative government with Labour becoming the largest party in the House of Commons. He succeeded Rishi Sunak as prime minister on 5 July 2024, becoming the first Labour prime minister since Gordon Brown in 2010 and the first one to win a general election since Tony Blair at the 2005 general election.

Ideology

Labour sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It was formed to provide political representation for the trade union movement at Westminster. The Labour Party gained a socialist commitment with the party constitution of 1918, Clause IV of which called for the "common ownership", or nationalisation, of the "means of production, distribution and exchange". Although about a third of British industry was taken into public ownership after the Second World War and remained so until the 1980s, the right of the party were questioning the validity of expanding on this by the late 1950s. Influenced by Anthony Crosland's book The Future of Socialism (1956), the circle around party leader Hugh Gaitskell felt that the commitment was no longer necessary. An attempt to remove Clause IV from the party constitution in 1959 failed, Tony Blair and New Labour "modernisers" were successful in doing so 35 years later.

Historically influenced by Keynesian economics, the party favoured government intervention in the economy and the redistribution of wealth. Taxation was seen as a means to achieve a "major redistribution of wealth and income" in the October 1974 election manifesto. The party also desired increased rights for workers and a welfare state including publicly funded healthcare. From the late-1980s onwards, the party adopted free market policies, leading many observers to describe the Labour Party as social democratic or the Third Way, rather than democratic socialist. Other commentators go further and argue that traditional social democratic parties across Europe, including the British Labour Party, have been so deeply transformed in recent years that it is no longer possible to describe them ideologically as "social democratic", and that this ideological shift has put new strains on the Labour Party's traditional relationship with the trade unions. Within the party, differentiation was made between the social democratic and the socialist wings of the party, the latter often subscribed to a radical socialist, even Marxist, ideology.

While affirming a commitment to democratic socialism, the new version of Clause IV no longer definitely commits the party to public ownership of industry and in its place advocates "the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition" along with "high quality public services either owned by the public or accountable to them". MPs in the Socialist Campaign Group and the Labour Representation Committee see themselves as standard bearers for the radical socialist tradition in contrast to the democratic socialist tradition represented by organisations such as Compass and the magazine Tribune. The group Progress, founded in 1996, represents the centrist position in the party and was opposed to the Corbyn leadership. In 2015, Momentum was created by Jon Lansman as a grass-roots left-wing organisation following Jeremy Corbyn's election as party leader. Rather than organising among the PLP, Momentum is a rank and file grouping with an estimated 40,000 members. The party also has a Christian socialist faction, the Christians on the Left society.

Symbols

Labour has long been identified with red, a political colour traditionally affiliated with socialism and the labour movement. Prior to the red flag logo, the party had used a modified version of the classic 1924 shovel, torch and quill emblem. In 1924 a brand conscious Labour leadership had devised a competition, inviting supporters to design a logo to replace the 'polo mint' like motif that had previously appeared on party literature. The winning entry, emblazoned with the word "Liberty" over a design incorporating a torch, shovel and quill symbol, was popularised through its sale, in badge form, for a shilling. The party conference in 1931 passed a motion "That this conference adopts Party Colours, which should be uniform throughout the country, colours to be red and gold". During the New Labour period, the colour purple was also used, and the party has employed other colours in certain areas according to local tradition.

Since the party's inception, the red flag has been Labour's official symbol; the flag has been associated with socialism and revolution ever since the 1789 French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. The red rose, a symbol of socialism and social democracy, was adopted as the party symbol in 1986 as part of a rebranding exercise and is now incorporated into the party logo.

The red flag became an inspiration which resulted in the composition of "The Red Flag", the official party anthem since its inception, being sung at the end of party conferences and on various occasions such as in Parliament in February 2006 to mark the centenary of the Labour Party's founding. It still remains in use, although attempts were made to play down the role of the song during New Labour. The song "Jerusalem", based on a William Blake poem, is also traditionally sung at the end of party conferences with The Red Flag.

Constitution and structure

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of individual members and 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). Prior to Brexit in January 2020, members also took part in the 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 policy. The 2008 Labour Party Conference was the first at which affiliated trade unions and Constituency Labour Parties did not have the right to submit motions on contemporary issues that would previously have been debated. Labour Party conferences now include more "keynote" addresses, guest speakers and question-and-answer sessions, while specific discussion of policy now takes place in the National Policy Forum.

The Labour Party is an unincorporated association without a separate legal personality, and the Labour Party Rule Book legally regulates the organisation and the relationship with members. The General Secretary represents the party on behalf of the other members of the Labour Party in any legal matters or actions.

Membership and registered supporters

As of 31 December 2010, under Leader Ed Miliband, individual membership of the party was 193,261; a historical low for the Party since the 1930s. Membership remained relatively unchanged in the following years. In August 2015, prior to the 2015 leadership election, the Labour Party reported 292,505 full members, 147,134 affiliated supporters (mostly from affiliated trade unions and socialist societies) and 110,827 registered supporters; a total of about 550,000 members and supporters.

Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader, individual membership almost doubled to 388,262 in December 2015; and rose significantly again the following year to 543,645 in December 2016. As of December 2017, the party had 564,443 full members, a peak since 1980 making it the largest political party in Western Europe. Consequently, membership fees became the largest component of the party's income, overtaking trade unions donations which were previously of most financial importance, making Labour the most financially well-off British political party in 2017. As of December 2019, the party had 532,046 full members.

In the 2020 leadership election 490,731 people voted, of which 401,564 (81.8%) were members, 76,161 (15.5%) had affiliated membership and 13,006 (2.6%) were registered supporters. The registered supporter class was abolished in 2021. By July 2023, the party's membership was reported to have fallen to 399,195 members. In March 2024, it was reported that the Labour Party's membership had fallen to 366,604.

Northern Ireland

For many years, Labour held to a policy of not allowing residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership, instead supporting the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) which informally takes the Labour whip in the House of Commons. The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining, and whilst the National Executive has established a regional constituency party it has not yet agreed to contest elections there. In December 2015 a meeting of the members of the Labour Party in Northern Ireland decided unanimously to contest the elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly held in May 2016. The Labour Party in Northern Ireland moved a model motion, in July 2020, for Labour's NEC to allow them a "Right to Stand". The motion noted how the SDLP's alliance with Fianna Fáil, a member-party of the Liberal International in the Republic of Ireland, had meant that it was campaigning against the Irish Labour Party, which it saw as questioning "the legitimacy of Labour's sister party relationship".

Trade union link

The Trade Union and Labour Party Liaison Organisation is the co-ordinating structure that supports the policy and campaign activities of affiliated union members within the Labour Party at the national, regional and local level.

As it was founded by the unions to represent the interests of working-class people, Labour's link with the unions has always been a defining characteristic of the party. In recent years this link has come under increasing strain, with the RMT being expelled from the party in 2004 for allowing its branches in Scotland to affiliate to the left-wing Scottish Socialist Party. Other unions have also faced calls from members to reduce financial support for the Party and seek more effective political representation for their views on privatisation, public spending cuts and the anti-trade union laws. Unison and GMB have both threatened to withdraw funding from constituency MPs and Dave Prentis of UNISON has warned that the union will write "no more blank cheques" and is dissatisfied with "feeding the hand that bites us". Union funding was redesigned in 2013 after the Falkirk candidate-selection controversy. The Fire Brigades Union, which "severed links" with Labour in 2004, re-joined the party under Corbyn's leadership in 2015.

European and international affiliation

The Labour Party was a founder member of the Party of European Socialists (PES). The European Parliamentary Labour Party's 10 MEPs were part of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), the second largest group in the European Parliament. The Labour Party was represented by Emma Reynolds in the PES presidency.

The party was a member of the Labour and Socialist International between 1923 and 1940. Since 1951, the party has been a member of the Socialist International, which was founded thanks to the efforts of the Clement Attlee leadership. In February 2013, the Labour Party NEC decided to downgrade participation to observer membership status, "in view of ethical concerns, and to develop international co-operation through new networks". Labour was a founding member of the Progressive Alliance international founded in co-operation with the Social Democratic Party of Germany and other social-democratic parties on 22 May 2013.

Electoral performance

For all detailed election results involving the Labour Party including: general elections, devolved national elections, London Assembly, London Mayoral, combined authority and European Parliament elections see: Electoral history of the Labour Party (UK).

In all general elections since 1918, Labour has been either the governing party or the Official Opposition.

UK general election results

Following the 1918 general election, Labour became the Official Opposition after the Conservatives went into coalition with the Liberal Party. Labour's first minority governments came following the 1923 and 1929 general elections, the latter being the first time Labour were the largest party in the country by seats won. They formed their first majority government following the 1945 general election. However, after winning the 1950 general election, Labour would lose the following election in 1951 to the Conservatives despite gaining the highest share of votes to date at 48.8%. During the 1983 election, Labour posted their worst vote share in the post-war period at 27.6%. In 1997, a party record of 418 Labour MPs were elected. At the 2024 general election, Labour won a landslide victory and returned to government with Keir Starmer as prime minister.

Parliament of the United Kingdom

Election	Leader	Votes		Seats			Position	Result	Ref
		No.	Share	No.	±	Share
1900	Keir Hardie	62,698	1.8	2 / 670	2	0.3	4th	Conservative–Liberal Unionist
1906		321,663	5.7	29 / 670	27	4.3	4th	Liberal
January 1910	Arthur Henderson	505,657	7.6	40 / 670	11	6.0	4th	Liberal minority
December 1910	George Nicoll Barnes	371,802	7.1	42 / 670	2	6.3	4th	Liberal minority
1918	William Adamson	2,245,777	20.8	57 / 707	15	8.1	4th	Coalition Liberal–Conservative
1922	J. R. Clynes	4,237,349	29.7	142 / 615	85	23.1	2nd	Conservative
1923	Ramsay MacDonald	4,439,780	30.7	191 / 615	49	30.1	2nd	Labour minority
1924		5,489,087	33.3	151 / 615	40	24.6	2nd	Conservative
1929		8,370,417	37.1	287 / 615	136	47.0	1st	Labour minority
1931	Arthur Henderson	6,649,630	30.9	52 / 615	235	8.5	2nd	Conservative–Liberal–National Labour
1935	Clement Attlee	8,325,491	38.0	154 / 615	102	25.0	2nd	Conservative–Liberal National–National Labour
1945		11,967,746	48.0	393 / 640	239	61.0	1st	Labour
1950		13,266,176	46.1	315 / 625	78	50.4	1st	Labour
1951		13,948,883	48.8	295 / 625	20	47.2	2nd	Conservative
1955		12,405,254	46.4	277 / 630	18	44.0	2nd	Conservative
1959	Hugh Gaitskell	12,216,172	43.8	258 / 630	19	40.1	2nd	Conservative
1964	Harold Wilson	12,205,808	44.1	317 / 630	59	50.3	1st	Labour
1966		13,096,629	48.0	364 / 630	47	57.8	1st	Labour
1970		12,208,758	43.1	288 / 630	76	45.7	2nd	Conservative
February 1974		11,645,616	37.2	301 / 635	13	47.4	1st	Labour minority
October 1974		11,457,079	39.3	319 / 635	18	50.2	1st	Labour
1979	James Callaghan	11,532,218	36.9	269 / 635	50	42.4	2nd	Conservative
1983	Michael Foot	8,456,934	27.6	209 / 650	60	32.2	2nd	Conservative
1987	Neil Kinnock	10,029,807	30.8	229 / 650	20	35.2	2nd	Conservative
1992		11,560,484	34.4	271 / 651	42	41.6	2nd	Conservative
1997	Tony Blair	13,518,167	43.2	418 / 659	145	63.6	1st	Labour
2001		10,724,953	40.7	412 / 659	6	62.7	1st	Labour
2005		9,552,436	35.2	355 / 646	47	55.0	1st	Labour
2010	Gordon Brown	8,606,517	29.0	258 / 650	90	40.0	2nd	Conservative–Liberal Democrats
2015	Ed Miliband	9,347,324	30.4	232 / 650	26	35.7	2nd	Conservative
2017	Jeremy Corbyn	12,877,918	40.0	262 / 650	30	40.3	2nd	Conservative minority (with DUP confidence and supply)
2019		10,269,051	32.1	202 / 650	60	31.1	2nd	Conservative
2024	Keir Starmer	9,686,329	33.7	411 / 650	209	63.4	1st	Labour

Note

1. See electoral performance and Leader of the Labour Party.
2. The first election held under the Representation of the People Act 1918 in which all men over 21, and most women over the age of 30 could vote, and therefore a much larger electorate.
3. First election held under the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 which gave all women aged over 21 the vote.
4. Franchise extended to all 18 to 20-year-olds under the Representation of the People Act 1969.

Leadership

Leaders of the Labour Party since 1906

Source:

• Keir Hardie (1906–1908)
• Arthur Henderson (1908–1910)
• George Barnes (1910–1911)
• Ramsay MacDonald (1911–1914)
• Arthur Henderson (1914–1917)
• William Adamson (1917–1921)
• J. R. 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)

Deputy Leaders of the Labour Party since 1922

• J. R. Clynes (1922–1932)
• William Graham (1931–1932)
• Clement Attlee (1932–1935)
• Arthur Greenwood (1935–1945)
• Herbert Morrison (1945–1956)
• Jim Griffiths (1956–1959)
• Aneurin Bevan (1959–1960)
• 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 (1994–2007)
• Harriet Harman (2007–2015)
• Tom Watson (2015–2019)
• Angela Rayner (2020–present)

Leaders in the House of Lords since 1924

• Richard Haldane, 1st Viscount Haldane (1924–1928)
• Charles Cripps, 1st Baron Parmoor (1928–1931)
• Arthur Ponsonby, 1st Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede (1931–1935)
• Harry Snell, 1st Baron Snell (1935–1940)
• Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison (1940–1952)
• William Jowitt, 1st Earl Jowitt (1952–1955)
• Albert Victor Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Hillsborough (1955–1964)
• Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford (1964–1968)
• Edward Shackleton, Baron Shackleton (1968–1974)
• Malcolm Shepherd, 2nd Baron Shepherd (1974–1976)
• Fred Peart, Baron Peart (1976–1982)
• Cledwyn Hughes, Baron Cledwyn of Penrhos (1982–1992)
• Ivor Richard, Baron Richard (1992–1998)
• Margaret Jay, Baroness Jay of Paddington (1998–2001)
• Gareth Williams, Baron Williams of Mostyn (2001–2003)
• Valerie Amos, Baroness Amos (2003–2007)
• Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland (2007–2008)
• Janet Royall, Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (2008–2015)
• Angela Smith, Baroness Smith of Basildon (2015–present)

Labour prime ministers

Labour prime ministers

Name	Portrait	Country of birth	Periods in office
Ramsay MacDonald		Scotland	1924; 1929–1931 (first and second MacDonald ministries)
Clement Attlee		England	1945–1950; 1950–1951 (Attlee ministry)
Harold Wilson		England	1964–1966; 1966–1970; 1974; 1974–1976 (first, second, third and fourth Wilson ministries)
James Callaghan		England	1976–1979 (Callaghan ministry)
Tony Blair		Scotland	1997–2001; 2001–2005; 2005–2007 (first, second and third Blair ministries)
Gordon Brown		Scotland	2007–2010 (Brown ministry)
Keir Starmer		England	2024–present (Starmer ministry)

See also

• Labour Representation Committee election results
• List of Labour Party (UK) MPs
• List of organisations associated with the Labour Party (UK)
• List of Labour Party (UK) general election manifestos
• English Labour Network
• Politics of the United Kingdom
• Socialist Labour Party (UK)
• Socialist Party (England and Wales)

Notes

1. See electoral performance and Leader of the Labour Party.

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Further reading

• Bassett, Lewis. "Corbynism: Social democracy in a new left garb." Political Quarterly 90.4 (2019): 777–784 online
• Brivati, Brian, and Richard Heffernan, eds. The Labour Party: A Centenary History (2000) online, 27 chapters by experts
• Davies, A. J. To Build a New Jerusalem: Labour Movement from the 1890s to the 1990s (1996).
• Driver, Stephen and Luke Martell. New Labour: Politics after Thatcherism (Polity Press, wnd ed. 2006).
• Foote, Geoffrey. The Labour Party's Political Thought: A History (Macmillan, 1997).
• Kavanagh, Dennis. The Politics of the Labour Party (Routledge, 2013).
• Morgan, Kenneth O. Labour People: Leaders and Lieutenants, Hardie to Kinnock Oxford University Press, 1992, scholarly biographies of 30 key leaders.
• Pelling, Henry and Alastair J. Reid. A Short History of the Labour Party (12th ed. 2005) excerpt Archived 19 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Pimlott, Ben, and Chris Cook, eds. Trade unions in British politics: the first 250 years (2nd ed. Longman, 1991)
• Plant, Raymond, Matt Beech and Kevin Hickson (2004), The Struggle for Labour's Soul: understanding Labour's political thought since 1945, Routledge
• Rogers, Chris. "'Hang on a Minute, I've Got a Great Idea': From the Third Way to Mutual Advantage in the Political Economy of the British Labour Party." British Journal of Politics and International Relations 15#1 (2013): 53–69.
• Rosen, Greg, ed. Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, 2001, 665pp; short biographies.
• Rosen, Greg. Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, 2005.
• Shaw, Eric. The Labour Party since 1979: Crisis and Transformation (Routledge, 1994).
• Shaw, Eric. "Understanding Labour Party Management under Tony Blair." Political Studies Review 14.2 (2016): 153–162.
• Taylor, Robert. The Parliamentary Labour Party: A History 1906–2006 (2007).

External links

• Official website
• Labour History Group website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics—Special Report: Labour Party
• Labour History Archive and Study Centre holds archives of the National Labour Party
• Labour Party (UK) discography at Discogs
• Catalogue of the Labour Party East Midlands Region archives—held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick

• Labour Party (UK)
• 1900 establishments in the United Kingdom
• Centre-left parties
• Centre-left parties in the United Kingdom
• Social democratic parties in Europe
• Social democratic parties in the United Kingdom
• Socialist International
• Socialist parties in the United Kingdom