When the Labour Party returned to power in 1929 to form its second minority government, the number of Labour women MPs doubled from four to nine. In this short newsreel, which would have been shown in cinemas all over the country, Margaret Bondfield introduces her colleagues – four of whom had been re-elected in the general election held on 30 May that year, and five … Continue reading Introducing Labour’s women MPs, 1929
In 1955, as Little Richard tore up the norms of popular music with the opening ‘a wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom’ of Tutti Frutti, the Labour Party reissued its song book. Eschewing the musical revolution then making its way across the Atlantic, the party instead drew on the ‘old favourites’ Continue reading From Joe Hill to the Man Who Waters the Workers’ Beer: a Labour Party song book
James Parker tells the story of Labour’s by-election victory in the Wakefield by-election of 1932. A by-election victory at Wakefield ninety years ago marked the start of the Labour Party’s slow recovery from electoral disaster in 1931. In opposition after the unhappy experience of minority government from 1929-31 and the loss of some of its key leaders to the National Government in August 1931, Labour … Continue reading ‘The beginning of a flowing tide for Labour’? Labour’s Wakefield by-election victory
The housing record of the Labour governments of 1945 to 1951 has traditionally been described as both an underachievement and the welfare state failure of Labour and Aneurin Bevan Continue reading A Radical and Progressive Legacy: Labour’s Housing Record, 1945 to 1951
In 2022, as every year, it is possible to look back and see significant milestones in labour history taking place 25, 50 or 100 years ago. Here we recall seven memorable events, each a quarter of a century further back in time. They include labour movement victories and defeats, and like all of history their interpretation and significance continue to be contested – the role … Continue reading Seven labour history anniversaries in 2022
David Hanson reflects on the political trajectory of a firebrand would-be Labour MP whose early radical ambitions were set out during his first foray into electoral politics in 1895 James Ramsay MacDonald fought his first parliamentary election in 1895. The Independent Labour Party had been founded just two years earlier, and though not a founder member, MacDonald had joined early on after gaining political experience … Continue reading Radical ambition: Ramsay MacDonald and the 1895 general election
Mick Ekers visits Norfolk Record Office to research the life in politics of Tom Higdon, one of the two teachers at the heart of the famous Burston School Strike which lasted from 1914 to 1939. The story of the Burston School Strike is quite well known. In 1914 Annie and Tom Higdon, two teachers in a village school in Norfolk, were sacked as a result … Continue reading Mick Ekers (Essex) on Burston strike school master Tom Higdon and labour activism between the wars
On 13 February 1906 the Labour Group of MPs gathered on the terrace of the House of Commons for a photograph. That photograph would be turned into a postcard, a slightly battered copy of which appears here. Continue reading The Labour Group in the Commons: a postcard from February 1906
Red Wedge brought both music and the most cutting edge designs to Labour politics in the mid 1980s. Mark Crail looks at the badges coveted by a generation – and at the organisation that produced them. The platform was too small for the numerous politicians and musicians intent on making their presence felt in front of a battery of press cameras. But despite the crush, … Continue reading Red Wedge badges: from Constructivism to Neil Kinnock and the Style Council
Labour’s European policies in the Wilson era were shaped not just in Whitehall but by formal and informal links between key players in the party and its Danish counterpart, says Dr Matt Broad, author of Harold Wilson, Denmark and the Making of Labour European Policy, 1958–72 Continue reading The Copenhagen connection: Harold Wilson, Jens Otto Krag and Labour European policy
Society for the Study of Labour History 