'New' Labour was defined in part by wide-ranging reforms to the party's internal democracy. These included changes to how candidates and leaders are selected, changes to policy making processes, and a programme of 'quotas' that transformed women's representation in the party. In the first book to analyse all these reforms in depth Meg Russell asks what motivated them, to what extent they were driven by leaders or members, and what they can teach us both about party organisational change and the nature of power relations in the Labour Party today.
In the early twentieth century, the Labour Party was a growing political force in Britain. Founded in 1900, as an amalgamation of a number of small socialist groups brought together by the Trade Union Congress, by the 1920s it had overtaken the Liberal Party in terms of general election success. It went on to form its first, albeit minority, governments in 1924 and 1929-1931 under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald, who became the first ever Labour Prime Minister. This book, by the acclaimed Labour historian, the late Duncan Tanner, looks at the early years of the Labour Party's history, from the 1906 election, in which the Labour Representative Committee won just 29 seats, to the 1929 election when Labour became the largest party in the House of Commons for the first time. He considers the reasons behind Labour's meteoric rise, together with an analysis of the political and social climate of the time and the impact of World War I and prominent left-wing intellectuals. The catastrophic split of the Liberal Party at the height of World War I gave a large boost to the fledgling Labour Party, who provided a new ideological home for many disenchanted Liberal supporters. The first Labour government, of 1924, lasted a mere nine months, but managed to pass a number of key pieces of social legislation – including the Wheatley Housing Act which provided for the construction of 500,000 homes to be rented to working class families – which was to set the tone for Labour policy for the first of the century. By the time the Party came to power a second time in 1929 they had a stronger base of support, but were still reliant on the floundering Liberal Party in order to pass legislation. This book provides an essential introduction to the early history of the Labour Party, written by one of most respected historians of his generation.
In August 1892, Keir Hardie took up his seat in Parliament as the first independent Labour MP. Hardie's world was a bleak one of factories, cities, fledgling trade unions and manual work. Today, over a century on, the computer terminal has replaced the cloth cap and the party leader, Tony Blair, is on the verge of becoming the first Labour Prime Minister for nearly 20 years.
The Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats each allow their members to participate in the selection of the party leader. It also examines the consequences of all-member ballots in leadership elections. It looks at how parties remove leaders, showing that each of the major British parties sought to make it harder to evict incumbents.
This richly illustrated book focuses on the built culture of the labour movement, largely constructed or funded by workers themselves, whose history and background has until now been largely ignored or forgotten.
Francis examines the relationship between socialist ideas and the policies of the 1945-51 Labour government, insisting that Labour ministers applied specifically socialist precepts to the exercise of power during this period.
The typical contemporary Labour MP is almost certain to be a university-educated Europhile who is more comfortable in the leafy enclaves of north London than the party’s historic heartlands. As a result, Labour has become radically out of step with the culture and values of working-class Britain. Drawing on his background as a firefighter and trade unionist from Dagenham, Paul Embery argues that this disconnect has been inevitable since the Left political establishment swallowed a poisonous brew of economic and social liberalism. They have come to despise traditional working-class values of patriotism, family and faith and instead embraced globalisation, rapid demographic change and a toxic, divisive brand of identity politics. Embery contends that the Left can only revive if it speaks once again to the priorities of working-class people by combining socialist economics with the cultural politics of belonging, place and community. No one who wants to really understand why our politics has become so dysfunctional and what the Left can do to fix it can afford to miss this authentic, insightful and passionate book.
Jeremy Corbyn has proved to be one of Labour's most popular and yet one of its most divisive leaders among the membership. In this carefully researched collection of essays, Corbyn's influence on and legacy for the party are assessed.
