54 Facts About British Labour Party

Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists.

The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum.

British Labour Party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century.

Labour Party originated in the late 19th century, meeting the demand for a new political party to represent the interests and needs of the urban working class, a demographic which had increased in number, and many of whom only gained suffrage with the passage of the Representation of the People Act 1884.

British Labour Party had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united.

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People's History Museum in Manchester holds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries.

At the height of the Home Rule Crisis in 1913, the party, in deference to the Irish Labour Party, decided not to stand candidates in Ireland, a policy the party maintained after partition in 1921.

December 1910 general election saw 42 British Labour Party MPs elected to the House of Commons, a significant victory since, a year before the election, the House of Lords had passed the Osborne judgment ruling that trade union members would have to 'opt in' to sending contributions to British Labour Party, rather than their consent being presumed.

The most significant achievement of the first British Labour Party government was the Wheatley Housing Act, which began a building programme of 500,000 municipal houses for rental to low paid workers.

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 British Labour Party lost credibility by 1931 as unemployment soared, especially in coal, textiles, shipbuilding, and steel.

British Labour Party was promptly replaced as leader by his deputy, Clement Attlee, who would lead the party for two decades.

British Labour Party returned to government in 1940 as part of the wartime coalition.

British Labour Party went on to win the 1950 general election, but with a much-reduced majority of five seats.

Under his replacement, Hugh Gaitskell, British Labour Party appeared more united than before and had been widely expected to win the 1959 general election, but did not.

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.

British Labour Party went on to unexpectedly lose the 1970 general election to the Conservatives under Edward Heath.

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.

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.

The Labour vote held up in the election, with the party receiving nearly the same number of votes than in 1974.

However, the Conservative British Labour 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.

Labour Party was defeated heavily in the 1983 general election, winning only 27.

British Labour Party improved its performance in 1987, gaining 20 seats and so reducing the Conservative majority from 143 to 102.

In November 1990 following a contested leadership election, Margaret Thatcher resigned as leader of the Conservative British Labour Party and was succeeded as leader and Prime Minister by John Major.

Blair said that they aspired to become middle-class and accepted the Conservative argument that traditional British Labour Party was holding ambitious people back to some extent with higher tax policies.

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Black Wednesday in September 1992 damaged the Conservative government's reputation for economic competence, and by the end of that year, British Labour Party had a comfortable lead over the Tories in the opinion polls.

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.

New Labour is a party of ideas and ideals but not of outdated ideology.

In 2003 British Labour Party introduced tax credits, government top-ups to the pay of low-wage workers.

Harriet Harman became the Leader of the Opposition and acting Leader of the Labour Party following the resignation of Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, pending a leadership election subsequently won by Ed Miliband.

The Parliamentary Labour Party voted to abolish Shadow Cabinet elections in 2011, ratified by the National Executive Committee and Party Conference.

Party's performance held up in the 2012 local elections, with Labour consolidating its position in the North and Midlands while regaining some ground in Southern England.

In Scotland, British Labour Party held overall control of Glasgow City Council despite some predictions to the contrary, and enjoyed a +3.

British Labour Party edged out the Conservatives in the 2014 European parliamentary election, winning 20 seats to the Conservatives' 19.

The 2015 general election unexpectedly resulted in a net loss of seats, with British Labour Party representation falling to 232 seats in the House of Commons.

British Labour Party held a leadership election in which Jeremy Corbyn, then a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, was considered a fringe hopeful 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.

British Labour Party was joined by rival challenger Owen Smith, prompting Eagle to withdraw in order to ensure there was only one challenger on the ballot.

The British Labour Party campaign focused on social issues like health care, education and ending austerity.

From 2016, the Labour Party has faced criticism for failing to deal with antisemitism.

In 2018, the British Labour Party was divided over adopting the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism, prompting 68 rabbis from the Jewish community to criticise the leadership for "claiming to know what's good for our community".

British Labour Party's comments were supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

In September 2019, the Labour party committed to a Green New Deal at its 2019 annual conference.

British Labour Party went on to win the leadership contest on 4 April 2020, beating rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy, with 56.

British Labour Party appointed his Shadow Cabinet the following day, which included former leader Ed Miliband, as well as both of the candidates he defeated in the leadership contest.

British Labour Party appointed Anneliese Dodds as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, making her the first woman to serve in that position in either a ministerial or shadow ministerial position.

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British Labour Party held Birmingham Erdington in the by-election and gained Wakefield in the by-election there.

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".

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.

British Labour Party has long been identified with red, a political colour traditionally affiliated with socialism and the labour movement.

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.

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.

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 which informally takes the Labour whip in the House of Commons.

Labour Party was a founder member of the Party of European Socialists.

The Labour Party was represented by Emma Reynolds in the PES presidency.