52 Facts About British Labour

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

British Labour is the largest party in the Senedd, being the only party in the current Welsh government.

British Labour is a member of the Party of European Socialists and Progressive Alliance, and holds observer status in the Socialist International.

British 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 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 British 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 British 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 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, rather than their consent being presumed.

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

British Labour unions were strongly opposed and the British Labour Party officially repudiated the new National government.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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British Labour Party won the 1997 general election in a landslide victory with a parliamentary majority of 179; it was the largest British Labour majority ever, and at the time the largest swing to a political party achieved since 1945.

In 2003 British Labour 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 British Labour Party following the resignation of Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010, pending a leadership election subsequently won by Ed Miliband.

The Parliamentary British 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 British Labour consolidating its position in the North and Midlands while regaining some ground in Southern England.

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

British Labour gained 324 councillors in the 2014 local elections held the same day on 22 May In September 2014, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls outlined his plans to cut the government's current account deficit, and the party carried these plans into the 2015 general election.

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

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

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

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

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

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

British Labour 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 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.

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

The British 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 British Labour "modernisers" were successful in doing so 35 years later.

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

In 1924 a brand conscious British 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.

British Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of individual members and constituency British Labour parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement.

British Labour Party is an unincorporated association without a separate legal personality, and the British Labour Party Rule Book legally regulates the organisation and the relationship with members.

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

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

British 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.