History of the Labour Party (UK)

National votes for Labour at general
elections since 1992 (millions)
[1][2]

         England                Wales                Scotland

2.5
5
7.5
10
12.5
15
1992
1997
2001
2005
2010
2015
2017
2019
2024
A graph showing the percentage of the popular vote received by major parties in general elections (1832–2005), with the rapid rise of the Labour Party after its founding during the late 19th century being clear as it became one of the two major forces in politics

The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century and surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it stressed national planning, using nationalisation of industry as a tool, in line with Clause IV of the original constitution of the Labour Party which called for the "common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service" (this clause was eventually revised in 1994).[3]

Labour has had several spells in government, first as minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929–1931. MacDonald and half his cabinet split with the mainstream of the party and were denounced as traitors. Labour was a junior partner in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945. Following the 1945 general election landslide under Clement Attlee (1945–1951) it set up the welfare state with the National Health Service, nationalised a fifth of the economy, joined NATO and opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Under Harold Wilson in 1964–1970 it promoted economic modernisation. Labour was in government again in 1974–1979 under Wilson and then James Callaghan. Escalating economic crises (the "Winter of Discontent") and a split with David Owen and others forming the Social Democratic Party, resulted in opposition status during the Thatcher years from 1979 to 1990.[citation needed]

Labour returned with a 179-seat majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair. The party's large majority in the House of Commons was slightly reduced to 167 in the 2001 general election and more substantially reduced to 66 in the 2005 general election. Under Gordon Brown, it was defeated in the 2010 general election, becoming the opposition to a Conservative/Liberal-Democrat coalition. The party remained in opposition until Keir Starmer won a landslide victory for Labour in the 2024 general election, returning Labour to government.

  1. ^ Cracknell, Richard; Uberoi, Elise; Burton, Matthew (9 August 2023). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2023, A Long Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library. UK Parliament. CBP7529. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  2. ^ "England Election 2024 Results". BBC. 6 July 2024. Retrieved 6 July 2024.
  3. ^ "What is Clause IV and why is it so divisive?". The Independent. 9 August 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2017.