Communist Party of Great Britain
Which party was Walton Newbold a member of from 1921 to 1924?
Walton Newbold John Turner Walton Newbold ( 8 May 1888 – 20 February 1943 ) , generally known as Walton Newbold , was the first of the four Communist Party of Great Britain members to be elected as MPs in the United Kingdom . Biography . Early years . John Turner Walton Newbold was born in Culcheth , Lancashire , on 8 May 1888 , and was educated at Buxton College and the University of Manchester . On leaving university , Newbold lectured in history and politics , and was engaged in industrial and economic research . In 1908 , he joined the Fabian Society , connected with the Labour Party , and then the Independent Labour Party ( ILP ) in 1910 . In line with the ILPs pacifist position on World War I , he joined the No Conscription Fellowship , and was a conscientious objector , although he was in any case found physically unfit for military service . He did a great deal of research into the arms trade and its international connections in the late 19th/early 20th centuries . Whilst still a research student , he married fellow socialist Marjory Neilson on 16 June 1916 . Political career . In 1917 Newbold joined the Labour educational Plebs League and the British Socialist Party ( BSP ) . He had a number of articles published in The Call , the paper of the BSP . By 1920 , he was a committed communist , stating my loyalty , at any rate , is now - as it has been for two and a half years - first and foremost to the position of the Third International . In 1921 he resigned from the ILP and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain , becoming a member of its first central committee . In the 1922 general election , Newbold was elected to represent the Motherwell constituency in the House of Commons . Locally his wife Marjory was well known in working class and socialist groups , from leading social Sunday schools , and adult education and campaigns , and some say he was supported because he was Madges man . Newbold received the support of the Labour Party , but unlike many other Communist candidates , including Shapurji Saklatvala who was elected in the same general election , he stood under the label Communist . Additionally , he was refused permission to take the Labour whip and to sit with the Labour group . As such , he is sometimes counted as the first Communist MP in Britain , although others cite Cecil LEstrange Malone , who switched from the Liberal Party in 1920 , as the first Communist MP . Saklatvala was accepted into the Labour Partys parliamentary caucus but while Newbold applied for the same he was rejected . This did not stop Saklatvala and Newbold from joint activity , however , and the pair attempted to raise the demands of the unemployed and the cause of cheap housing and lower rents whenever possible . Newbold wound up being suspended from the House in May 1923 over his actions with respect to the Curzon ultimatum during the French occupation of the Ruhr . Newbold was sometimes seen as ineffective in Parliament , mocked by many other MPs for his old and frequently dirty clothing , but focused on producing propaganda for the Communist Party . He lost his seat in the 1923 general election , after just over a year in Parliament . Increasingly disillusioned with communism , he resigned from the party in 1924 and rejoined the Labour Party . In 1928 Newbold joined the Social Democratic Federation , and edited its journal , Social Democrat , from 1929 until 1931 , when he supported the National Labour split from Labour . He stood unsuccessfully as the Labour candidate in Epping in the 1929 general election . In the same year he was appointed to the Macmillan Enquiry into the operation of banking in the UK . Death and legacy . Newbold died in February 1943 , aged 54 . List of works . - 1916 : How Europe Armed for War 1871 - 1914 - 1917 : Socialism and Militarism - 1917 : Capitalism and Imperialism - 1920 : Impression of the Communist Unity Convention - 1922 : Egypt and the Entente - 1922 : What is the League of Nations—Anyway ? - 1923 : Communism & the Labour Party - 1923 : The Political Situation in Great Britain - 1933 : Democracy , Debts and Disarmament Sources consulted . - Enemy Within the Empire , Australian League of Rights - The tasks awaiting the Communist Party , Weekly Worker - A . J . P . Taylor - revisionism , age-of-the-sage.org - Revolutionaries and the Labour Party , Duncan Hallas External links . - John Turner Walton Newbold Archive Marxists Internet Archive - Walton Newbold Papers at the John Rylands Library , Manchester .