Labour's right is learning from the last civil war Get in touch Labour's right is learning from the last civil war As the Labour left fights to defend leader Jeremy Corbyn, Nick Clark argues that the early 1980s show how focusing on internal battles ends in giving way to the right Published Tue 22 Mar 2016 Issue No. 2496 Liverpool town hall was a stronghold of the Militant Tendency (Pic: Miguel Mendez/Wikimedia Commons) A battle was raging between the left and right inside the Labour Party in the early 1980s. The Labour right feared they were losing control. Two recently re-released books, Hammer of the Left by 1980s Labour politician John Golding and journalist Michael Crick’s Militant, look at what went on then. They are handbooks for a new generation of Labour right wingers learning how to fight old battles. The left, both inside and outside Labour, have lessons to learn from the 1980s too. When the Labour government was booted out of office in 1979 it had spent the previous two years making workers pay for a bosses’ crisis.

A cap on public sector workers’ pay sparked a series of strikes in the winter of 1978-79—the “Winter of Discontent”. There was discontent inside Labour’s own ranks too. Party conferences and its national executive committee frequently passed motions opposed to Labour government policies. None of this bothered prime minister James Callaghan who, in the words of Golding, saw conference decisions “merely as declarations of opinion”. He took Labour into the 1979 general election on a right wing manifesto—and lost. Workers were not inspired to vote for a party that had spent years attacking them, while union leaders held back the struggle. Michael Foot (Pic: National Archive of the Netherlands) Yet anger among Labour activists produced a swing to the left. Denis Healey, the right’s replacement for Callaghan, was defeated by the left’s candidate Michael Foot. But this wasn’t enough to satisfy the Labour left’s desire for change. They demanded the right to re-select sitting MPs before elections and a change in the way the party leader was elected. Previously the leader was elected by Labour MPs only.

But in 1981 the left won a proposal to elect leaders by a “college” of union bloc votes, Constituency Labour Parties and MPs. This small rule change was enough for some right wing Labour MPs, who feared they would further lose control, to threaten resignation. For the left, it was a huge step forwards. That same year, Tony Benn launched a challenge for Labour deputy leader. Benn’s campaign rallies attracted thousands of Labour party activists. They were excited by the rise of the left—and the prospect of a Labour Party that could offer a genuine alternative to Margaret Thatcher. This excitement reflected a genuine desire among sections of workers and trade unionists for a party that can fight for their interests against the Tories and the bosses. For many, that party was Labour. But for Labour politicians, winning elections means having to appeal to voters from all sections of society—not just workers and the left. So they talk of governing in a “national interest”. What they’re really saying is that they’ll try to manage capitalism responsibly—and that means acting in the bosses’ interests. Marxists Tony Cliff and Donny Gluckstein explained that this contradiction is at the heart of the tension between the left and right inside Labour.

They wrote, “Labour voices working class aspirations but only to the extent that they can be fitted into the workings of the national state. “The balance between the two factors is represented in the split between Labour’s left and right—each side representing one aspect of the common reformist whole.” Because the position of Labour MPs relies entirely on being elected, this rightward pull is stronger on them than the activists at Labour’s base. Unfortunately Labour’s focus on parliament and elections also means that MPs are more powerful. So when a group of Labour MPs broke away to form the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, it actually strengthened the right. Crick described how “Foot was coming under increasing pressure from the right”. “The implied threat was that if he did not act against the far left, the ranks of Labour MPs would shrink still further,” he wrote. Spurred on by reports in the media of a “Trotskyite” takeover of the Labour Party, Foot launched an investigation into the far left group Militant. It was the first of many witch-hunts, but the real target was Labour’s hard left around Benn. By attacking Militant, the Labour right hoped to make it harder for the whole left to organise.

For their part, the Bennite left was paralysed. The Labour left also feel the pull of elections and the need to keep the party together, even as the right attacks them. What’s more Labour’s near-defeat at the hands of the SDP in a by-election in the previously safe seat of Warrington shook the party. Many who backed Benn started to fear that the left had gone too far. Benn narrowly lost the deputy leadership election, and he began to lose the support of a layer of trade union officials and soft left MPs he had relied on. In 1982 he agreed not to mount another challenge. The truth was that while there had been a shift to the left among Labour Party activists, the working class was still demoralised and fragmented. This led to a shift to the right and a drain on Labour’s support. The move to the left in Labour was important—it represented a radicalisation of a significant layer of party activists. But the left’s enthusiasm for rule changes and block votes was a world away from the actual experience of the working class. Recent industrial defeats had left workers with little confidence in the possibility of change.

The focus on internal party battles did nothing to relate to that atmosphere, let alone start to change it. Now, faced with the reality of electoral defeat, the left began to chase after right wing votes. Foot backed Thatcher’s war in the Falklands in the “national interest”. To his credit Benn stood against the war, but was increasingly isolated. Even Militant refused to back the call for the withdrawal of the British fleet. Neil Kinnock (Pic: flickr.com/dushenka) When Labour lost the general election again in 1983, Foot was replaced by Neil Kinnock from the party’s soft left. He was backed by many Labour members who had supported Benn in 1981, as well as most of the unions. Now Labour’s return to the right began in earnest. Kinnock made it his task to get rid of Militant completely. This began with an attack on the Militant-controlled Liverpool City Council in 1985 for setting an illegal budget. Kinnock’s plan to “modernise” Labour also included calling for the imprisonment of Poll Tax protesters in 1991—just as they brought down Thatcher.

At a time of huge bitterness towards the Tories, Kinnock managed to lose the elections in 1987 and 1992. His legacy was to pave the way for the era of Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and New Labour. There are important differences today. Labour’s leader Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell have spent their entire political lives on the left. And the vote for Corbyn by more than 88,000 registered supporters—not actual Labour Party members—shows there is a radicalisation taking place beyond Labour’s ranks. But there are similarities, and the danger of repeating old mistakes. Faced with vicious opposition from the party’s right, some on the left are gearing up for more internal battles. Labour conference this September is likely to see lengthy and complicated debates over party rules all with the aim of just keeping Corbyn in place. It’s important to stand up to the Labour right. But the lesson of the 1980s should be that focusing on internal battles eventually means giving way to the right. More than 200,000 people voted for Corbyn as leader. Very few of them will want to take part in bureaucratic wrangling over rule changes in interminable party meetings.

But thousands of them will have joined the Stop Trident and Stand Up to Racism protests this year. Thousands more will probably join the People’s Assembly demonstration against austerity on 16 April. Defending Corbyn from the right will mean building on this potential—not in a fight to change Labour, but in a fight to change society. Read more Labour party | Article about Labour party by The Free Dictionary Labour party | Article about Labour party by The Free Dictionary British political party, one of the two dominant parties in Great Britain since World War I. Origins The Labour party was founded in 1900 after several generations of preparatory trade union politics made possible by the Reform Bills of 1867 and 1884, which enfranchised urban workers. Although the Labour Representation League, organized in 1869, elected parliamentary representatives, they were absorbed into the Liberal party Liberal party, former British political party, the dominant political party in Great Britain for much of the period from the mid-1800s to World War I. Origins ..... Click the link for more information. . A Marxist organization, the Social Democratic Federation, was founded by H. M.

Hyndman Hyndman, Henry Mayers , 1842–1921, English Socialist, an early advocate of Marxism in England. He was a journalist by profession. In 1881 he founded the parent organization of the Social Democratic Federation, which in 1911 became the British Socialist party, with Hyndman ..... Click the link for more information. in 1881; but more important for the history of the Labour party was the founding of the Fabian Society Fabian Society, British socialist society. An outgrowth of the Fellowship of the New Life (founded 1883 under the influence of Thomas Davidson), the society was developed the following year by Frank Podmore and Edward Pease. ..... Click the link for more information. (1883) and the Independent Labour party (ILP; 1893). With the help of the Fabian Society and the Trades Union Congress, the ILP in 1900 set up the Labour Representation Committee, renamed the Labour party in 1906.

The new party elected 29 members to Parliament in 1906; in the two elections of 1910 it elected 40 and 42. Its strength lay in the industrial North and in Welsh mining areas; the evolutionary socialism espoused by the Fabians was the dominant ideology. 1914 to 1945 At the outbreak of World War I, Ramsay MacDonald MacDonald, Ramsay (James Ramsay McDonald), 1866–1937, British statesman, b. Scotland. The illegitimate son of a servant, he went as a young man to London, where he joined the Social Democratic Federation (1885) and the Fabian Society (1886). ..... Click the link for more information. led a pacifist wing of the party, but the majority of the party supported the war effort, and the party's leader, Arthur Henderson Henderson, Arthur, 1863–1935, British statesman, organizer and leader of the British Labour party. In early life he was an ironworker and a labor union leader.

Elected (1903) to Parliament, he was chairman of the parliamentary Labour party (1908–10, 1914–17), ..... Click the link for more information. , served in the wartime coalition governments. Until 1918 the party was distinctly a federation of trade unions and socialist groups and had no individual members. After the war economic depression, the growing political consciousness of the working classes, and the split in the Liberal party gave Labour a national following. In 1918, Labour withdrew completely from the coalition, and in 1922 it became the second largest party in the House of Commons and thus the official opposition. In 1924 the party formed its first ministry, with MacDonald as prime minister. As Labour was a minority in Parliament and depended on Liberal support, the enactment of legislation proved difficult, and the government's domestic program of unemployment relief and housing differed little from that of its Conservative predecessor. Effective primarily in foreign affairs, the ministry recognized the USSR.

The party was turned out of office in Oct., 1924, in an election marked by Conservative exploitation of the Zinoviev letter (see under Zinoviev, Grigori Zinoviev, Grigori Evseyevich , 1883–1936, Soviet Communist leader, originally named Radomyslsky. He joined the Russian Social Democratic Labor party in 1901 and sided with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction after 1903 (see Bolshevism and Menshevism). ..... Click the link for more information. ). In 1929, Labour formed another minority ministry. MacDonald and Philip Snowden Snowden, Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount , 1864–1937, British statesman. Born to poverty, he was a civil service clerk until crippled by a spinal ailment. ..... Click the link for more information. reacted to the severe depression with conservative economic policies that involved reducing unemployment relief. When the majority of the cabinet refused to accede, MacDonald formed (1931) a coalition government, but he and the Labour leaders who joined him were expelled from the party.

Heavily defeated in the election of 1931, the Labour party moved slightly to the left, advocating nationalization of major industries and more progressive taxation. In the next few years Labour found new leaders in Clement Attlee (later Earl Attlee Attlee, Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl , 1883–1967, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he was called to the bar in 1905. ..... Click the link for more information. ), Herbert Morrison, and Ernest Bevin Bevin, Ernest , 1881–1951, British labor leader and statesman. An orphan who earned his own living from childhood, he began a long career as a trade union official when he became secretary of the dockworkers' union in 1911. ..... Click the link for more information. . In the early 1930s the party passed antiwar resolutions and advocated collective security through the League of Nations, but it favored aid to the republican government in the Spanish civil war and eventually came to accept rearmament against the threat from Nazi Germany.

After the fall of France to German forces in World War II, Labour agreed to join Winston Churchill's coalition government; Bevin as minister of labor and Attlee as deputy prime minister, together with other Labour ministers, took charge of domestic affairs during the war years. The Postwar Years In 1945 the party won an overwhelming electoral victory, and Attlee became prime minister in Labour's first majority government. The new government nationalized the Bank of England, the fuel and power industries (coal, electricity, gas, and atomic energy), transportation, and most of the iron and steel industry. It also enacted a comprehensive social security system, which included a national health service. In the areas of colonial and foreign policy, it granted independence to India and Pakistan, Burma (Myanmar), and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and allied itself with the United States in a strong anti-Communist posture. Faced with postwar shortages and the problems of reconstruction, Attlee's government encountered severe financial difficulties, despite American assistance. Rationing continued to be a necessity, economic recovery was slow, and the cost of rearmament increased the strains on the economy.

The government barely maintained its majority in the general elections of 1950, and the following year it was defeated by the Conservatives. During the long period of opposition that followed (the Conservatives were returned to power in 1955 and in 1959), the Labour party argued and almost split on questions of disarmament, aid to developing countries, and furtherance of socialism at home. When Attlee and other elder leaders retired and Hugh Gaitskell Gaitskell, Hugh Todd Naylor , 1906–63, British statesman. Educated at Oxford, he taught economics at the Univ. of London. During World War II he was a civil servant in the new ministry of economic warfare (1940–42) and in the Board of Trade (1942–45). ..... Click the link for more information. became party leader, Aneurin Bevan Bevan, Aneurin , 1897–1960, British political leader. A coal miner and trade unionist, he served (1929–60) in Parliament as a member of the Labour party.

As minister of health (1945–51) he administered and developed the National Health Service instituted by the ..... Click the link for more information. , leading the left wing of the party, unsuccessfully contested Gaitskell's position. Although Bevan was soon reconciled with the party leadership, his supporters continued to urge a policy of diplomatic neutralism and unilateral disarmament, in addition to a strong socialist program. The party's right-wing, on the other hand, argued that prosperity had diminished the appeal of socialism to the average worker and that the party should adopt a broader, more pragmatic program. Gaitskell consolidated his position as leader in the early 1960s, and the party achieved a new solidarity. The 1960s to the Present Harold Wilson Wilson, Harold (James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx), 1916–95, British statesman. A graduate of Oxford, he became an economics lecturer there (1937) and a fellow of University College (1938). ..... Click the link for more information.

, who became leader on Gaitskell's death in 1963, was able to lead the party to victory in 1964. He was prime minister until the Conservative party returned to power in 1970. Wilson's administration was marked by a continued decline in Britain's international political and economic position, which gave little opportunity for social innovation. After 1970, the Labour party, in opposition, again found it difficult to present a united front. The reversal of the party's position on Britain's entry into the European Community (now the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community (EC), an economic and political confederation of European nations, and other organizations (with the same member nations) ..... Click the link for more information. ), after having earlier supported it, and a renewed call for further nationalization of industry were indications of a greater left-wing militancy within the party. The party returned to power as a result of the elections of Feb., 1974, but as a minority government.

Wilson's second administration began renegotiation of the terms of Britain's membership in the European Community and announced plans for large-scale nationalization. Despite continuing economic difficulties he called new elections in Oct., 1974, and Labour won a small majority. James Callaghan Callaghan of Cardiff, Leonard James Callaghan, Baron, 1912–2005, British statesman. He was first elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1945. As chancellor of the exchequer (1964–67), he introduced extremely controversial taxation policies, including employment ..... Click the link for more information. took over as prime minister following Wilson's resignation in 1976. The party lost power to the Conservatives under Margaret Thatcher Thatcher, Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, Baroness, 1925–2013, British political leader. Great Britain's first woman prime minister, nicknamed the "Iron Lady" for her uncompromising political stance, Thatcher served longer than any other British prime minister in the 20th ..... Click the link for more information. in the 1979 elections and remained in the opposition until the late 1990s.

Michael Foot Foot, Michael, 1913–2010, British politician. He joined the Labour party in the 1930s, entered Parliament in 1945, and served there until 1992. An superb debater and orator, he became an eloquent spokesperson for Labour's radical left wing. ..... Click the link for more information. became party leader in 1980 but was succeeded by Neil Kinnock Kinnock, Neil Gordon , 1942–, British politician, b. Tredegar, Wales. The son of a miner, he studied at University College, Cardiff. In 1970 he was elected to Parliament as a Labour party member. ..... Click the link for more information. in 1983. Kinnock led the party to abandon some of its traditional left-wing positions but proved unable to achieve victory at the polls. He resigned in 1992 after the Conservative victory in the general elections and was succeeded by John Smith Smith, John, 1938–94, British politician.

A barrister, he was first elected to Parliament in 1970 as a Labour party member from Scotland. He served as secretary for trade in 1970 and subsequently as Labour spokesperson on a number of economic and industrial issues, ..... Click the link for more information. . After Smith's untimely death in 1994, moderate Tony Blair Blair, Tony (Anthony Charles Lynton Blair), 1953–, British politician, b. Edinburgh. An Oxford-educated lawyer, he was first elected to Parliament in 1983 as the Labour party candidate from a district in N England. ..... Click the link for more information. was chosen to lead the party. Under Blair's leadership, the party formally abandoned traditional socialism in 1995 and subsequently won (1997, 2001) consecutive resounding victories at the polls. The party's narrower victory in 2005 marked the first time Labour had won three consecutive national elections. Blair stepped down as party leader and prime minister in 2007, and was succeeded by Gordon Brown Brown, Gordon (James Gordon Brown), 1951–, British politician.

From 1975 to 1980 he taught at Edinburgh Univ. and Glasgow College of Technology; he then joined Scottish Television (1980–83) as a journalist. ..... Click the link for more information. . In the 2010 elections Brown and Labour lost to the Conservatives, who won a plurality. Brown resigned the party leadership, and Ed Miliband was elected party leader. In 2015 Labour did poorly, in part because of the successes of the Scottish National party, and Miliband stepped down. Jeremy Corbyn succeeded him. Bibliography See H. Wilson, The Labour Government 1964–1970 (1971); B. Jones and M. Keating, Labour and the British State (1985); K. Laybourn, The Rise of Labour (1988). Labour Party 1. a British political party, formed in 1900 as an amalgam of various trade unions and socialist groups, generally supporting the interests of organized labour and advocating democratic socialism and social equality 2.

any similar party in any of various other countries Parliamentary Labour Party papers - THE PARLIAMENTARY LABOUR PARTY PAPERS, 1968/69-1993/94 An Introduction by Stephen Bird, Archivist, the Labour History Archive and Study Centre, Manchester The Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), the organisation of Labour Members of Parliament was founded in 1906, after Labour representation had increased from 2 to 30. Their situation changed very little from that date to 1968. Once they had been selected by their Constituency Labour Party (CLP) as the candidate for their first election, their security depended on the size of their majority and the whims of the electorate. The only reasons for their de-selection by the Partyï¿½s National Executive Committee (NEC) were their joining another political party (openly or covertly) or their committing a criminal offence. In addition, the members of the PLP had considerable power.

It was they who elected the leader, deputy leader, the Shadow Cabinet (Parliamentary Committee) and the Liaison (formerly Executive) Committee, which sat during the period of a Labour government; and it was they who, with the NEC, wrote the General Election manifestos. The years 1968 to 1994 were the most turbulent in the PLPï¿½s history. The grass roots of the Party became very restless and challenged the MPsï¿½ hegemony. The left wing activism of the 1950s and the 1960s over nuclear disarmament, South Africa, racial discrimination, Vietnam and homelessness was to manifest itself more vigorously within the Labour Party in the 1970s and the 1980s. The bad economic situation reinforced this militancy. In 1968 Harold Wilson had been Prime Minister for four years. The Labour majority in the House of Commons had substantially increased from 3 to 96 in the General Election of 1966. However, the Party was suffering electoral losses in local government elections and parliamentary by-elections.

There was also active concern at the Partyï¿½s grass roots about the governmentï¿½s support for the American military involvement in Vietnam and for the counter-inflationary economic policy pursued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Roy Jenkins. In 1969, echoing the Labour Partyï¿½s long-held concern about the negative publicity on unofficial strikes, Barbara Castle, the Minister of Employment introduced her bill on industrial relations reform, called In Place of Strife. This naturally was strongly opposed by the trade unions. There was also strong opposition within the PLP, many of whose members were trade unionists themselves or had trade union sponsorship. Harold Wilson had to submit to union pressure as well as to opposition within the cabinet led by the Home Secretary, James Callaghan, and withdraw the bill. In the General Election of June 1970, Harold Wilsonï¿½s government was defeated. Many within the Party believed that the election defeat was due to its policies not being radical enough. The subsequent problems experienced by Edward Heathï¿½s Conservative government reinforced this belief. The Industrial Relations Act, which for the first time brought trade unions under common law, became a legal nightmare.

Trade unionists ended up being imprisoned, which was never meant to happen. The minersï¿½ strike of 1972 led to a three-day working week. The government had to bow to the minersï¿½ demands. The following year the miners put in a further pay demand, which the government could not accept, and the miners went on a work-to-rule. On the 28th of February 1974 Edward Heath went to the country. The result was a hung parliament with the Labour Party returning the most MPs. Labour were back in power with a minority government; the minersï¿½ work-to-rule was called off. In October of the same year Harold Wilson called another election, and Labour was returned with a majority of three. There was one significant event that was to have repercussions in both the main political parties. In 1973 Edward Heath signed the Treaty of Rome, making the United Kingdom a member of the European Economic Community (EEC). The Labour Party was divided over the issue. When the vote on accession to the EEC was put in parliament in 1971, 69 Labour MPs voted against the whip and with the Conservative government.

In terms of its members the Labour government of 1974 was more left-wing than any of its predecessors. The veteran left-winger, Michael Foot, became Minister of Employment; Tony Benn became Minister of Industry; and Barbara Castle, Minister of Health and Social Security. The issue of EEC membership was temporarily settled by a referendum put to the British electorate in 1975. However, the economic situation was difficult. Inflation rose to 26 percent, and unemployment topped one and a half million. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Denis Healey was forced to go to the International Monetary Fund to bale out the British economy, which entailed cuts in public expenditure. Although the situation improved, the policies pursued by the government were not popular within the Party. Denis Healey was heavily criticised at the Party conference. The Conservatives in the meantime elected a new leader, Margaret Thatcher in January 1975. Many in the Labour Party thought they could benefit from this change of leadership. They were to be proved very wrong. In 1976 Harold Wilson suddenly and unexpectedly resigned. The PLP undertook another election for the Party leadership and chose James Callaghan.

A significant factor in this election was the support for Michael Foot, who actually got more votes than Callaghan in the first ballot. Foot was to be compensated later in the year when he won the post of deputy leadership following the resignation of the incumbent Edward Short. Under Callaghan, there were further nationalisations of the oil and aerospace industries. Bills were passed giving parliaments to Scotland and Wales, subject to referendums. In 1977 Labour lost its majority and entered a pact with the Liberals. In spite of inflation and extensive redundancies arising from the economic situation, the trade union leaders restrained their members from taking industrial action. However, there was a series of industrial disputes during the winter of 1978 and 1979. This combined with a no vote in Wales and a close yes vote in Scotland in the devolution referendums led to the governmentï¿½s defeat in a vote of no confidence in Parliament. In the General Election of May 1979, Labour lost 51 seats, and the Conservatives were returned to power. It was during the following eighteen years of opposition that the Labour Party underwent the most profound change in its history.

The 1979 defeat was followed by a series of conferences that were to affect the PLPï¿½s role within the Party. After the 1979 annual conference, every MP had to face re-selection by his or her CLP. At a special conference in 1981 it was agreed that the leader and deputy leader of the Party would be elected by a combination of trade unions, CLPs and MPs. Before that policy could be put into effect, Callaghan resigned and the MPs elected Michael Foot. Under the new system Tony Benn challenged Denis Healey for the deputy leadership, but was very narrowly defeated at the annual conference. Also in 1981, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, William Rodgers and David Owen left the Labour Party and formed the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which attracted another 27 MPs. Shortly thereafter the SDP made an alliance with the Liberal Party, resulting in significant successes in local and national by-elections. Shirley Williams, who had been defeated in 1979, and Roy Jenkins, who had left Parliament to become the President of the European Commission in 1975, were both returned to Parliament as SDP MPs.

In 1979, whilst leaving the Party's constitution unchanged, the Party conference decided that the NEC alone should write the manifesto. This led to a series of left-wing programmes, which included unilateral nuclear disarmament and withdrawal from the EEC. Margaret Thatcherï¿½s Conservative government was not popular. By 1981, unemployment had begun to mount again; and the Tories suffered as much as the Labour Party from the emergence of the SDP. However, in 1982 the defeat of the Argentines in the Falkands War guaranteed the Conservatives an increased majority in the General Election in June 1983. The PLP membership fell from 268 to 209. Not long after the 1983 General Election Michael Foot resigned as Party leader. The electoral college elected Neil Kinnock as leader and Roy Hattersley as deputy. At the Party conference of that year, it was agreed that re-selection of a sitting MP would only take place when a CLP asked for it. The NEC and the PLP agreed to co-operate in formulating policies for Election Manifestos. Policies began to change.

Among the first to go were withdrawal from the EEC and opposition to the sale of council houses. Efforts were made to improve the Partyï¿½s image, particularly after the appointment of Peter Mandelson as its Press Officer. The most significant event during the 1983 Parliament was the minersï¿½ strike of 1984-85. Not only did it symbolise the clash between the free-market ideas of Margaret Thatcher and old, confrontational trade unionism personified by the minersï¿½ leader, Arthur Scargill, but its defeat marked the end of the militant trade unionism that caused so much concern within the Labour Party. The Conservative government passed new legislation, requiring ballots for strikes and union officers. And this in turn affected the long traditional role the unions played within the Party itself. In June 1987, Mrs Thatcher called a third General Election. In spite of a good campaign, the Labour Party gained only 20 additional seats. In the light of this, Neil Kinnock set up policy reviews. The Party was already moving towards more moderate policies, which included making no high-spending commitments and stressing limited taxation. Even nuclear disarmament was abandoned.

At the 1985 annual conference, Kinnock had made a powerful speech against the Trotskyist Militant Tendency, which controlled the youth section of the Party. Steps were taken to expel these members, including its four MPs. The concept of ï¿½New Realismï¿½ emerged. The Left tried to make a fight back. In 1988 Tony Benn made a bid for the leadership, with Eric Heffer as his deputy. They were soundly beaten. In 1990 after a challenge from Michael Heseltine, Margaret Thatcher suddenly resigned. The Conservative MPs elected John Major, who got rid of Mrs Thatcherï¿½s albatross, the Poll Tax. There had been hopes that Labour would be returned at the next General Election. When it was called in April 1992, however, Labour only had a net gain of 42 seats. Neil Kinnock resigned as leader. The Party elected John Smith, Kinnockï¿½s shadow chancellor. Smith set about continuing the policy changes started by Kinnock. He accompanied these with reforms within the Party. In 1993 some CLPs were instructed to have all women short-lists.

The biggest change however that year was the adoption of one member one vote for parliamentary selection, the NEC and the election of the leader and deputy leader. In 1994 John Smith suddenly died of a heart attack. There were two contenders for the leadership. Both were young intakes of 1983. Their names were Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Gordon Brown withdrew, enabling Tony Blair to become leader; and a new era began for the Labour Party and its MPs. The minutes of the PLP reflect all these changes. The Labour MPs had lost power and regained some of it. The other source of influence within the Party, the trade unions, who once wielded their might with great effect, were no longer the power they were. The ordinary Party member in theory had more influence than in 1968, but in practice this power was questionable. _______________ To cite this resource: Bird, Stephen (2004) The Parliamentary Labour Party papers, 1968/9-1993/4 : an introduction, Last updated: 19 March 2008.

© 2007 Microform Academic Publishers h2g2 - Leaders of the UK's Labour Party Who Didn't Become Prime Minister - Edited Entry To The Galaxy Earth Edition Leaders of the UK's Labour Party Who Didn't Become Prime Minister Content from the guide to life, the universe and everything Leaders of the UK's Labour Party Who Didn't Become Prime Minister Created 5 Conversations The British Labour Party 1 was founded in 1900. Since then, when all but one Conservative leader rose to the highest office in the land, Prime Minister, many Labour leaders didn't. This entry looks at those Labour men who never quite made it to Number 10 Downing Street 2 . It looks at the events that led to each man's rise to power in the Party, and what stopped them from becoming Prime Minister. James Keir Hardie Keir Hardie was born in 1856 in Legbrannock, Lanarkshire, Scotland. In 1892, he became the first representative of working class men in the House of Commons when he won an election as an independent candidate.

He was born to an unmarried farm servant (though his mother later married a ship's carpenter) and his childhood was spent in Glasgow and Lanarkshire's coal fields. He never attended school because at an early age he started his working life down the pits. In the 1870s, however, he became blacklisted by the Lanarkshire pit owners for organising a strike. He moved to Ayr where he became secretary of the miners' organisation. He also took up journalism and founded (and edited) The Miner and Labour Leader periodical. He went on to form the Scottish Labour Party in 1888 and in the same year he fought - and lost - his first election. In 1889, Keir Hardie won an election and took his place in Parliament. Following a meeting in Bradford he also became one of the founding fathers of the nationwide Independent Labour Party. The Independent Labour Party was formed to have Christian, British and working class appeal unlike the Fabian Society which was middle-classed, Marxist and therefore foreign-inspired and atheistic. In 1895, Hardie lost his seat in the election. He set about forming the Labour Representative Party along Parliamentary lines similar to those of the Liberals and Conservatives.

He returned to Westminster after an election victory at the 1900 election, the same year that the Labour Representative Party was officially formed (they would later become the Labour Party). Hardie eventually became the elected leader (initially chairman) of the Party and after the 1906 election, when 29 members of the Labour Representative Committee won seats, he was made the Parliamentary leader. He was replaced as leader of the Party by George Barnes in 1910 and the following year he relinquished the position of Party secretary to Ramsey McDonald, a fellow Scot, who in 1924 became the first Labour Prime Minister. Hardie died in 1915 having seen the cause of the Labour movement establish a foothold in Westminster and form part of the War Time Coalition Parliament. George Barnes George Barnes continued the Scottish trend for leadership of the Labour Party. He was born in Dundee in 1859, although his family later moved to Liverpool before settling in London. He joined the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (ASE) but, though he attended meetings of the Social Democratic Federation and the Socialist League, he did not join either of these movements, disapproving of the idea of Socialist Revolution.

On 13 February, 1887, Barnes attended a demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London. The result turned into a riot, known as 'Bloody Sunday' 3 , in which Barnes was injured under the hoofs of a mounted police horse. In 1896, Barnes became a full-time union official when he was elected General Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers (at the time the third largest union in the UK) and worked closely with other officials including Keir Hardie. In 1900, at a meeting in London he was one of 129 delegates who decided to pass Hardie's motion to establish 'a distinct Labour group in Parliament'. Two years later, Barnes set up a committee to look at the subject of old age pensions. For the next three years he travelled the country urging for social welfare reform and watching popular support grow. At the 1906 election, this reforming policy helped Barnes defeat Andrew Bonar Law, a Conservative Cabinet minister (and future Tory leader). Though the Liberal Party won the overall election, Chancellor Lloyd George took heed of the popularity of these policies and introduced them in his own budget in 1908.

Barnes believed that the Labour movement should have been championing causes such as pensions and social reform rather than getting side-tracked on minor issues. It was this focus that led to the Party proposing that he replace Hardie as Party leader. With the outbreak of World War I, Barnes came out strongly in favour of military action and went to Canada to encourage their engineers to come and work in the UK to support the war effort 4 . Not even the loss of his son in the war in 1915 changed his views on it being a necessary war. In 1916, however, he remained one of the few Labour MPs in support of the effort. Unrest was growing in Parliament with the way Prime Minister Herbert Asquith was running the country. Barnes supported the rival Liberal faction, led by Lloyd George, in their quest to gain power of the Party and country. He was rewarded with a new post of Pensions Minister in Lloyd George's coalition government. When the war ended in 1918, so did the coalition and Barnes resigned from the Labour Party to stay on as an independent Minister for Pensions, until ill health in 1920 forced him to retire.

He was unable to gain support from the Party for the 1922 election and so resigned from the commons. He died in 1940. Arthur Henderson At the start of World War I, Ramsey McDonald made way for yet another Scot to lead the Party. Arthur Henderson was born in Glasgow in 1863 and worked as an iron moulder in Robert Stevenson's locomotive works in Newcastle. His political life started as a Liberal councillor in Newcastle, Darlington and Durham, eventually rising to the position of Mayor of Darlington by 1903. Later that year he became the first Labour member of Parliament to beat both a Conservative and Liberal candidate 5 in Barnard Castle, Durham. Henderson was appointed Party Secretary in 1911 and also became Leader of the Party in 1914 after a majority of Labour MPs backed the war effort and forced the resignation of McDonald, a pacifist. In the two subsequent coalition governments, headed first by Asquith, then by Lloyd George, Henderson served in both Cabinets as the sole Labour representative.

However, he resigned from the Cabinet and the 'five-man war Cabinet' after a disagreement with Lloyd George over a proposal from the Russian Aleksander Kerensky for a Socialist conference. Henderson retired from the front bench while remaining leader of the Labour Party, though he later lost his seat in the 1918 election and was forced to resign as Party leader. When Ramsey McDonald came to power in 1922 and formed the first ever Labour administration, he called on Henderson to serve as Home Secretary, a position he led until November 1924 when he took the position of Foreign Secretary. He became a strong supporter of the fledgling League of Nations was chosen to head the World Disarmament Conference which first met in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1932. Henderson resigned from McDonald's Cabinet in August, 1931, when the need grew for another coalition government. However, in 1935, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on disarmament, no doubt due in part to his promotion of the League of Nations' Armament Limitation plan during his visits to Paris, Rome, Berlin, Prague and Munich.

William Adamson After Henderson's fall out with Lloyd George, another Scot, William Adamson - a Dunfermline-born former miner - took over the Party leadership until 1921. He was first elected to Parliament in 1910 for West Fife. He became the first Labour Secretary of State for Scotland following McDonald's successful 1923 election, a post he held for the short 11 months that administration held power. He returned to the Scottish Office in 1929 when Labour returned to power, but the disastrous election of 1931 (which left the Party in turmoil) saw Adamson ousted (only 46 Labour MPs managed to retain their seats). He died in 1936. John Clynes Clynes was born in Oldham in 1869 and worked in the mills in the town. He argued that the Spinners Union was not doing enough for the child labourers and so in 1886 he helped set up the Piercers Union to protect their rights. He was a delegate at the 1900 Independent Labour Party conference and became a Union Representative on the LRC executive.

He was elected vice-chairman of the Party in 1910. Clynes was also a writer, contributing to The Clarion and other Socialist newspapers. He stood in the 1906 election for North East Manchester and won. He was a strong supporter of votes for woman and, like Adamson, he was one of the small numbers of Labour members in support of the War, and was rewarded by Lloyd George with a position in the post-war coalition government, that of Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Food. When Henderson lost his seat in 1918, Clynes became leader of the House of Commons. He took over as leader of the Party as a whole in 1921 up until McDonald was returned as Member for Aberavon in the 1922 election. Clynes was appointed Leader of the House in the first Labour administration and in 1929 he was appointed Home Secretary. He was one of those who voted against McDonald and the May committee's proposed reforms, which led to the disastrous 1931 election where Clynes lost his seat. He regained it, however, in 1935 and held it until he retired from Parliament in 1945.

He died aged 80 in 1949. George Lansbury George Lansbury was born in Suffolk in 1859, but his family moved to East London when he was very young. At age 11, he started to work in an office, but after a year he returned to school until he was 14 before becoming a clerk, grocer and worker in a coffee house. He later set up his own business as a contractor working for Great Western Railways and in 1884 he decided to emigrate with his wife and family of three to Australia. They didn't settle, however, returning to England a year later, with Lansbury taking a position in his father-in-law's timber merchants. Lansbury felt that his unhappiness in Australia was caused by false propaganda being spread by the emigration authorities, a feeling which inspired him to join a campaign against the policies enticing immigrants to make the long voyage. In the 1886 general election, he joined the Liberal Party and was soon elected secretary of the Bow and Bromley Liberal Association, but eventually he became disillusioned with the Party.

He became a member of the Gasworkers and General Labourers Union in 1889 and joined the local strike committee for the London dockers' industrial action that year. This led to him meeting Henry Hyndman who was leader of the Social Democratic Federation. In 1895, he contested his first election as a Social Democratic Federation candidate in Walworth. His 204 votes were not enough for him to win, though this did not put him off, as he stood again in 1900. This time his 2,558 votes were less than 2,000 behind the Conservative victor. However, he was finding it more difficult as a Christian Socialist to get on with the atheistic vision of Hyndman. In 1903, he defected to the Independent Labour Party. Since 1892, he'd been on the Board of Guardians of the Poplar Workhouse, but in 1906 a government enquiry was held to investigate wastage of ratepayers' money on generous treatment of the workhouse poor and the funding of the Laindon Farm Colony. Lansbury argued his case for treating people in workhouses with dignity.

The government report though critical of the Guardians, did not result in a change of policy and eventually the authorities decided not to take action against them. This increased Lansbury's status within the Party. In 1910, he was eventually elected to Parliament as a Labour MP and along with Keir Hardie led the campaign for women's votes. In the heat of debate, however, Lansbury was ordered to leave the House of Commons. He had told Asquith, the Prime Minister that he was 'beneath contempt' while shaking his fist in Asquith's face because of the treatment of suffragettes. Many other members of the Labour Party, however, said that until the suffrage of all working class men was universal, they would not begin to fight for the rights of women. To highlight the issue further, Lansbury resigned his seat in 1912 and fought the by-election solely on the issue of woman's votes. Apparently, his constituents weren't ready for this kind of progressive thinking; he lost by 731 votes. However, he carried on the fight for universal suffrage, even being imprisoned for making speeches in favour of the suffragettes.

He also took to journalism, founding the Daily Herald in 1911 and becoming the newspaper's editor two years later. The Daily Herald supported the majority Labour view in opposing the War but, like other anti-war Labour candidates, in 1918 Lansbury still failed to get re-elected. However, Lansbury did gain a local council seat and in 1921 served as Mayor of Poplar, seeing the council increase spending on poor relief. Lansbury, along with the majority of the council, went to prison for over four months, for going against government policy on this issue. In the election of 1922, Lansbury was returned as member for Bow and Bromley with an impressive majority of 7000. In 1931, Ramsey McDonald had a dispute which led to the creation of the short-lived Nationalist government, though he carried on as Prime Minister without the support of the rest of the Labour Party. Lansbury replaced him as leader of the Labour Party - effectively in opposition to the former Labour leader's new government. With fascism growing in Italy, however, Lansbury remained opposed to the use of force to suppress it.

So when the League of Nations proposed military action to counter Italy's invasion of Abyssinia, Lansbury refused to support this move. Several leading members of his own Party criticised this decision and forced him to resign. Lansbury carried on his pacifist agenda as the shadow of another great war threatened Europe. He had talks with Adolf Hitler and believed - as did others - that it was still possible to reach an agreement that would prevent the inevitability of war. His efforts proved fruitless, however. He died in May, 1940, as war raged across Europe. Hugh Gaitskell Gaitskell was born in London in 1906, the year Labour first returned more than one member to Parliament. After a career as a university lecturer, he entered Parliament in 1945 and in 1955 - four years after the fall of Clement Atlee's post-war government - the Party elected him as Atlee's successor. His relative inexperience, having only entered the Commons in the post-war election, didn't prevent him from rising rapidly through the ranks. Throughout the war, he had worked for the Ministry of Economic warfare.

He entered the Cabinet in 1947 as Minster for Fuel and Power and he was appointed Minister of State for Economic Affairs in 1950. Later that same year he became Chancellor of the Exchequer. However, the following year the Conservatives regained power and he was sitting on the Opposition benches. His appointment as leader surprised many as he defeated two senior figures in the Party, Herbert Morrison and Aneurin ('Nye') Beven. His leadership faced an early test when his Party lost to the Conservatives in the 1959 election. The following year brought more trouble when the Labour Party's ruling National Executive opposed unilateral nuclear disarmament, but at the Party conference the Party members voted in favour of it. He survived to see the decision overturned the following year and set the Party on course to oppose membership of the EEC, which the Conservatives at the time were keenly negotiating. His sudden death in 1963 of a heart attack led to Harold Wilson becoming leader of the Party. Wilson would, of course, become Labour's most successful election winner.

Michael Foot Following James Callaghan's defeat to the Conservative's Margaret Thatcher in the 1979 election, The Labour Party's 1980 conference showed a move towards the far-left wing of the Party. 67-year-old Michael Foot defeated the more moderate choice of the slightly younger Dennis Healey by just 10 votes. Healey went on to only narrowly defeat another left-winger, Tony Benn 6 , in the vote for deputy leader. Foot came from a Liberal family; his father represented the Liberals as a Member of Parliament. Foot was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and began a career in newspapers as an editor and columnist. He turned to Socialism because of the mass unemployment caused by the depression. He entered Parliament in 1945 the same year as Gaitskell, Wilson and Callaghan, and remained there (aside from a brief break from 1955 - 1960) until he retired from Parliament in 1987. During Wilson's second tenure at Number 10, Foot entered the Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Employment and then under Callaghan he became Leader of the House from 1976, while also being the deputy leader.

He was notoriously scruffy in appearance with flyaway, unkempt hair and going about in very much working-class clothes, including his favourite camel-hair jacket. However, following his appointment as leader (coupled with other extreme left-wing tendencies arising in the Party), some of the more moderate membership of the Party resigned to form the Social Democratic Party (which later merged with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats). Foot was a great advocate for trade unionism and nuclear disarmament. His leadership of the Party led to an even more crushing defeat at the hands of Thatcher's Conservatives and forced his resignation after the election of 1983. He was succeeded by Neil Kinnock. In 2001, at the age of 89, Foot was made a director of his beloved Plymouth Argyle Football Club . Neil Kinnock Neil Kinnock was only three years old when his four immediate predecessors as leader all entered Parliament in 1945. His election as leader in 1983 made him the youngest man so far (at just 41) to lead the Party. He was a Welsh miner's son who became the first member of his family ever to attend university, University College, Cardiff.

From there he went on to organise and teach industrial and trade union studies at the Workers' Educational Association. In 1970, he was elected to Parliament as member for Bedwelty. Soon he was recognised as a great debater and speechmaker and started his rapid ascension through the Party ranks, although this may have been aided slightly by the patronage of Michael Foot. From 1974 - 75 he served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for employment. In 1978, he was first elected to the Labour Party's ruling National Executive Committee. The 1983 election had been a disaster and the Party wanted someone to unite the warring factions of the Party, which Foot had failed to do, and which had resulted in the Party's biggest defeat in 67 years. Despite never holding even a junior ministerial post, he emerged victorious in the leadership votes ahead of Roy Hattersley (who instead became deputy leader). At the start of his leadership, Kinnock supported the Party's stance on disarmament and the removal of US nuclear weapons and bases from the UK.

However, after Labour lost the 1987 election to Thatcher for a third time, Kinnock managed to persuade his Party to revise some of their major policies, including its pro-unilateral disarmament stance and the large scale intent to re-nationalise the industries that the Conservatives had privatised. However, even with the in-fighting in the Conservative Party, Kinnock was unable to defeat Thatcher's successor, John Major, at the 1992 election. Kinnock resigned as Party Leader in the hope that some new impetuous into his revitalising policies could enable the Party to overhaul the conservatives and make Labour electable again. His was succeeded by John Smith. After stepping down as Labour leader, Kinnock went on to become a United Kingdom Commissioner to the European Parliament, and in 1994, his wife Glynis joined him as a member of the European Parliament. John Smith John Smith was born in 1938. He studied law at Glasgow University along with Donald Dewar (who would go on to become the first 'First Minister' of the new Scottish Parliament).

The two student lawyers practised their debating skills at university forming a considerable partnership even winning the Observer Mace, the premier British debating contest. He went on to practise as a barrister in Scotland. He was first elected to Parliament as the MP for Monklands East in 1970. He was appointed Secretary of State for Trade in 1978, and, in opposition following the election of Margaret Thatcher, he served as spokesman on economic and industrial issues. Considered by many to be a moderate, his politics were more to the centre than his more left-wing predecessors. In 1992, following a fourth successive election defeat and Kinnock's subsequent resignation as leader, John Smith was elected Party leader, beating Bryan Gould with over 90% of the vote. He promised to continue the process of reform, including tackling the trade union block. Smith showed compassion and was careful in how fast and how far to move his Party along to a position of electability. He continued along the road to recovery that Kinnock had put the Party.

At the Party conference in 1993, he guided the Party towards greater democracy by persuading Party members to adopt the long-debated 'One Member, One Vote' policy that prevented the trade unions imposing control of the Parliamentary selection process by taking away their direct representation via the unions and giving it to the members as individuals. However, while being careful in dealing with his own Party, Smith displayed a keen 'cut and thrust' as a debater in the House of Commons. One of his finest hours came on 16 September, 1992 - 'Black Wednesday' - when the Conservatives faced an economic crisis which saw interest rates rise to fend off devaluation of the pound, before leaving the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System. As the Conservatives panicked to keep up with fast-moving events, Smith took every opportunity to question the decisions made on that day and after. In May 1994, Labour recorded what was, at the time, their greatest local election results. On 11 May, Smith told a gathering of Party supporters that his Labour Party wanted 'a chance to serve; that is all we ask'. This public speech would be his last. Early the next morning he died of a massive heart attack.

It was a shock to the Party and the nation as a whole; Smith was seen as Labour's best hope in years of wresting power from the Conservatives. On his death, even his Conservative opponents admitted that they had admired and respected his common sense approach to politics, people and the economy. Tony Blair was elected as Smith's successor. Inheriting a Party that was now more electable than they had been for two decades, Blair was in the enviable position of being able to take advantage of the reforms of his two predecessors and guide his Party back into power. 1 Since it first appeared on the political scene, the Labour Party in Britain has generally been the main source of opposition to the Conservative Party. Traditionally, it has been linked to Socialist ideals, though the 'New Labour' of the 1990s has tried to distance itself from Socialism. 2 No 10 Downing Street is the official residence of the Prime Minister. 3 Not to be confused with a later 'Bloody Sunday', which happened on 10 January, 1972. 4 Many 'Maple Leaf clubs' (as they were known) are still present in working class areas of the UK.

5 At this time not all constituencies were contested by the three national parties and some even had just one candidate. 6 A former Lord who relinquished his title to join the House of Commons. BBC Politics 97 Background Harold Wilson's successor as Prime Minister and Labour leader, Jim Callaghan The Labour government that came to power in 1974 (as a minority administration from February and with a wafer thin majority from October) faced difficult economic circumstances, with inflation and unemployment both running at post-war record levels. The government also 're-negotiated' the UK's terms of entry into the EEC and had this endorsed in the 1975 referendum. in April 1976, Prime Minister Harold Wilson was succeeded by Jim Callaghan. Callaghan had been Chancellor and Home Secretary in the 1964-70 adminstration and served as Foreign Secretary from 1974. He remains the only Prime Minister to have served in all three 'great offices of state' before entering Number 10. Callaghan's parliamentary position became increasingly precarious. By April 1976 the government had lost its formal majority.

The immediate reasons were a by-election defeat, the defection of two of Callaghan's backbenchers to form a new 'Scottish Labour Party' and the defection of the maverick John Stonehouse. However, Callaghan managed to survive, mainly because the other opposition parties did not seem ready to unite to defeat him. By March 1977, after further by-election losses, he agreed to a parliamentary arrangement with David Steel and the Liberal Party which became known as the 'Lib-Lab Pact'. The Lib-Lab pact ended in August 1978. The pact had been unpopular with some activists in both Parties, and in any case, an election was expected soon. Callaghan could have gone to the country in the Autumn of 1978. The economy was improving and the Government had recovered some of its popularity. There was considerable speculation and controversy in the Cabinet about when the best time to go would be. Callaghan sought to end the speculation by singing an old Marie Lloyd song 'Waiting at the Church' to the TUC Congress. This was misunderstood in some quarters and he put the country's mind at rest in a broadcast in which he confirmed that he would not call an election until 1979.

He was expecting that another round of pay policy would demonstrate to the electorate the success of his economic policy. In the event, the pay policy did not hold and the scenes of industrial unrest were to be remembered as the 'winter of discontent'. Callaghan hoped to keep public sector pay claims under 5%. When tanker drivers forced the Government to give them a 14% raise, the flood gates opened. By the end of January, water workers, ambulance drivers, sewerage staff and dustmen were involved in industrial action, heralding the 'Winter of Discontent'. The Sun blasts Callaghan as out of touch On returning from an international economic conference in Guadeloupe, the Prime Minister showed himself to be out of touch with the mood of the country. When asked about the growing industrial crisis facing Britain, Callaghan denied any crisis existed, leading to The Sun headline 'Crisis? What Crisis?' When the devolution referenda were held, Wales voted 'no' and while Scotland voted 'yes' the majority was insufficient to make the decision binding. On the same day, 1 March 1979, the Government lost two by-election seats to the Conservatives.

The SNP now withdrew its support from the Government and a vote of no confidence (on an SNP motion on devolution) was passed on 28 March. Callaghan called the general election for 3 May. The Campaign Margaret Thatcher, elected Tory leader in 1975 Five weeks passed between the Labour Government's defeat and polling day. Margaret Thatcher, who replaced Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, prepared to go the electorate determined to pin the blame for the 'Winter of Discontent' firmly on the Government's shoulders. From the start of the campaign the Conservatives looked the likely winners, running ten points ahead in the polls. The only worry for the Conservatives was Thatcher's personal unpopularity when compared with Callaghan. One of the few surprises of the campaign was Thatcher's refusal to appear on the television programme Weekend World alongside Callaghan and Steel. Despite this, television coverage dominated the campaign as never before. All three major parties held morning press conferences co-ordinated for the cameras. Thatcher worked particularly hard to provide the media with photo-opportunities, whether it was by swinging her shopping basket, drinking tea in a factory or cuddling a new-born calf.

David Steel was also camera friendly, although the media accused him of manipulating pictures by making sure he was filmed in narrow streets, giving the impression that he was surrounded by crowds of supporters. The Government's manifesto, The Labour Way is the Better Way advocated an increase in pensions and tax cuts. However, opinion polls suggested the public believed the Conservatives were the party more likely to bring taxes down, spelling trouble for Labour. The Tory manifesto, The Conservative Manifesto 1979, promised to control inflation and keep the unions in check. The one 'gaffe' of the campaign came from Sir Harold Wilson - the former Labour Prime Minister - who conceded in an interview with the Daily Mail that his wife might vote for the Conservatives, because their leader was a woman. As the nation prepared to vote the Conservatives looked certain to win. They had put Callaghan through the wringer for Labour's handling of the economy. Their message was skillfully backed up by their advertising campaign directed by Saatchi and Saatchi, which claimed 'Labour isn't working'.

The Result Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first woman Prime Minister Despite Callaghan's warning that the Tories 'were too big a gamble for the country to take', Margaret Thatcher was returned as Britain's first woman Prime Minister with a safe working majority. The Conservatives won 339 seats compared to Labour's 269. The swing to the Conservatives of 5.2% was the largest since 1945. The Liberals lost two seats taking their total down to 11; their share of the vote dropped by 5.3 points. The Scottish and Welsh nationalists also fared badly, losing 10 out of their 14 seats. Shirley Williams lost her seat, as did Jeremy Thorpe, Emlyn Hooson, John Pardoe and Teddy Taylor, in what Margaret Thatcher called a 'watershed election'. John Major was among the new members returned at this election, as were Chris Patten, William Waldegrave, David Mellor, Ian Lang, Stephen Dorrell, John Gummer, and Frank Dobson. With a majority of 43, Mrs Thatcher had the opportunity to govern for a full term.

Question: Who was the leader of the Labour Party when they were defeated in the 1979 General Election?
Answer: James Callaghan