Labour Party (UK)/Timelines

1834-1929

1834: The Tolpuddle martyrs[1] - 5 trade unionists are sentenced to 7 years transportation to Australia
1838: The People's Charter[2] We demand universal suffrage
1871: The Paris Commune[3] - Paris workers seize power and form the world's first socialist government
1881: Democratic Federation formed[4]
1884: The Democratic Federation was renamed the Social Democratic Foundation

Fabian Society formed[5] - a socialist pressure group that wanted to create a "society in accordance with the highest moral possibilities".

1891: The Condition of the Working Class in England by Frederick Engels - depicting overcrowded housing, abject poverty, child labour, sexual exploitation, dirt and drunkenness.
1892: Keir Hardie, a Scottish trade union leader, elected Member of Parliament as "Independent Labour"
1893: Independent Labour Party[6] formed by Keir Hardie "to secure the collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange".
1900: Labour Representation Committee[7] - brought socialist groups togethe for the purpose of increasing working class representation in Parliament.

Keir Hardy elected as the first "Labour" Member of Parliament

1901: Taff Vale judgement[8] - upheld the right of a company to sue a trade union for the recovery of losses due to a strike
1906: The Labour Repesentation Committee renamed "The Labour Party"
1916: Sidney Webb joined the Labour Party Executive and helped to draft its constitution[9]

1924: 1st Labour Government[10]. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald a short-lived minority government that passed laws on housing, education, unemployment and social insurance.
1929: 2nd Labour Government[11]. Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald - a second minority government that struggle unsuccessfully with the problems of deflation and unemployment arising from the Great Recession.

1931 Recession raises the budget deficit Macdonald's proposal unemployment benefit leads to a cabinet split.

1931: National Government (coalition). Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
1934: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative) replaced Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister
1935: Clement Attlee became leader of the Labour Party
1940: Wartime coalition. Neville Chamberlain (Conservative) Prime Minister
1941: Winston Churchill (Conservative) became Prime Minister and Clement Attlee became Deputy Prime Minister
1942: The Beveridge Report[12] - prposal to set up a "welfare atate
1944: Bretton Woods Agreement - to maintain a fixed rate of exchange with the US $.

1945: General Election - voting: Labour 49.7%, Conservative 36.2%, Liberal 9.0%; - seats won: Labour 393, Conservative 197, Liberal 12

1st and 2nd Attlee Governments[13]. Prime Minister Clement Atlee - nationalisation of the coal mining, railways, road haulage, electricity and gas and steel industries.

1946: Anglo-American Loan[14] - $3.75 billion dollars at two per cent repayable over fifty years starting in 1951.
1949: Devaluation - the £ is devalued by 30%, from $4.03 to $2.80[15]
1950: General Election - voting: Labour 46.1%, Conservative 43.5%, Liberal 9.1%; - seats won: Labour 315, Conservative 298, Liberal 6

1951: General Election - Labour (48.8%) Conservative (48.0%) Liberal (2.5%); - seats won: Labour 295, Conservative 321, Liberal 9
1955 Hugh Gaitskell[17] elected party leader and made an unsuccessful attempt to remove the party's clause IV commitment to nationalisation.
1957: The Future of Socialism"[18](Questia members) - book by Anthony Crossland that questioned the case for further nationalisation.
1960: Campaign for Democratic Socialism

1964: General Election - voting: Labour 44.1%, Conservative 43.4%, Liberal 11.0%; - seats won: Labour 317, Conservative 314, Liberal 9

1966: General Election - voting: Labour 48.o%, Conservative 41.9%, Liberal 8.5%; - seats won: Labour 364, Conservative 253, Liberal 12

1967: Devaluation of the £.
1968: White Paper: In Place of Strife[20] - an unsuccessful attempt at legal control of the trades unions.

1974: General Election - voting: Labour 37.2%, Conservative 37.9%, Liberal 19.3%; - seats won: Labour 301, Conservative 297, Liberal 14
1976: Harold Wilson resigned[21], James Callaghan [22] became Prime Minister.

1978: Winter of Discontent [23] - widespread industrial disruption in defiance of the Government's planned 5 per cent limit on pay increases.

1979: General Election - voting: Labour 36.9%, Conservative 43.9%, Liberal 13.8%; - seats won: Labour 269, Conservative 339, Liberal 11
1980: Michael[24] Foot elected party leader
1981: The Limehouse Declaration[25] by Shirley Williams, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Roy Jenkins, setting up a Council for Social Democracy - later to become the breakaway Social Democratic Party[26].
1983: Neil Kinnock[27] - the passionate moderniser - replaced Michael Foot as party leader
1992: John Smith took over from Neil Kinnock[28]
1994: John Smith died[29]. Tony Blair elected party leader

1997: General Election - voting: Labour 43.2%, Conservative 30.7%, Liberal 16.8%; - seats won: Labour 418, Conservative 165, Liberal 46

Labour Governments. Prime Minister Tony Blair - see Tony Blair timeline

2007: Tony Blair retired. Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair as Prime Minister - see Gordon Brown timeline
2010: General Election - voting: Labour 29.0%, Conservative 36.1%, Liberal Democrat 23.0%; - seats won: Labour 258, Conservative 306, Liberal Democrat 57.