In British politics, the Labour left is the more left-wing faction of the Labour Party.[1][nb 1] Alongside the Labour right, it is one of the two main wings of the Labour Party. It is also one of its four main factions alongside the soft left, the old Labour right, and the New Labour right. In the British parliament, it is represented by the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour members of Parliament (MPs).

Members of Momentum attending a rally for left-wing Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2016

A Labour left has existed within the Labour Party since its founding. Historically, the Labour left was one of the two main factions of the party, rivalling the Labour right. In 1980, the Labour left peaked in power as left-wing Labour MP Michael Foot became party leader, marking the first time that Labour had a leader from the Labour left. After the 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election, this traditional Labour left dissolved and split into two new factions, the soft left and the modern Labour left. While the modern Labour left remained on the left-wing of the party, the soft left moved towards the party's right-wing, now occupying the space between the Labour left and the Labour right. Foot became a part of the soft left. In 1983, he was succeeded as party leader by soft leftist Neil Kinnock, who took steps to modernise Labour by reducing the influence and power of the Labour left within the party.

In 2015, the Labour left saw a resurgence when the left-wing Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn was elected as party leader. In 2020, Corbyn resigned and was succeeded by Keir Starmer, who was from the party's right. Under Starmer's leadership of the party, Corbyn was removed from the Parliamentary Labour Party and barred from standing as a Labour MP in the 2024 United Kingdom general election; he was expelled from the party in May of that year, but stood as an independent candidate and won his seat in the election. Starmer has been accused of marginalising the Labour left by intervening in Labour's parliamentary selection process in favour of more centrist Labour candidates. There are no members of the Labour left in the Starmer ministry.

History

edit

Background and early years: 1918–1939

edit

The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that is typically placed on the centre-left of the political spectrum.[14] It has been characterised as a broad church with a wide range of competing political factions, parliamentary groups,, and ideologies.[15][16] The party has been ideologically divided across its history, leading to the formation of two main rivalling left and right factions within the party.[17]: i  The Labour left is the more left-wing faction of the Labour Party while the Labour right, closer to the political centre, is the more right-wing faction of the Labour Party.[1]

The particular dispute which led to the formation of the two factions was over the meaning of socialism.[17]: 13  After the end of the First World War, a revised constitution for the Labour Party was adopted. Clause IV of the new constitution committed the party to the "common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange", which was interpreted as a commitment to socialism, even though socialism is not explicitly mentioned.[18][19] Nonetheless, ideological divisions formed over the meaning of socialism and the purpose of the Labour Party.[17]: 9  One group in the party believed that Labour's purpose was to make the British economy more efficient while another group believed that its purpose was to change the relationship between capital and labour. The tension between these two groups made way for the formation of the two factions.[17]: 11 

The Labour left emerged as a distinct faction in the Labour Party in the 1920s.[17]: 43  By the time the first Labour government came to power under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924, its rivalry with the Labour right had been established, with both factions on an equal footing in the party.[20] Fearing that the Labour leadership was moving away from the party's constitutional commitment to socialism as outlined in Clause IV, the Labour left called for a total overhaul of the British economy, intending to defend the party's socialist principles against the leadership's more pragmatic tendencies.[17]: i, 40  It advocated a transition to a wholly socialist economic system where all industries would be under public ownership and wanted to take power away from people with economic capital. It viewed any alterations to this goal as a form of gradualism, an ideology which it opposed within the Labour Party.[17]: 40–41  The Labour left also wanted a socialist foreign policy characterised by pacifism and internationalism.[17]: 42 

There were some members of the Labour left who opposed the formation of MacDonald's 1924 Labour government on the grounds that it would be too moderate because of its parliamentary minority and dependence on the Liberal Party for support.[21] This parliamentary position would have made radical moves near impossible. In the event, the Labour government would take a gradualist approach to socialism;[22] MacDonald rejected calls from the Labour left to govern according to the party's socialist constitution and policy programme, arguing that the party had to prove itself fit to govern.[23]: 26  Instead, his government chose to play down or ignore Labour policies such as nationalisation, the capital levy, and public work programmes to alleviate unemployment as a result of its parliamentary position. During the MacDonald government, the Labour leadership's goal was not to end capitalism but to improve its conditions through social reform and wealth redistribution. Thus, Labour was committed to a moderate and competent style of governance, which allowed it to replace the Liberal Party as the main opposition party outside government. Most of the Labour membership supported this gradualist approach; there were socialists within the Independent Labour Party (ILP) who called for militancy instead.[24] The ILP was an affiliated socialist society of the Labour Party that served as its members' section until the adoption of the 1918 Labour constitution, which resulted in the creation of a system of constituency Labour parties (CLPs) with individual Labour membership.[25] Ideologically socialist, it was the main forum for left-wing politics within the Labour Party.[25]

The main achievement of the Labour government was the 1924 Wheatley Housing Act, which MacDonald dubbed "our most important legislative item".[26] John Wheatley, the minister responsible for the Act, was a member of the Labour left. In his role as Minister of Health, he was able to implement this radical Housing Act, which intended to expand council housing and address high rental prices and over-crowding.[25] This measure went some way towards rectifying the problem of the housing shortage, which was caused by the disruption of the building trade during the First World War and the inability of working-class tenants to rent decent, affordable housing. Wheatley was also able to provide public housing to council tenants, as against the previous government's commitment to privatisation. This landmark Act subsidised the construction of 521,700 rented homes at controlled rents by 1933, when the subsidy for encouraging local authority housing construction was abolished.[27]

Although MacDonald's Labour government had dropped Labour's socialist agenda and governed on a largely moderate policy programme, the Liberal Party withdrew its support of the government only nine months after its formation, leading to the Labour government's collapse after a 1924 vote of no confidence against the government of Ramsay MacDonald.[23]: 27  In the 1924 United Kingdom general election that followed the government's fall, the Labour Party was defeated by the Conservative Party in a landslide victory. Ultimately, the Labour left and the left-wingers in the ILP considered the 1924 Labour government a failure.[28]

Socialism in Our Time and Lansbury's Labour Weekly

edit
 
James Maxton, chairman of the ILP from 1925

In the months that followed the collapse of the MacDonald government collapse, Labour shifted to the left.[29]: 224  By the spring of 1925, amid internal discontent with MacDonald's Labour leadership, some members of the Labour Party had started to form left-wing groups in their CLPs, taking inspiration from the Birmingham Left-Wing Labour Group formed in November 1924 by Joseph Southall, a member of the ILP.[30] Also in 1925, Clifford Allen, the moderate chairman of the ILP, was ousted by the Labour left and replaced by the militant James Maxton.[25] Following this change in leadership, the Labour left organised around the ILP.[17]: 43 

The ILP's response to the first Labour government was to devise its own programme for government.[31] It authorised six policy commissions in 1925 to "develop a programme for the abolition of poverty within the broader context of an advance towards socialism". These commissions were chaired by J. A. Hobson.[32] By 1926, the ILP had started to develop its own political platform, beginning with a proposal for a new living wage.[17]: 43–44  This proposal evolved into a programme known as Socialism in Our Time, published in 1927, which called for the redistribution of income to reduce unemployment and poverty by creating a demand for housing,[33] the creation of a statutory minimum wage, the nationalisation of banks, transport, utilities and inefficient industries, and the introduction of family allowances and workers' control.[34] These policies were based on Hobson's theories of imperialism and underconsumptionism, which became a doctrine of the Labour left and the ILP during the interwar period.[35]

The Labour leadership was hostile to the ILP's proposals as it was worried that the ILP wanted to implement them in a similar way advocated by Marxists.[35] MacDonald publicly condemned the political beliefs surrounding the proposals, comparing them to "milestones around the parliamentary party's neck". Meanwhile, the ILP insisted on Socialism in Our Time's implementation by the Labour Party, with Maxton stating that this was the only way to preserve the labour movement of the United Kingdom.[33] Differences between the ILP and the Labour leadership began to grow. Labour had been developing a new policy programme since 1927 with a draft of its new manifesto Labour and the Nation scheduled for debate at the 1928 Labour Party Conference, where the ILP and the wider Labour Party clashed.[36]: 299  While the Labour leadership remained committed to a gradualist and peaceful transition to socialism through parliamentary politics, and wanted a simple outline of the party's goals, the ILP wanted a short and specific policy programme that would result in the enactment of Socialism in Our Time and full socialism itself. Ultimately, the ILP lost several policy votes at the conference and Labour and the Nation became a simple outline of the party's goals. Subsequently, MacDonald was responsible for the party's platform for the 1929 United Kingdom general election, which made little reference to socialism and no reference to Socialism in Our Time.[36]: 300 

 
George Lansbury, founder and editor of Lansbury's Labour Weekly

From 1925, the Labour left also organised around Lansbury's Labour Weekly,[17]: 43  a newspaper founded in 1925 by its editor George Lansbury,[29]: 227–243  a noted pacifist and socialist from the Labour left.[37]: 158  This newspaper acted as a mouthpiece for Lansbury's personal creed of socialism, democracy, and pacifism.[29]: 227, 243  In the 1920s, Lansbury was often in alignment with Maxton and his group of Red Clydeside MPs over their criticism of MacDonald's leadership of the Labour Party; he sometimes had a somewhat distant relationship with this group.[29]: 289, 230  A party rebel, Lansbury was committed to socialism and clashed with the MacDonald leadership for its moderate and gradualist ideology.[37]: 158  He had also been a leading figure in the ILP before 1914.[29]: 289  Responding to the gradualist approach adopted by the 1924 Labour government, Lansbury worked with Maxton and John Wheatley to set up an ILP parliamentary caucus within the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) to purge it of gradualism.[38] This caucus met regularly, sponsoring joint amendments on the Order Paper and campaigning for support in the Labour Party using the ILP's large individual membership.[17]: 44  Although on the left, Lansbury was still a pragmatist. At the 1928 Labour Party conference, Lansbury backed the leadership's plans for Labour and the Nation, calling for party unity in his role as Chairman of the Labour Party.[39] Between 1925 and 1927, Lansbury's Labour Weekly also formed the basis of George Lansbury's Socialist Club, which took a vital role in debates on the left about Labour's future strategy and policy platform.[29]: 224 

In 1925, Lansbury's Labour Weekly repeatedly reported on one particular topic, the issues faced by British miners. In turn, Lansbury and his paper would become direct participants in the crisis that was occurring in the coal industry at the time.[29]: 224  The crisis, paired with disappointment in the 1924 Labour government and anger towards the policies of the second Baldwin government which followed, led to the outbreak of the 1926 general strike.[29]: 224 [40] The Labour leadership did not support the strike, fearing that the revolutionary elements within the union movement would damage Labour's reputation as a party of government and all the work it had done to prove itself fit to govern through gradualist politics. The Labour left responded to this by arguing that a gradualist approach would never achieve its goal, and that gradualism did little to help the workers who needed relief from their suffering and an improved society immediately.[41] Lansbury's Labour Weekly supported the general strike,[37]: 158  which in the end was defeated after the Trades Union Congress (TUC) called it off, and Lansbury tried to use the paper to instruct the TUC on preparations for the coming struggle before it occurred; however, when the strike came, the TUC did not want his assistance.[42]

In July 1927, Lansbury's Labour Weekly was merged into the ILP's New Leader newspaper,[43] which the ILP used to promote its political ideology within the Labour movement.[17]: 43  By this time, the ILP had become the dominant grouping in several CLPs. It was also the largest socialist society in Labour.[44] The 1929 United Kingdom general election returned 287 Labour MPs and Labour formed another minority government dependent on Liberal Party support.[45][21] 142 of these Labour MPs were members of the ILP, with 37 of them sponsored by the ILP itself.[29] By 1931, the ILP had a membership of 16,700.[44] This put the ILP into a position that would theoretically allow it to become a strong group for the Labour left within the Labour Party for years to come; however, this would ultimately fail to materialise.[44]

Second Labour government and the 1931 political crisis

edit

The formation of the second Labour government, again under MacDonald, was opposed by some members of the Labour left for the same reasons they had opposed the first Labour government's formation in 1924; they argued it would be too moderate because of its parliamentary minority and dependence on the Liberal Party for support.[21] The new government decided to take an uncompromising approach towards the Labour left. Lansbury was the only known left-winger to be given a role in the cabinet; the education minister Charles Trevelyan became a left-winger shortly after. Leading figures in the ILP, such as John Wheatley and Fred Jowett, were not included. The new cabinet was generally to the right of the cabinet in the 1924 Labour government, reflecting a rightward shift within MacDonald's Labour Party since that government left office.[46] Lansbury was appointed as the first commissioner of works, an insignificant role with little economic resources available, where it was believed he could not harm the government's moderate reputation.[47]

The political crisis in 1931 proved significant for not just the country but also the wider labour movement and the Labour left.[44][48] With the fall of MacDonald's second Labour government and MacDonald's formation of the National Government during the crisis, gradualism in the Labour Party fell into uncertainty, with MacDonald expelled from the Labour Party and decried as "a traitor" after years of idolisation.[44][48] When the National Government won a landslide in the 1931 United Kingdom general election, which returned a rump of 52 Labour MPs, Lansbury became the only leading Labour Party politician to retain his seat. Lansbury became leader of the parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) before succeeding Arthur Henderson as the leader of the party as a whole in 1932. From the beginning of his leadership, Lansbury was challenged by losses and defections from the party caused by the tumultuous relationship between Labour and the ILP. Labour had already suffered the loss of MacDonald's supporters and the supporters of Oswald Mosley,[29]: 289  a former Labour MP who had broken away from Labour in 1931 to form the fascist New Party, which attracted figures from the Labour left including Robert Forgan.[49] Nonetheless, the Labour left believed that the year's events were a fair punishment for the Labour Party's mistakes, with Lansbury stating to "honestly believe the movement is going to be purer and stronger for the very heavy defeat we have sustained."[50]: 41 

In 1932, the ILP, having already had a negative relationship with the wider party under MacDonald, decided to disaffiliate from the Labour Party.[17]: 44 [44] It had increasingly viewed the Great Depression as the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and saw the mainstream Labour Party as insufficiently committed to socialism.[51] It had also openly disregarded party discipline under the second Labour government; a group of ILP Labour MPs known as the Clydesiders during James Maxton's leadership of the ILP criticised the Labour leadership of MacDonald and often disregarded the standing orders of the PLP. These standing orders disallowed Labour MPs from voting against party policy; however, the ILP wanted the ability to instruct its MPs to vote for ILP policy.[29]: 289  At the 1931 general election, candidates from the ILP refused to accept the standing orders of the PLP and stood without Labour Party support, becoming known as the unendorsed Labour candidates; five ILP MPs were elected. These MPs were grouped as a separate political party by the speaker of the House of Commons. Lansbury invited Maxton, one of the five ILP MPs, to his opposition frontbench; this attempt at preserving unity between Labour and the ILP proved unsuccessful. Lansbury had been a leading figure in the ILP before 1914 and was typically aligned with Maxton in criticising the Labour leadership of MacDonald during the 1920s. Ultimately, there was little that Lansbury could do to stop the ILP's disaffiliation.[29]: 289 

edit
 
Stafford Cripps, identified as the most dominant member of the Socialist League

Following the disaffiliation of the ILP, the Labour left had to find a new organisation to rally around. In October 1932, the Socialist League was formed mostly to fulfil this role.[52] It was founded by members of the ILP who wanted to remain affiliated to the Labour Party[53] and it was considered to be the ILP's successor in the party.[50]: 40  On its founding, they committed itself to mostly undertaking research, complete loyalty to the Labour Party, and avoid the missteps of the ILP. Nonetheless, they would go on to retain the ILP's tendency of becoming disaffected with the Labour Party, and it was proscribed by the Labour leadership within four and a half years of its establishment.[52]

During its short existence, the Socialist League was led by several noted members of the Labour left, including Charles Trevelyan, Frank Wise, Barbara Castle, G. D. H. Cole, William Mellor, and H. N. Brailsford. Other Labour left-wingers who involved themselves with the league included Aneurin Bevan, Harold Laski, and Ellen Wilkinson.[52] On its establishment, the league had six Labour MPs: Clement Attlee, Seymour Cocks, Stafford Cripps, David Kirkwood, Neil Maclean, and Alfred Salter. Within a week of its founding, they saw great success at the 1932 Labour Party Conference, winning votes committing the party to socialist legislation, in particular the nationalisation of the Bank of England and joint stock banks.[50]: 49 

World War II and the post-war Labour government: 1939–1951

edit

Bevanism and the Bevanite old left: 1940s–1970s

edit

Emergence and marginalisation of the Bennite new left: 1979–1994

edit

New Labour years: 1994–2015

edit

Re-emergence under the Corbynite left: 2015–2020

edit

Recent developments: 2020–present

edit

Politicians from the Labour left

edit

The Labour left is usually taken to include former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn and his allies.[2] In Parliament, politicians from the Labour left include Diane Abbott,[54] John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Richard Burgon,[55] Dan Carden, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Nadia Whittome, and Zarah Sultana,[56] among others. Outside Parliament, politicians from the Labour left include the former First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford;[57] the mayor of the North of Tyne, Jamie Driscoll;[58] and the honorary president of the Socialist Campaign Group and former Labour MP Dennis Skinner.[59]

Notes

edit
  1. ^ For the purposes of this article, the term Labour left is used. Hard left is another term for the Labour left.[2][3][4] Whilst used by several academics, journalists, and commentators, it may be considered pejorative,[2][5] as the term can be interpreted unfavourably by suggesting that the Labour left is uncompromising on its socialist outlook. An alternative term is outside left.[6] Of the two terms, supporters of the Labour left tend to use outside left;[7] some of its members, such as Labour MP Diane Abbott,[8] have opted to use hard left instead.[9] Other names for the Labour left include Campaign Group left (after the Socialist Campaign Group),[10][11] firm left,[12] and new Labour left, in contrast to the traditional or old Labour left of Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot.[13]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Miliband, Ralph (1961). Parliamentary Socialism: A Study in the Politics of Labour. George Allen & Unwin. pp. 14–15. ISBN 0-85036-135-4. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Stone, Jon (5 January 2016). "Labour's left wing 'can't tolerate dissent', a right-wing Labour MP has claimed". The Independent. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ Eaton, George (23 September 2017). "How the Labour left triumphed: the inside story". New Statesman. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  4. ^ Walker, Jonathan (24 September 2017). "Labour holds its annual conference in Brighton as the party has united around Jeremy Corbyn". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  5. ^ Beckett, Andy (3 November 2017). "The wilderness years: how Labour's left survived to conquer". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  6. ^ Crines, Andrew Scott (12 July 2011). Michael Foot and the Labour Leadership. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 161. ISBN 978-1-4438-3239-7. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  7. ^ Hassan, Gerry; Shaw, Eric (20 June 2012). Strange Death of Labour Scotland. Edinburgh University Press. p. 28. ISBN 978-0-7486-5557-1. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  8. ^ "First black woman MP". South Wales Echo. 12 June 1987. p. 1.
  9. ^ Elgot, Jessica (20 September 2018). "'I'm hard-left, hard-remain': grassroots bid for Labour Brexit seachange". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  10. ^ McKinstry, Leo (1996). Fit to Govern?. Bantam Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-0-593-03980-9. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  11. ^ Shipley, Peter (April 1985). "The Hard Left". IRIS News. Vol. XXXI. Industrial Research & Information Services. p. 9. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  12. ^ Cronin, James E. (17 September 2016). New Labour's Pasts: The Labour Party and Its Discontents. Routledge. p. 243. ISBN 978-1-317-87391-4. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  13. ^ Wiard, Andrew (27 September 2001). "Foot's golden age is long over". Tribune. Vol. 65. p. 19. Retrieved 2 April 2023.
  14. ^ Ward, Bradley; Guglielmo, Marco (2021). "Pop-socialism: A new radical left politics? Evaluating the rise and fall of the British and Italian left in the anti-austerity age" (PDF). British Journal of Politics and International Relations. 24 (4). University of Birmingham: 6. doi:10.1177/13691481211044643. S2CID 244171596 – via SAGE Journals.
  15. ^ Meredith, Stephen Clive (March 2004). Labours Old and New: Ideological, Political and Organisational Fragmentation on the Parliamentary Right of the British Labour Party 1970–79 (PDF) (PhD). University of Sheffield. p. 16. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  16. ^ Mullard, Maurice (2000). New Labour, New Thinking: The Politics, Economics, and Social Policy of the Blair Government. Nova Science Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 978-1-56072-824-5. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Seyd, Patrick (June 1986). The Labour Left (PhD). University of Sheffield. Retrieved 31 January 2023 – via White Rose University Consortium.
  18. ^ Gahan, Peter (23 February 2017). Bernard Shaw and Beatrice Webb on Poverty and Equality in the Modern World, 1905–1914. Springer. p. xxi. ISBN 978-3-319-48442-6. Retrieved 6 May 2023.
  19. ^ Adams, Ian (1999). Ideology and Politics in Britain Today. Manchester University Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-7190-5056-5. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  20. ^ Our Labour Correspondent (25 January 1924). "Britain's First Labour Government: A Happy Surprise to the Nation: Biographical Notes on Its Members with Some Estimates of Their Peculiarities". North-China Herald. Shanghai. p. 344. ProQuest 1369956964. Retrieved 11 April 2023 – via Proquest. A feature of the Labour Left is its pacifism ... In the eternal struggle that goes on in the Party between the Right and Left, both about evenly matched, each side is able to find points of agreement with MacDonald. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  21. ^ a b c Jaffa, Harry V. (1981). Statesmanship: Essays in Honor of Sir Winston Spencer Churchill. Carolina Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-89089-165-0. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  22. ^ Laybourn, Keith (14 May 2020). The Independent Labour Party, 1914-1939: The Political and Cultural History of a Socialist Party. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-86606-4. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  23. ^ a b Schneer, Jonathan (13 May 2020). "Labour's Conscience: The Labour Left, 1945-51". The Labour Movement. 30. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781138331778. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  24. ^ Atkin, Nicholas; Biddiss, Michael (26 November 2008). Themes in Modern European History, 1890-1945. Routledge. p. 370. ISBN 978-1-134-22256-8. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  25. ^ a b c d Gallagher, Tom (31 July 1982). "Clash of '32". The Guardian. p. 9 – via Newspapers.com.
  26. ^ Lyman, Richard W. (1957). The first Labour government, 1924. London: Chapman & Hall. p. 110. ISBN 9780846217848. Retrieved 12 July 2009. The housing scheme is our most important legislative item.
  27. ^ The Longman Companion to The Labour Party 1900–1998 by Harry Harmer
  28. ^ Winkler, Henry R. (9 November 2000). Paths Not Taken: British Labour and International Policy in the 1920s. Univ of North Carolina Press. pp. 224–225. ISBN 978-0-8078-6634-4. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Shepherd, John (2002). George Lansbury: At the Heart of Old Labour. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820164-8. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  30. ^ Barry, E. Eldon (1965). Nationalisation in British Politics: The Historical Background. Stanford University Press. p. 270. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  31. ^ Cline, Catherine Ann (1963). Recruits to Labour. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. pp. 102–103.
  32. ^ Howell, David (5 September 2002). MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis 1922-1931. Oxford University Press. pp. 264–287. ISBN 9780198203049. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  33. ^ a b Baldwin, Anne; Ellis, Chris (15 November 2012). Class, Culture and Community: New Perspectives in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British Labour History. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-4438-4285-3. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  34. ^ Weiler, Peter (5 May 2016). Ernest Bevin. Routledge. p. 63. ISBN 978-1-317-19843-7. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  35. ^ a b Townshend, Jules (1990). J.A. Hobson. Manchester University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-7190-2184-8.
  36. ^ a b Jennings, Ivor (25 February 2010). Party Politics: Volume 2: The Growth of Parties. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-13794-2. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  37. ^ a b c Shepherd, John (November 2004). "A Life on the Left: George Lansbury (1859—1940): A Case Study in Recent Labour Biography". Labour History (87): 147–165. doi:10.2307/27516003. JSTOR 27516003. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  38. ^ Powell, David (1998). What's Left?: Labour Britain and the Socialist Tradition. Peter Owen Publishers. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-7206-1041-3. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  39. ^ Clarke, Charles (8 August 2015). British Labour Leaders. Biteback Publishing. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-84954-967-7. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  40. ^ Cole, G. D. H. (18 July 2021). Towards A Libertarian Socialism: Reflections on the British Labour Party and European Working-Class Movements. AK Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-84935-390-8. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  41. ^ Gamble, Andrew (28 April 2021). The Western Ideology and Other Essays. Policy Press. pp. 172–173. ISBN 978-1-5292-1704-9. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  42. ^ Postgate, Raymond (1951). The Life of George Lansbury. Longmans, Green. pp. 236, 239. ISBN 978-7-240-01161-4. Retrieved 7 May 2023.
  43. ^ Perry, Matt (June 2014). "Socialist ideas and movements". 'Red Ellen' Wilkinson: Her Ideas, Movements and World. Manchester University Press: 18–68. doi:10.7228/manchester/9780719087202.003.0002. ISBN 9780719087202. Retrieved 3 May 2023 – via Oxford Academic.
  44. ^ a b c d e f Cohen, Gidon (April 2001). "The Independent Labour Party, Disaffiliation, Revolution and Standing Orders". History. 86 (282): 200–221. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.00186. JSTOR 24425375. Retrieved 14 April 2023 – via JSTOR.
  45. ^ "Ramsay MacDonald 1929 Labour Government: 5 June 1929 - 24 August 1931". The National Archives. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  46. ^ Cole, G. D. H. (13 May 2020). "A History of the Labour Party From 1914". The Labour Movement. 30. Taylor and Francis: 226. ISBN 9781138333352. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  47. ^ Wrigley, Chris (2002). Winston Churchill: A Biographical Companion. ABC-CLIO. p. 236. ISBN 978-0-87436-990-8. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  48. ^ a b Spalding, Roger (18 April 2018). Narratives of Delusion in the Political Practice of the Labour Left 1931–1945. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-5275-0984-9. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  49. ^ Beckett, Francis (4 October 2016). Fascist in the Family: The Tragedy of John Beckett M.P. Taylor & Francis. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-1-317-41603-6. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
  50. ^ a b c Pimlott, Ben (1977). Labour and the Left in the 1930s. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511560972. ISBN 9780511560972. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  51. ^ Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. Macmillan Education. p. 66. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.
  52. ^ a b c Pimlott, Ben (1971). "The Socialist League: Intellectuals and the Labour Left in the 1930s". Journal of Contemporary History. 6 (3). SAGE Publications: 12–38. doi:10.1177/002200947100600302. JSTOR 259876. S2CID 162319446. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  53. ^ Beckett, Francis (15 August 2018). Clem Attlee: Labour's Great Reformer. Haus Publishing. p. 118. ISBN 978-1-910376-21-8. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  54. ^ "Diane Abbott - Veteran of the Labour Left". Politics.co.uk. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  55. ^ Helm, Toby (26 February 2023). "Labour left breaks with Jeremy Corbyn over sending weapons to Ukraine". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  56. ^ Morris, Nigel (26 June 2020). "From Rebecca Long-Bailey to Richard Burgon, ten Labour left-wingers who could cause trouble for Keir Starmer". i. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  57. ^ Maguire, Patrick (10 December 2018). "Cardiff's Corbyn: Who is Mark Drakeford, Wales's next leader?". New Statesman. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  58. ^ Seddon, Sean (20 February 2019). "Who is Jamie Driscoll? Labour's left-wing North of Tyne mayoral candidate". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 11 April 2023.
  59. ^ "David Miliband's Labour leadership bid wins backing of Dennis Skinner". The Guardian. 10 September 2010. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 April 2023.