The
Labour Party is a
centre-left[5] political party in the
United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the
Left in
England,
Scotland and
Wales, but not
Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again.
[6] Labour first surpassed the
Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s. Since then, the party has had several spells in government, at first in minority governments under
Ramsay MacDonald in
1924 and
1929-1931, then as a junior partner in the
wartime coalition from
1940-1945 and ultimately forming majority governments under
Clement Attlee in
1945-1951 and under
Harold Wilson in
1964-1970. Labour was in government again in
1974-1979, first under Wilson and then
James Callaghan, though with a precarious and declining majority.
The Labour Party won a majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair, its first general election victory since October 1974 and the first general election since 1970 in which it had exceeded 40% of the popular vote. The party's large majority in the House of Commons was slightly reduced to 167 in the 2001 general election and more substantially reduced to 66 in 2005. Labour is the leading partner in the coalition Welsh government and the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament. It has 13 members in the European Parliament and is also a member of the Socialist International. The party's current leader is Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The party grew out of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19th century seeking workers' representation and describes itself as a "democratic socialist party".[7] However, since the "New Labour" project began, a larger proportion of its support has come from middle-class voters and many perceive this support as key to Labour's electoral success since 1997.[7] Historically the party was broadly in favour of socialism as set out in Clause Four of the original party constitution and advocated socialist policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers, the welfare state, publicly-funded healthcare and education. Beginning in the late-1980s under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, and subsequently that of John Smith and Tony Blair however the party moved away from socialist positions, adopting free market policies, leading many observers to describe the Labour Party as social democratic or even neo-liberal rather than democratic socialist.[8]
Party electoral manifestos have not contained the term socialism since 1992, although when the original Clause 4 was abolished the words "the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party" were added to the party's constitution
