Labour in the liberal era, 1906-14

Abstract EN

In 1899 the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC) discussed a resolution, proposed by the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants (ASRS), calling on the parliamentary committee of the TUC to organise a shared conference with socialist and cooperative bodies to debate Labour representation in Parliament.

The conference met in London on 27 February 1900 and agreed to put a different Labour group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy; to support it financially through affiliation fees; and to elect Ramsay MacDonald, a leading member of the Independent Labour Party (ILP), as the secretary of the new organisation, which was to be known as the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) and the Labour Party after the 1906 general election.

This study will discuss the development of the Labour Party from 1906 until the outbreak of the First World War.