Leaders of the Independent Labour Party:
1893-1908: Kier Hardie (1)
1908-1911: Bruce Glasier (2)
1911-1915: David Shakleton (3)
1915-1920: Ben Tillett (4)
1920-1930: Ernest Bevin (5)
1930: Susan Lawrence (6)
1930-1937: Philip Snowden (7)
1937-1939: Arthur Greenwood (8)
1939-1948:
1948:
Merged with ___ to form the ___
(1). Hardie’s leadership of the ILP would be one of missed opportunities finally finishing in triumph. Attempts to form the Labour Representation Committee in 1899 failed due to certain Union leaders being suspicious of forming an alliance with the ILP which was made up of a grab bag of Marxists, Democratic Socialists, Labour folk and Christian Socialists and also believing having a Labour Party would kneecap there bargaining power with the Government.
Despite it all the ILP managed to gain strength to strength going from 2 MPs in 1900 to 8 by the 1906 election. It was around that time that the janky Lib-Lab alliance which had been running on fumes for awhile finally collapsed leading to several Liberal MPs joining the ILP whilst the Liberals would split into the Liberal and Radical Liberal strains. By 1908 as Hardie left to continue his passionate campaigns for Worker Rights, Universal Suffrage and Women’s Suffrage the Party was looking like it would be a strong third party.
(2) A dark horse in the leadership struggle elected as a compromise, Glasier's leadership was ultimately defined by the looming shadow of his predecessor, even if Kier himself was busy bothering the Indian government. Further attempts to reach out to the unions were made, and not all of them ended in failure--the National Railwaymen's Union were happy to start donating to the new party rather than the Radicals. Nevertheless, the consensus that the Glasier era represented more of a holding pattern than a genuine movement forwards is usually regarded as accurate by historians, with most of the growth in the party (up to 15 seats after the 1911 election) more down to Liberal-Labour types being alienated by the overpowering dominance of Lloyd-George and switching to the LRC. Glasier took the election as an excuse to finally step down and return to his literary career, and he would remain editor of the Labour Leader until his death from cancer nine years later.
(3) Elected as Leader to draw back those who defected to the LRC, it was hoped that Shakleton's connections within the TUC and the corridors of power in Whitehall would tip the scales back in favour of the ILP. Initially, these hopes were vindicated as he one-uped Glasier by attaching his former Union, the Textile Factory Workers Association, to the ILP and became a hero to the pit workers of Lanarkshire when he averted a strike in winter of 1913 by negotiating a pay rise that would be subsidised by the government. However, what broke his turn as leader would be the Great War - as it was the breaker of so many things. To the surprise of many in Westminster, Shakleton followed the French example and proposed his own 'Union Sacrée' to the British government, a move which angered most of the party and leaders within the movement. They quickly began to view Shakleton, Minister of Labour in the War Government, a traitor as demand for the war took its toll on Industry. In the May Day Coup that brought down the Liberal led government in the wake of the disaster of the Alexandretta Campaign, the ILP extracted Shakleton as its price for continued membership of the National government. After being informed of his dismissal by the new Prime Minister, Shakleton resigned as leader of his Party.
(4) Ben Tillett’s win over Ramsay MacDonald in the 1915 ILP leadership election showed that the ILP would be supporting the War effort...to a point. Tillett went around the country and managed to convince the Pacifists and Patriotic Socialists to work together to support the War Effort, as he said ‘Support the War today, to ensure a Socialist Britain for tomorrow’. Of course supporting the War Effort didn’t mean he wasn’t open to supporting striking disgruntled workers unlike the Radicals and Liberals and he would support Lansbury and other pacifists in Anti-War trials (though this was more to make sure that the ILP wouldn’t rip itself to pieces). Tillett charismatic leadership would cut a fine image against the backdrop of the horror of the World War.
Ben Tillett’s leadership would allow the ILP to get through the War and in the 1919 election he would lead the ILP to an even better result of 50 seats, as well as gaining the support of the National Union of Miners who saw there toil being ignored by the LRC. In 1920 saying that he had ‘Won the War, now we need someone to win the Peace too’ before stepping down to help with the formation of the Transport and General Workers Union.
(5) A firebrand MP for just a few years, Bevin was an unlikely leader but won for his hardline anticommunist views as much of his union history - while the 'left' of the party was split, the 'right' backed him and it thus proved extremely hard for anyone to present his party as stooges of the Soviet bogeyman. By being a 'man we can talk to', Bevin was able to win concessions on workers' rights and conditions in exchange for ILP backing of the government on other issues. One of his big achievements was getting the government to force a minimum wage on coal mines, which in the long term kept wages down but in the short term of the 20s meant many men didn't suffer. Despite the economic crises of the 1920s, Britain suffered far fewer strikes than you'd have expected due to Bevin's Westminster dealings and iron-fist control of his party. The obvious downside is a chunk of the left began to see him as having sold out, and the dying LRC was slowly brought back as people defected from the ILP to it - a reversal of Keir's day!
The 1929 election was the height of Bevin's reign: eighty-seven seats, enough to force greater concessions out of the government than ever before if it wanted to achieve anything. Then the Great Depression hit the country in the face. Bevin agreed to be part of a government of national unity and this meant having to agree to far more Tory plans than he'd intended, while the LRC could say that the ILP was having its shot and failing. When Bevin had to drop a push for state pensions, the ILP finally revolted and he was convinced to resign rather than allow the party to war with itself.
(6) As secretary of the ILP Parliamentary Group it fell to Susan Lawrence to not only formally wield the knife that brought down Bevin, but also to step in as the de-facto Leader of the Opposition for three weeks as her male colleagues fought a short but viscous war of succession. By all accounts she handled the task with aplomb, and she handed over the leadership to a more permanent successor Prime Minister Chamberlain could be overheard claiming that "had she been a man she would sit where I sit now," a quote she not without irony had inscribed at her headstone.
(7) After seeing the work that Lawrence had done at the dispatch box, there were few within the ILP who were not by that point champing at the bit to take her place. Because of this it's perhaps fitting that the likes of Philip Snowden would take her place, a man who had not volunteered himself for the job nor had a particular desire for it. Nevertheless, to stop the likes of Oswald Mosley, George Strauss or Arthur Greenwood taking the job in their own divisive direction, Snowden was propped up as a compromise candidate who could keep the young whippersnappers in line. He didn't disappoint. He cut to pieces Chamberlain regularly on a weekly basis on every topic from India to Imperial Preference. After a year in the job, PMQs was the worst day of the week for the Government.
In 1933, Snowden threw everything he had at a do-or-die charge for Number 10 to smash the National Government, and he succeeded... just. A deal had to be made, ultimately with the Lloyd George Radicals to ensure that Snowden would get the keys to power. Frankly, they were glad to join Snowden and sold themselves comparatively cheap considering how tight they had been to the Tories a few weeks earlier.
For a government made up of such avowed movers for reform, the end result was quite conservative in its expectations: this was mainly due to the success Snowden did in building his Cabinet, effectively giving everyone the wrong job. The harbinger of economic reform, Mosley was suddenly cowed as a Foreign Secretary that was desperate for photo ops with visiting dignitaries; Cripps, who wanted to embrace the Soviet Union as long-lost brothers, was suited to the Home Office as only a lawyer could be; finally, Greenwood made a celebrated Chancellor, nursing the country back to economic recovery, even though he was loathe to increase the armament spending Mosley's Policies warranted. Although the Four men were all larger than life, with there own incompatible ideas on how to run the country, they did their best - which was better than many expected.
However, as the years ticked by, and Europe became a more divided camp - so to did the Cabinet, over that very issue. While Mosley threw his weight around Europe, many in the ILP felt he was ignoring the threat of Fascism. In splitting Ethiopia with Balbo and forcing France to do a deal with Göring over the Saar, Mosley thought he was creating a united front against Bolshevism, which Cripps and the ILP at large didn't appreciate, nor Snowden and Greenwood despite their supposed indifference. Cabinet tensions continued to rise until the quarrelling took its toll on Snowden, working himself to death with an upcoming election, the ILP's very first Prime Minister suddenly dropped dead over a letter of resignation to the King.
(8) The party was divided on the stance on fascism, and Greenwood VS Mosley became a fight over your views on how to deal with it. Greenwood was able to win the election by pointing to his own economic record and promising to stand up for Britain, even increasing the ILPs seats, but he was then left with a reaped whirlwind: his own lack of support for arms spending meant Britain had to catch up fast. (This created a short period of full employment, with Irish workers enticed to temporarily emigrate to help build weaponry) Relations with Germany collapsed entirely. Britain held its breath at the Munich Conference when Greenwood refused to accept German demands on Czechoslovakia and war seemed imminent, but the moment passed. Barely.
On the domestic front, the Labour government had been slowly creating a national insurance hospital network and reaping the benefit of the supercharged economy. With Munich passing without incident, it even seemed like Britain's new planes, boats, and tanks were so scary nothing would happen. So it was a surprise when Greenwood announced his resignation due to "ill health" - something that was revealed years later to be crippling alcohol abuse, his existing drink problems exploded by the sheer stress of the 'German questions'. While the public felt safe, the Cabinet - having to cover some of the cracks up - did not and convinced Greenwood he needed to stand down so someone else could, if necessary, lead if the worst happened.
1893-1908: Kier Hardie (1)
1908-1911: Bruce Glasier (2)
1911-1915: David Shakleton (3)
1915-1920: Ben Tillett (4)
1920-1930: Ernest Bevin (5)
1930: Susan Lawrence (6)
1930-1937: Philip Snowden (7)
1937-1939: Arthur Greenwood (8)
1939-1948:
1948:
Merged with ___ to form the ___
(1). Hardie’s leadership of the ILP would be one of missed opportunities finally finishing in triumph. Attempts to form the Labour Representation Committee in 1899 failed due to certain Union leaders being suspicious of forming an alliance with the ILP which was made up of a grab bag of Marxists, Democratic Socialists, Labour folk and Christian Socialists and also believing having a Labour Party would kneecap there bargaining power with the Government.
Despite it all the ILP managed to gain strength to strength going from 2 MPs in 1900 to 8 by the 1906 election. It was around that time that the janky Lib-Lab alliance which had been running on fumes for awhile finally collapsed leading to several Liberal MPs joining the ILP whilst the Liberals would split into the Liberal and Radical Liberal strains. By 1908 as Hardie left to continue his passionate campaigns for Worker Rights, Universal Suffrage and Women’s Suffrage the Party was looking like it would be a strong third party.
(2) A dark horse in the leadership struggle elected as a compromise, Glasier's leadership was ultimately defined by the looming shadow of his predecessor, even if Kier himself was busy bothering the Indian government. Further attempts to reach out to the unions were made, and not all of them ended in failure--the National Railwaymen's Union were happy to start donating to the new party rather than the Radicals. Nevertheless, the consensus that the Glasier era represented more of a holding pattern than a genuine movement forwards is usually regarded as accurate by historians, with most of the growth in the party (up to 15 seats after the 1911 election) more down to Liberal-Labour types being alienated by the overpowering dominance of Lloyd-George and switching to the LRC. Glasier took the election as an excuse to finally step down and return to his literary career, and he would remain editor of the Labour Leader until his death from cancer nine years later.
(3) Elected as Leader to draw back those who defected to the LRC, it was hoped that Shakleton's connections within the TUC and the corridors of power in Whitehall would tip the scales back in favour of the ILP. Initially, these hopes were vindicated as he one-uped Glasier by attaching his former Union, the Textile Factory Workers Association, to the ILP and became a hero to the pit workers of Lanarkshire when he averted a strike in winter of 1913 by negotiating a pay rise that would be subsidised by the government. However, what broke his turn as leader would be the Great War - as it was the breaker of so many things. To the surprise of many in Westminster, Shakleton followed the French example and proposed his own 'Union Sacrée' to the British government, a move which angered most of the party and leaders within the movement. They quickly began to view Shakleton, Minister of Labour in the War Government, a traitor as demand for the war took its toll on Industry. In the May Day Coup that brought down the Liberal led government in the wake of the disaster of the Alexandretta Campaign, the ILP extracted Shakleton as its price for continued membership of the National government. After being informed of his dismissal by the new Prime Minister, Shakleton resigned as leader of his Party.
(4) Ben Tillett’s win over Ramsay MacDonald in the 1915 ILP leadership election showed that the ILP would be supporting the War effort...to a point. Tillett went around the country and managed to convince the Pacifists and Patriotic Socialists to work together to support the War Effort, as he said ‘Support the War today, to ensure a Socialist Britain for tomorrow’. Of course supporting the War Effort didn’t mean he wasn’t open to supporting striking disgruntled workers unlike the Radicals and Liberals and he would support Lansbury and other pacifists in Anti-War trials (though this was more to make sure that the ILP wouldn’t rip itself to pieces). Tillett charismatic leadership would cut a fine image against the backdrop of the horror of the World War.
Ben Tillett’s leadership would allow the ILP to get through the War and in the 1919 election he would lead the ILP to an even better result of 50 seats, as well as gaining the support of the National Union of Miners who saw there toil being ignored by the LRC. In 1920 saying that he had ‘Won the War, now we need someone to win the Peace too’ before stepping down to help with the formation of the Transport and General Workers Union.
(5) A firebrand MP for just a few years, Bevin was an unlikely leader but won for his hardline anticommunist views as much of his union history - while the 'left' of the party was split, the 'right' backed him and it thus proved extremely hard for anyone to present his party as stooges of the Soviet bogeyman. By being a 'man we can talk to', Bevin was able to win concessions on workers' rights and conditions in exchange for ILP backing of the government on other issues. One of his big achievements was getting the government to force a minimum wage on coal mines, which in the long term kept wages down but in the short term of the 20s meant many men didn't suffer. Despite the economic crises of the 1920s, Britain suffered far fewer strikes than you'd have expected due to Bevin's Westminster dealings and iron-fist control of his party. The obvious downside is a chunk of the left began to see him as having sold out, and the dying LRC was slowly brought back as people defected from the ILP to it - a reversal of Keir's day!
The 1929 election was the height of Bevin's reign: eighty-seven seats, enough to force greater concessions out of the government than ever before if it wanted to achieve anything. Then the Great Depression hit the country in the face. Bevin agreed to be part of a government of national unity and this meant having to agree to far more Tory plans than he'd intended, while the LRC could say that the ILP was having its shot and failing. When Bevin had to drop a push for state pensions, the ILP finally revolted and he was convinced to resign rather than allow the party to war with itself.
(6) As secretary of the ILP Parliamentary Group it fell to Susan Lawrence to not only formally wield the knife that brought down Bevin, but also to step in as the de-facto Leader of the Opposition for three weeks as her male colleagues fought a short but viscous war of succession. By all accounts she handled the task with aplomb, and she handed over the leadership to a more permanent successor Prime Minister Chamberlain could be overheard claiming that "had she been a man she would sit where I sit now," a quote she not without irony had inscribed at her headstone.
(7) After seeing the work that Lawrence had done at the dispatch box, there were few within the ILP who were not by that point champing at the bit to take her place. Because of this it's perhaps fitting that the likes of Philip Snowden would take her place, a man who had not volunteered himself for the job nor had a particular desire for it. Nevertheless, to stop the likes of Oswald Mosley, George Strauss or Arthur Greenwood taking the job in their own divisive direction, Snowden was propped up as a compromise candidate who could keep the young whippersnappers in line. He didn't disappoint. He cut to pieces Chamberlain regularly on a weekly basis on every topic from India to Imperial Preference. After a year in the job, PMQs was the worst day of the week for the Government.
In 1933, Snowden threw everything he had at a do-or-die charge for Number 10 to smash the National Government, and he succeeded... just. A deal had to be made, ultimately with the Lloyd George Radicals to ensure that Snowden would get the keys to power. Frankly, they were glad to join Snowden and sold themselves comparatively cheap considering how tight they had been to the Tories a few weeks earlier.
For a government made up of such avowed movers for reform, the end result was quite conservative in its expectations: this was mainly due to the success Snowden did in building his Cabinet, effectively giving everyone the wrong job. The harbinger of economic reform, Mosley was suddenly cowed as a Foreign Secretary that was desperate for photo ops with visiting dignitaries; Cripps, who wanted to embrace the Soviet Union as long-lost brothers, was suited to the Home Office as only a lawyer could be; finally, Greenwood made a celebrated Chancellor, nursing the country back to economic recovery, even though he was loathe to increase the armament spending Mosley's Policies warranted. Although the Four men were all larger than life, with there own incompatible ideas on how to run the country, they did their best - which was better than many expected.
However, as the years ticked by, and Europe became a more divided camp - so to did the Cabinet, over that very issue. While Mosley threw his weight around Europe, many in the ILP felt he was ignoring the threat of Fascism. In splitting Ethiopia with Balbo and forcing France to do a deal with Göring over the Saar, Mosley thought he was creating a united front against Bolshevism, which Cripps and the ILP at large didn't appreciate, nor Snowden and Greenwood despite their supposed indifference. Cabinet tensions continued to rise until the quarrelling took its toll on Snowden, working himself to death with an upcoming election, the ILP's very first Prime Minister suddenly dropped dead over a letter of resignation to the King.
(8) The party was divided on the stance on fascism, and Greenwood VS Mosley became a fight over your views on how to deal with it. Greenwood was able to win the election by pointing to his own economic record and promising to stand up for Britain, even increasing the ILPs seats, but he was then left with a reaped whirlwind: his own lack of support for arms spending meant Britain had to catch up fast. (This created a short period of full employment, with Irish workers enticed to temporarily emigrate to help build weaponry) Relations with Germany collapsed entirely. Britain held its breath at the Munich Conference when Greenwood refused to accept German demands on Czechoslovakia and war seemed imminent, but the moment passed. Barely.
On the domestic front, the Labour government had been slowly creating a national insurance hospital network and reaping the benefit of the supercharged economy. With Munich passing without incident, it even seemed like Britain's new planes, boats, and tanks were so scary nothing would happen. So it was a surprise when Greenwood announced his resignation due to "ill health" - something that was revealed years later to be crippling alcohol abuse, his existing drink problems exploded by the sheer stress of the 'German questions'. While the public felt safe, the Cabinet - having to cover some of the cracks up - did not and convinced Greenwood he needed to stand down so someone else could, if necessary, lead if the worst happened.
