Labour in Decline 1910–14

Abstract

Was the Labour Party winning or losing support at the outbreak of the First World War? The answer to this question may throw some useful light not only on the political situation before 1914, but also on the Labour Party’s rise to power after 1918. If the Labour Party was making great incursions into the working-class vote before 1914, then we are probably led to the conclusion that the war merely hastened a process which would have occurred in any event; while if the evidence shows that labour’s roots among working people were shallow in 1914, this strongly suggests that it was events which occurred during and after the war which provide the main explanation of labour’s subsequent advance.

The author wishes to thank the University of Surrey for a grant from the Faculty IV Research Fund. He also wishes to thank the Labour Party and the National Union of Mineworkers (successor to the Miners’ Federation) for access to the minutes of their Executive Committees, the National Library of Scotland for access to the Elibank Papers, Mrs Helen Pease for access to the Wedgwood Papers, and his wife for her helpful criticisms.