Abstract
On 25th August 1931 the T.U.C. and the extra-parliamentary party took control of the parliamentary party and disavowed the leadership of MacDonald. The main political crisis was over, so far as the Labour Party was concerned: but its consequences still had to be worked out. The parliamentary party’s Consultative Committee, which had been its liaison committee with the Labour Cabinet, held two meetings with the National Executive and the General Council of the T.U.C. before, on 28th August, a full meeting of the parliamentary party took place. And when the parliamentary party did meet, it met at Transport House, with the members of the General Council of the T.U.C. present. According to Dalton, this was ‘an innovation, suggested by Uncle [Henderson] to mark unity’.1 One may suspect, however, that it was an innovation designed to preserve unity — by intimidating the waverers. Only one of the four Labour members of MacDonald’s new Cabinet attended: this was Lord Sankey, who was heard out respectfully but who won no support. Henderson was elected leader of the parliamentary party by an overwhelming majority.
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Further Reading
The fullest narrative of party history in this period is to be found in G. D. H. Cole’s History of the Labour Party from 1914.
For interpretative comment, see R. W. Lyman, ‘The Conflict between Socialist Ideals and Practical Politics between the Wars’, Journal of British Studies v (1965). Most of the biographies mentioned for the preceding period are also of importance for the 1930’s, especially that of Bevin and the autobiographies of Citrine and Brockway.
To these should be added Michael Foot’s Aneurin Bevan i (1962)
Raymond Postgate’s Life of George Lansbury (1951)
and Hugh Dalton, The Fateful Years (1957) Attlee’s As It Happened (1954) is of value only to those who can read between the lines.
His second volume, A Prime Minister Remembers (1961),is slightly more revealing.
Dean E. McHenry’s Labour Party in Transition, 1931–38 (1938) is a good contemporary analysis.
J.F. Naylor, Labour’s International Policy (1969) documents the contradictions of Labour foreign policy attitudes in this period, though not from original sources.
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© 1972 Henry Pelling
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Pelling, H. (1972). Convalescence: The General Council’s Party (1931–40). In: A Short History of the Labour Party. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15474-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-15474-6_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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