Labour Party (UK)
영국 노동당
British centre-left party that grew out of the Labour Representation Committee, set up in 1900 by trade unions and socialist groups to represent the working class in Parliament. It took the name Labour Party in 1906 and in the 1920s replaced the Liberals as the main rival of the Conservatives. Clement Attlee's government of 1945–1951 nationalised major industries and created the National Health Service (NHS).
In depth
A conference called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) met at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street, London, on 26–27 February 1900, and its 129 delegates adopted Keir Hardie's motion to set up the Labour Representation Committee. Ramsay MacDonald of the Independent Labour Party became secretary. Support grew after the Taff Vale judgment of 1901 effectively made strikes illegal, and after winning 29 seats in the 1906 election under a secret pact with the Liberals it renamed itself the Labour Party. It was divided over support for the First World War, but Arthur Henderson joined the war cabinet. In 1918 it added to its constitution Clause IV, drafted by Sidney Webb, committing it to the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.
After the 1923 election MacDonald formed the first Labour minority government with Liberal support, and it recognised the Soviet Union. In 1929 Labour became the largest party for the first time with 287 seats and formed a second minority government, but in the Great Depression the cabinet split over cuts in unemployment benefit. When MacDonald formed a 'national government' with the Conservatives in 1931, the party expelled him, and in that year's election it fell to 52 seats. It recovered to 154 seats in 1935, when Attlee became leader, and from 1937 it opposed Chamberlain's policy of appeasement.
In May 1940 it joined Churchill's wartime coalition, with Attlee as Deputy Prime Minister. Winning a landslide in 1945 with 12 million votes (50%) and 393 seats, the Attlee government nationalised the Bank of England, coal, steel, electricity, gas, the railways and other industries, built the 'cradle to grave' welfare state and the NHS, and granted independence to India and Pakistan in 1947. After its defeat in 1951 it governed again under Harold Wilson (1964–1970, 1974–1976) and James Callaghan. In 1995 Tony Blair rewrote Clause IV, dropping the commitment to public ownership, and launched 'New Labour'; the party governed from 1997 to 2010. It returned to power by winning the 2024 general election. It belonged to the Labour and Socialist International from 1923 to 1940 and has belonged to the Socialist International since 1951.