Background
The Labour Party was founded as the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900 out of the trade union movement and other socialist groups. It became officially the Labour Party in 1906 – before this point, it had been a loose affiliation of organisations.
The party overtook the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the 1920s, winning its first election in 1924 under Ramsay MacDonald. The Attlee governments of 1945-51 are often seen as the high point of Labour’s success; during this period, the NHS was founded, the welfare state hugely expanded and numerous education reforms implemented, beginning the ‘Post-War Consensus’ which would last until the 1970s.
The Party Today
The modern Labour Party has 190,000 members and is led by Ed Miliband MP. Labour, as the largest non-government party, forms the Official Opposition. They won 29% of the popular vote in the 2010 General Election and currently hold 257 seats in the House of Commons (39.5%). They also have 20 seats in the European Parliament (27.4% of the UK total) and 34.8%% of Local Government positions.
Policy Record
The modern Labour Party can be dated to 1994 and the ascension of Tony Blair to the party leadership. Blair sharply accelerated the party’s 10-year drift towards the right, abandoning many traditionally socialist positions such as the nationalisation of key industries and infrastructure and adopting the neoliberal economic policy of the Conservative Party, as well as their more authoritarian stance of law & order.
New Labour’s period in office saw the creation of harsh anti-terror legislation in the wake of the September 11th attacks on the USA and a continued expansion of police powers. The party maintained the privatised and largely deregulated state of the economy, contributing to the huge negative impact of the global 2008 financial crash on the UK. The Labour Party expanded the welfare state, in the form largely of in-work benefits to top up low incomes, and engaged in closer co-operation with the European Union, signing the Lisbon Treaty and making (unrealised) preparations for EMU. The introduction of a national minimum wage and the passing of the Human Rights Act are two of the more traditionally left-wing results of the New Labour years, along with extensive devolution to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Greater London. The Blair government was also responsible for the UK’s participation in the unpopular wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for beginning the decentralisation of the health and education systems through extensive PFI deals and the academies programme.
In opposition, under the leadership of Ed Miliband and with Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor, Labour have largely maintained the New Labour line on most policy areas. They have not moved for renationalisation – nor for significant new regulation, the planned energy price fix and the separation of the banks’ retail and investment arms notwithstanding. They generally support government ‘austerity’ measures, querying only the precise targets – and success – of these cuts. Labour remains pro-EU but has been persuaded by the rise of UKIP to move to the right on immigration. They have also lessened their support for interventionism, opposing UK action in Syria in 2013 – though they have since supported the government in its air strikes against the Islamic State.
Policy Promises
Economics
- Raise the minimum wage to £8
an hour
- Reform zero-hours contracts,
including preventing employers from mandating employees are always
available
- Reintroduce the lower 10%
income tax rate for low earners
- Reintroduce the 50% income
tax rate for the highest earners
- Create a Trade Investment
Bank for small businesses
- Impose a ‘mansion tax: £3,000
a year tax on properties worth between £2 and £3 million
- Reduced corporation tax for
small businesses
Social Policy & The Constitution
- Maintain the SMP system for
General Elections
- Build 200,000 houses a year
by 2020
- Give families 25 hours of
free childcare a week for 3- and 4-year-olds
- Scrap the ‘bedroom tax’
- Restrict the rise in Child
Support Allowance to 1% a year
- Introduce the means testing
of Winter Fuel Allowance
Health, Welfare & Education
- Spend £2.5 billion on
recruitment: 20,000 nurses, 8,000 doctors, 5,000
care workers and 3,000 midwives
- Guarantee that patients will
be able to see their GP within 48 hours
- Consolidate NHS, social care
and mental health systems
- Give all NHS staff training
in mental health issues
- Mandate qualified teachers
- Undo the reorganisation of the
NHS under the Health and Social Care Act
Crime and Justice Policy
Foreign Policy and Defence
Europe
- Support TTIP (the EU-USA
free trade agreement)
Transport, Energy & Environment
- Freeze energy prices until
2017
- Create a million jobs in the
‘green sector’
Important Party Figures
Shadow Ministers
- Ed Miliband Leader of the Opposition (and of the
party)
- Harriet Harman Deputy Leader and
Culture Secretary
- Ed Balls Shadow Chancellor
- Yvette Cooper Shadow Home Secretary
- Douglas Alexander Shadow
Foreign
Secretary
- Iain Duncan Smith Work and
Pensions Secretary
- Sadiq Khan Shadow
Justice
Secretary
- Vernon Coaker
Shadow Defence Secretary
- Andy Burnham
Shadow
Health
Secretary
- Chuka Umunna Shadow Business Secretary
- Rachel Reeves Shadow Work & Pensions
Secretary
- Hilary Benn
Shadow
Local
Government Secretary
- Caroline Flint Shadow
Energy Secretary
- Tristram Hunt
Shadow Education Secretary
- Mary Creagh Shadow Transport Secretary and Shadow International Development Secretary
- Ivan Lewis Shadow
Northern
Ireland Secretary
- Margaret Curran Shadow Scotland Secretary
- Owen Smith Shadow
Wales Secretary
- Maria Eagle Environment Secretary
- Angela Eagle Shadow
Leader
of the House of Commons
- Rosie Winterton Shadow Chief Whip
Others
- Carwyn Jones First Minister of Wales
WEBSITE: http://www.labour.org.uk/
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