P8 - development of the labour party pt 2 - 1906-1914

Divisions in the labour party

due to being an amalgamation of interest: Marxist, moderate, revolution elements

TU members want improved pay + conditions, and found talk of revolution frustrating

divisions relating to women suffrage

Publicity

from 1912 2 newspapers gave the party a national voice:

Daily Citizen and Daily Herald

impact of labour on lib policies

can argue lib reforms due to existence of LRC and LIB-LAB pact 1903 e.g. Taff vale reversal - trade disputes act 1906

appeal to working class to supress labour support and prevent move to labour

-labour party becoming a reminder that “deprived classes becoming an issue no party can afford to ignore” - said by Lynch

Irish nationalists effect 

more influential to liberal party as double the size of labour, and helped them to keep majority re 1910

-also labour MPs fell to 40 in DEC 1910 where no liberal candidates stood, and by 1914 had 36 MPs

-moved to shift of Home rule in HOL 

Osborne Judgment 1909 affect

Osborne (lib) and part of railway TU, objecting his TU using his subscription to fund Labour party 

-HOL ruled this as illegal for TU to collect money for political purpose

blow to labour financing, with reliance on TU money

-led to them only fielding 70 candidates in 1910 election

labour did little during 1911-14, when there was much unrest, due to Osborne Judgment.

1911 Payment of MPs

liberal way to help situation

give MPs £400 a year 

-give chance more working class MPs in HOC

Trade Union act 1913

allowed people to decide if they wanted to contribute to the labour party, as part of their subscription

-reverse Osborne Judgement

Labour party 1914 - pros

-membership increased - due to union affiliation

-MP number from 29 to 42, but fell to 36 in 1914

-existence forced reforms

-doing well in local elections

cons 

did little in unrest to 1914

-Fabian leader Beatrice Webb Party is failing at establishing itself and separating from libs shadow - junior lib party

-some influenced by syndicalism

Why was their a political shift by 1914? (4)

Parliament act 1911

Payment of MPs 1911

Trade Union act 1913

Historian argument to labour 1914

-inevitable and logical, as the middle class lib party couldn’t hold the working class support

-growth of TUs allowed labour to be seen as a threat

-some suggest the war made it possible for labour to displace libs as the major BR radical force