Labour Party (UK)

Labour Party
Governing bodyNational Executive Committee
LeaderAndy Burnham
Deputy LeaderLucy Powell
Lords LeaderThe Baroness Smith of Basildon
ChairBridget Phillipson
Founded27 February 1900; 126 years ago (1900-02-27)
(as the Labour Representation Committee)
Headquarters
Youth wingYoung Labour
LGBT wingLGBT+ Labour
Membership (December 2025)Decrease 264,754
Political positionCentre-left
European affiliationParty of European Socialists
International affiliationProgressive Alliance
Socialist International (observer)
Affiliate partyCo-operative Party
(Labour and Co-operative)
Former affiliates
Other affiliationsSocial Democratic and Labour Party (Northern Ireland)
Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party (Gibraltar)
Colours  Red
Slogan"Britain's future" /
"Let's get Britain's future back" (2024)
Anthem"The Red Flag"
Devolved or semi-autonomous branches
Parliamentary partyParliamentary Labour Party (PLP)
House of Commons
411 / 650
House of Lords
172 / 777
Scottish Parliament
22 / 129
Senedd
30 / 60
Regional mayors[nb]
11 / 12
London Assembly
11 / 25
PCCs and PFCCs
17 / 37
Directly elected mayors
10 / 16
Councillors[nb]
6,561 / 18,646
Website
labour.org.uk Edit this at Wikidata
^ Mayor of London and 11 combined authority mayors.
^ Councillors of local authorities in England (including 25 aldermen of the City of London) and Scotland, principal councils in Wales and local councils in Northern Ireland.
Andy Burnham has been the Leader of the Labour Party since 17 July 2026.

The Labour Party, often known as Labour, is a social democratic political party in the United Kingdom. It is a centre-left party and is led by Andy Burnham since 2026. The party has been described as a group consisting of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. Since 1927, the party has been in an electoral alliance with the Co-operative Party. Along with the Conservative Party, Labour has historically been one of the two dominant political parties in the United Kingdom. As of 2024, there have been seven Labour prime minsters and twelve Labour governments.

The Labour Party has been in power in the United Kingdom government since July 2024. It was in power in the Scottish Parliament (in coalition with the Scottish Liberal Democrats) until 2007. It is the largest group in the London Assembly, although until May 2016 the Mayor of London was a Conservative party member. It is also the largest party in local government.

The party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Progressive Alliance. It is also an observer member of the Socialist International.

History

The party was officially formed in 1906, just after the general election, as a successor of the Labour Representative Committee formed in 1900. In 1918, the party made a new constitution with the commitment to socialism, or the socialization of the industry. This could be found in Clause 4. The Labour Party won the general election in 1945 for the first time. From 1951 Labour was in opposition for thirteen years, during which there were serious fights between the left and right wings of the party. The leader of the left wing was Aneurin Bevan. His supporters were called the "Bevanites". They wanted a less confrontational policy in foreign affairs and more socialist actions. The leaders of the right wing were Clement Attlee and Hugh Gaitskell. They believed that Western capitalism had changed a lot and that socialism and public ownership was not so important. Gaitskell tried to remove Clause 4 from the party constitution at the 1959 conference, but he could not.

In 1994, Tony Blair forced the Labour Party to drop Clause 4. This was an important step to change the party into "New Labour".

In 2015, dark horse candidate Jeremy Corbyn announced his candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party. At the beginning, he was thought of as a socialist fringe candidate, but he later became the lead candidate in polls and got the support of the majority of trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party, along with those of three non-affiliated unions. On 12 September 2015, he was elected Leader of the Labour Party, with a majority vote of 59.5% in the first round of the ballot.

List of leaders

Labour Prime Ministers

Name Portrait Country of birth Time in Office
Ramsay MacDonald Scotland 1924; 1929–1931
Clement Attlee England 1945–1951
Harold Wilson England 1964–1970; 1974–1976
James Callaghan England 1976–1979
Tony Blair Scotland 1997–2007
Gordon Brown Scotland 2007–2010
Keir Starmer England 2024–2026
Andy Burnham England 2026–present

References

  1. ↑ Brivati & Heffernan 2000: "On 27 February 1900, the Labour Representation Committee was formed to campaign for the election of working class representatives to parliament."
  2. ↑ Thorpe 2008, p. 8.
  3. ↑ O'Shea, Stephen; Buckley, James (8 December 2015). "Corbyn's Labour party set for swanky HQ move". CoStar. Archived from the original on 9 October 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2017.
  4. ↑ "Contact". Labour Party. Archived from the original on 24 September 2020. Retrieved 14 September 2020.
  5. ↑ Stanley-Smit, Jow (6 August 2026). "UK Labour membership plummeted under Keir Starmer". Politico. Retrieved 6 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Bakker, Ryan; Jolly, Seth; Polk, Jonathan (14 May 2015). "Mapping Europe's party systems: which parties are the most right-wing and left-wing in Europe?". London School of Economics / EUROPP – European Politics and Policy to left-wing. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015. {{cite web}}: Text "Social Democracy and Social Liberalism" ignored (help); Text "ideology" ignored (help)
  7. ↑ Giddens, Anthony (17 May 2010). "The rise and fall of New Labour". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 21 July 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Peacock, Mike (8 May 2015). "The European centre-left's quandary". Reuters. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015. A crushing election defeat for Britain's Labour party has laid bare the dilemma facing Europe's centre-left.
  9. ↑ Dahlgreen, Will (23 July 2014). "Britain's changing political spectrum". YouGov. Archived from the original on 26 May 2015. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Budge 2008, pp. 26–27.[verification needed]
  11. ↑
  12. ↑ https://archive.today/20140523051814/http://www.gbc.gi/news/news-details.php?id=3695
  13. ↑ "National Flag Usage & Straplines". General Election Brand Guidelines 2024 (PDF). Labour party. 2024. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 February 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  14. ↑ "Labour vow to 'get Britain's future back' as conference kicks off in Liverpool". Sky News. Retrieved 13 January 2024.
  15. ↑ "Open Council Data UK – compositions councillors parties wards elections". opencouncildata.co.uk.
  16. ↑ "About the Party". Co-operative Party. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  17. 1 2 Guy, Rob Picheta, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Billy Stockwell, Peter Wilkinson, Sarah Tilotta, Ivana Kottasová, Christian Edwards, Thom Poole, Jack (4 July 2024). "UK election results: Live updates". CNN. Retrieved 10 July 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ↑ "Local elections 2024 results in maps and charts". BBC News. 26 March 2024. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
  19. ↑ "Parties & Organisations". Progressive Alliance. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "Labour Party – PES Member". The Party of European Socialists. Retrieved 12 July 2026.
  21. ↑ "Members - Socialist International". www.socialistinternational.org. Retrieved 12 July 2026.

Notes

Other websites