Ramsay Macdonald

Ramsay Macdonald

RAMSAY MACDONALD FRS d1937. British statesman who was the first Labour Party Prime Minister, leading Labour governments in 1924 / 1929-31 and having been expelled from the party he helped to found a National Government between 1931-35. Historians credit him (along with Keir Hardie and Arthur Henderson) as one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party. His speeches, pamphlets and books made him an important theoretician, but he played an even more important role as Leader of The Labour Party. He entered Parliament in 1906 and was the Chairman of the Labour MPs from 1911 to 1914. He was widely denounced for his opposition to the First World War and he lost his seat in 1918. The antiwar mood of the 1920s led to his rehabilitation in the 1920s and he returned to Parliament in 1922 as his party replaced the Liberal Party as the second-largest party. The first Labour government (formed with Liberal support in 1924) lasted only nine months, but demonstrated that the Labour Party was sufficiently competent to run a government. He was widely applauded for his moderation and his support of the League of Nations, but Labour was defeated at the 1924 General Election. Labour returned to power in 1929, but was soon overwhelmed by the crisis of the Great Depression, in which the Labour government was split by demands for public spending cuts to preserve the gold standard. In 1931, he formed a National Government in which only two of his Labour colleagues agreed to serve with his majority coming from the Conservatives. He abandoned the gold standard and called a general election in 1931, seeking a "doctor's mandate" to do whatever was necessary to fix the economy. His National coalition won an overwhelming landslide and the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons. Expelled from the Labour Party, he remained Prime Minister of the National Government from 1931 to 1935 ; by this time he felt that the internal cohesion of the British Empire, a protective tariff and an independent British defence programme would be the wisest policy. Nevertheless budget pressures and a strong popular pacifist sentiment, forced a reduction in the military and naval budgets. His health rapidly deteriorated and he became increasingly ineffective as a leader. He stood down as Prime Minister in 1935, losing his seat and then returning for a different constituency. He died on board the liner MV Reina aged 71 on November 9th 1937.

 

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