The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The Labour Party sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum. In all general elections since 1922, Labour has been either the governing party or the Official Opposition. The party holds the annual Labour Party Conference, at which party policy is formulated.
History[]
A group of Labour MPs at Prime Minister's Questions
The party was founded in 1900, having grown out of the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. It overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party in the early 1920s, forming two minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in the 1920s and early 1930s. Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940–1945, after which Clement Attlee's Labour government established the National Health Service and expanded the welfare state from 1945 to 1951.
Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979. In 2002, Conservative MP Tom Makepeace crossed the floor and joined the Labour Party in the last two years of the premiership of Francis Urquhart, so Makepeace could oppose Urquhart from the opposition benches, though maintained ties with the Conservative Party so he could challenge Urquhart for the leadership, becoming his sucessor upon Urquhart's assassination in 2003. In 2010, it's presumed Labour won the general election under the leadership an undisclosed leader, bringing the party back into government after 31 years in opposition.