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Elections, Statistics, and the Rise of the Labour Party, 1906–1931

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Duncan Tanner
Duncan Tanner
Affiliation:
University of Wales, Bangor
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Extract

Between 1900 and 1918 the Labour party changed from being a new organization operating on the fringes of the Liberal party, to being the largest British opposition party. This change has attracted a great deal of historical attention. The analysis of electoral results in general, and municipal election results in particular, rightly plays a major part in the conflicting explanations of why this realignment took place. Negatively, this paper seeks to establish that many of the methods of examining electoral material common in the literature are in fact inadequate. It is also suggested, more positively, that despite problems with the way results are currently used, even a modestly elaborated treatment of municipal election results can reveal significant information about the origins and location of Labour's support. Accurate ‘quantification’ cannot of itself explain the rise of Labour, or the pattern of electoral politics more generally. It can, however, be an important component of broader attempts at establishing why political changes took place both in Edwardian Britain and in the still under-researched period between 1918 and 1931.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 893 - 908
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

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References

1 The major texts are: Clarke, P. F., Lancashire and the New Liberalism (Cambridge, 1971)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, McKibbin, R. I., The evolution of the Labour party 1910–24 (Oxford, 1974)Google Scholar, Matthew, H. C. G., McKibbin, R. I. and Kay, J. A., ‘The franchise factor in the rise of Labour party’, English Historical Review, XCI (1976)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The debate has, however, expanded well beyond these confines. See the summary of the literature in Tanner, D. M., Political change and the Labour party 1900–18 (Cambridge, 1990) PP. 1–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Municipal elections were held annually in November each year, except in London where they were held every three years. Electoral changes in some urban units and county areas, however, cannot always be studied through their municipal results because wards were often uncontested or contested by nominal or actual Independents. Moreover, the full results are seldom given in the local press.

3 Clarke, P. F., ‘The electoral position of the Liberal and Labour parties, 1910–14’, English Historical Review, XC (1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Douglas, R., ‘Labour in declinc’, in Brown, K. D. (ed.), Essays in antilabour history (1974)Google Scholar, McKibbin, , Evolution, pp. 83–4Google Scholar.

4 Jowett, F. W., The Socialist and the city (1907), p. 10Google Scholar. Cf. 90 per cent poll in Nelson, , Nelson Leader, 6 11 1908Google Scholar, 82 per cent poll in Northampton, , Northampton Daily Echo, 2 11 1909 (both repeated subsequently)Google Scholar, complaints of ‘apathy’ when turnout fell to 77 per cent in Rochdale, , Rochdale Observer, 5 11 1912Google Scholar. For further instances, Cook, C., ‘Labour and the downfall of the Liberal party’, in Cook, C. and Sked, A. (eds), Crisis and controversy (1976)Google Scholar.

5 Laybourn, K. and Reynolds, J., Liberalism and the rise of Labour 1890–1918 (1984)Google Scholar, Bernstein, G. L., ‘Liberalism and the Progressive Alliance in the constituencies: three case studies’, Historical Journal, XXVI (1983)Google Scholar, Woodhouse, T., ‘The working class’, in Fraser, D. (ed.), A history of modern Leeds (Manchester, 1980)Google Scholar, Hills, R., ‘The city council and electoral politics, 1901–71’, in Feinstein, C. (ed.), York 1831–1981 (York, 1981)Google Scholar, A. Fowler, ‘Lancashire and the New Liberalism’, North-West group for the study of labour history, Bulletin No. 4. For an aggregate statistical overview which follows this line, Sheppard, M. G. and Halstead, J. L., ‘Labour's municipal election performance in provincial England and Wales 1901–13, Bulletin of the society for the study of labour history, XXXIX (1979)Google Scholar. This view is also taken in several general surveys of labour history and in many of the large number of unpublished theses which examine the rise of Labour in particular localities.

6 McKibbin, , Evolution, p. 85Google Scholar.

7 These are nonetheless the basic sources for Sheppard and Halstead's statistical compilation, and presumably also for the table of results produced in McKibbin, , Evolution, p. 85Google Scholar.

8 Results, McKibbin, ibid. p. 85. Number of wards counted from the Municipal Journal, 1913.

9 Cf. the impact of Victor Grayson's victory as an Independent Socialist candidate at the Colne Valley parliamentary by-election in 1907, e.g. J. Whittaker to A. Peters, 6 Nov. 1908, J. Nuttal to Peters, 5 Nov. 1908, LP/EL/08/1/332 and 113 (Labour party archives), Oldham LRC Mins., 6 Aug. 1907 – 28 May 1908 (Oldham Local Studies Centre).

10 For boundaries, e.g. Representation, Apr. 1913. Combinations of Labour's opponents were blamed for a series of Labour defeats in 1908. See comments throughout the correspondence concerning this in LP/EL/08/1.

11 Municipal figures from Laybourn, and Reynolds, , Liberalism and Labour, p. 12Google Scholar.

12 ‘Suggestions to the Midlands Council and Branches’, n.d., ILP circular, ILP Archives, Box HO Circ, 1912–13 (British Library of Political and Economic Science), Higenbottom, S., ‘How to organise’, Sheffield Guardian, 16 05 1913Google Scholar.

13 E.g. Bochel, J. T. and Denver, D. T., ‘Canvassing, turnout, and party support: an experiment’, British Journal of Political Science, I (1971)Google Scholar. For a historical example, see report on the Nottingham mining ward of Manvers in 1908, Liverpool Forward, 15 Nov. 1912.

14 Temporary withdrawals were also common, e.g. during parliamentary elections or when a particularly popular Labour candidate was standing.

15 Municipal data from the Eastern Daily Press and East Anglian Daily Times. Bernstein, Contrast, ‘Liberalism and the Progressive Alliance’, pp. 623–4Google Scholar.

16 E.g. East, Illingworth, Northowram, Skircoat, South, Warley.

17 Le. Copley. Municipal data from the Yorkshire Post and Halifax Courier.

18 E.g. Sunderland (Hendon ward), Portsmouth (Buckland ward).

19 E.g. Leicester, Newport, Newcastle, Northampton, Manchester. See Tanner, , Political change, pp. 156–7, 242–6, 299, 463–4Google Scholar.

20 Reports of boundary commissioners and the census returns – important sources for determining which municipal units were in which parliamentary constituencies after 1918 – are not very helpful in ascertaining the position before 1918. The best sources in this respect are town year books and the electoral register.

21 E.g. in Barrow, Lancashire Gorton, Manchester East.

22 Clarke, , ‘Electoral position of the Liberal and Labour parties’, pp. 831–6Google Scholar.

23 In January 1910 Labour polled 21.25% of the parliamentary vote in Hyde, 95% in Crewe (municipal data from the Manchester Guardian, Crewe Guardian, Hyde Reporter).

24 For the general background to these disputes, Clegg, H. A., A history of British trade unions since 1889, vol. II, 1911–33 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 33–40Google Scholar, White, J. L., The origins of trade union militancy: the Lancashire textile workers, 1910–14 (London, 1978)Google Scholar.

25 Liverpool Forward, 13 July 1912. For further details, Tanner, , Political change, pp. 301–3, 311–12Google Scholar.

26 For a parallel decline at the parliamentary level following a series of failures, see the Huddersfield example cited in Pugh, M., The making of modern British politics 1867–1939 (Oxford, 1982), p. 141Google Scholar.

27 See Tanner, Political change, chs. 5–10.

28 Cook, , ‘Labour and the Liberal party’, pp. 45–8Google Scholar, Laybourn, and Reynolds, , Liberalism and Labour, p. 173Google Scholar, Sheppard, and Halstead, , ‘Labour's municipal election performance’, passim, Waller, P. J., Democracy and sectarianism. A political and social history of Liverpool (Liverpool, 1981), pp. 265–6Google Scholar, Trodd, G. N., ‘Political change and the working class in Blackburn and Burnley 1880–1914’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Lancaster University, 1978)Google Scholar. See also Woodhouse, ‘The working class’, and Hills, ‘City council’.

29 Woodhouse, , ‘The working class’, pp. 251–88Google Scholar, Williams, J. E., ‘The Leeds Corporation strike’, in Briggs, A. and Saville, J. (eds.), Essays in labour history (London, 1971), pp. 71–2Google Scholar.

30 Woodhouse, , ‘The working class’, pp. 360–3Google Scholar, 'Laybourn, and Reynolds, , Liberalism and Labour, pp. 149–52Google Scholar, Bernstein, , ‘Liberalism and the Progressive Alliance’, p. 627Google Scholar.

31 This, and the following discussion, is based largely on reports/information in the Leeds Mercury.

32 The extent of the anti-Labour swing in West Leeds between 1909 and 1910 has to be gauged from trends in just one ward – New Wortley – which was the only one contested by all parties in both years. However, the municipal results in all the main constituent wards of the West Leeds constituency were almost identical to that of New Wortley in 1908 and 1909, when all the wards were contested. Estimates made on the basis of individual ward results in these circumstances are therefore unlikely to substantially distort the general pattern in the seat as a whole.

33 Hills, , ‘City council’, p. 264Google Scholar. Trodd's otherwise excellent account of politics in Blackburn and Burnley similarly overstates the extent of Labour's advance by examining only the number of wards won (see table in Tanner, D. M., ‘Political realignment in England and Wales, c. 1906–22’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1985), p. 169Google Scholar.

34 Cf. Cook, , ‘Labour and the Liberal party’, pp. 42, 47Google Scholar. Even historians examining electoral changes in the same ward must recognize that boundary changes may make true comparison impossible.

35 Boroughs with double member wards include such different places as Bolton, Birkenhead, Crewe, Ipswich and Mansfield.

36 Contrast K. D. Wald's enterprising early research on municipal trends with his later analysis of parliamentary data, which draws unsubstantiated and unlikely conclusions from inadequate data (i.e. Wald, K. D., ‘Patterns of English voter alignment since 1885’ (unpublished D. Phil, dissertation, Washington University, 1976), pp. 120–8Google Scholar and his ‘Class and the vote before the First World War’, British Journal of Political Science, VIII (1978)Google Scholar for the municipal approach, and his Crosses on the ballot. Patterns of English voter alignment since 1885 (Princeton, 1983)Google Scholar, for the analysis of parliamentary elections).

37 Claims to this effect were particularly pronounced in 1919 (e.g. Local Government Chronicle, 8 Nov. 1919, Manchester Guardian, 3 Nov. 1919, Times, 3 Nov. 1919). Labour was generally, but not always, thought to be the beneficiary (e.g. Labour comments, Bristol Evening News, 4 Nov. 1922).

38 Tanner, , Political change, pp. 124–8, 388–9Google Scholar for a discussion of these matters.

39 Reports of sweeping gains, Times, 3 Nov. 1919, Local Government Journal, 8 Nov. 1919. In London, for example, Labour had 557 councillors after the 1919 election, compared to 48 in 1912. For the alleged implications of franchise extension, see esp. Matthew et al., ‘Franchise factor’, passim.

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41 McLean, I., The legend of Red Clydeside (Edinburgh, 1983)Google Scholar.

42 E.g. techniques used in Curtice, J., Payne, C. and Waller, R., ‘The Alliance's first test: lessons of the 1982 local elections’, Electoral studies, 11 (1983)Google Scholar.

43 Also, helpful recent studies of neglected but significant areas have received little attention. See e.g. Whiting, R. C., The view from Cowley. The impact of industrialisation upon Oxford 1918–39 (Oxford, 1983)Google Scholar; Wyncoll, P., The Nottingham labour movement 1880–1339 (London, 1985)Google Scholar; Boughton, J., ‘Working class politics in Birmingham and Sheffield, 1918–31’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Warwick, 1987)Google Scholar; Gillespie, J. A., ‘Economic and political change in the East End of London during the 1920s’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1984), ch. 8Google Scholar; Rolf, K. W. D., ‘Tories, tariffs and elections: West Midlands in English politics, 1918–35’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1974)Google Scholar; Shorter, P. R., ‘Electoral politics and political change in the East Midlands 1918–35’ (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar.

44 Cook, C., The age of alignment (London, 1975)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For Yorkshire, West, Reynolds, J. and Laybourn, K., Labour heartland. A history of the Labour party in West Yorkshire during the inter war years 1918–1939 (Bradford, 1987)Google Scholar. The pattern of Labour politics, even in ‘strongholds’ such as South Wales, the North-East, Scotland and Yorkshire is still largely assumed, rather than studied.

45 Miller, W., Electoral dynamics in Britain since 1918 (London, 1977)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.