Of coalitions, party agreements and consequences …

I grew up in the Labour movement and my early years were informed with the bitterness of many who spoke of the events just thirty years earlier when Ramsay MacDonald formed a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.

Ramsay MacDonald, circa 1920s-30s

The backdrop was the failure of the Labour Government to agree a solution to the worsening economic situation which had followed the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the onset of the Depression.

By the end of 1930 unemployment had doubled to over two and half million, orthodox economists were arguing for cuts in public spending and the Labour Government which relied on support from the Liberals to maintain a majority was under pressure from the Liberals to make those cuts.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer appointed a committee headed by Sir George May to review the state of public finances, which recommended large cuts in public service wages as well reductions in public spending including unemployment benefits.

The Cabinet was split and despite a small majority in favour of the cuts, there were senior ministers who signaled their intention to resign if the May report was accepted.

Ramsay MacDonald responded by resigning and formed a National Government with the Conservatives and Liberals.

Now this much had been part of what I grew up with, but yesterday I began looking in detail at how the Labour Party responded.

Labour Poster 1931

Three days after MacDonald resigned, the Labour party issued a manifesto which argued that “Forces in finance and politics had made demands which no Labour Government could accept.  

A new Coalition Government, for which the Labour movement repudiates all responsibility, has been formed.  

It is a Government without authority from the people.  

It is determined to attack the standard of living of workers in order to meet a situation caused by a policy of pursued by private banking interests.”*

The manifesto went on suggests alternatives, and was signed by representatives of the TUC, the NEC and the Consultative Committee of the Parliamentary Party.

It is easy in such situations to personalize the events, and MacDonald was not alone in seeing no alternative, but he lost the support of the Party, and became “Ramsay Mac the Betrayer.”

Pictures; Ramsay MacDonald, circa 1920s-30s, from the George Grantham Bain collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work, and the Labour Party election poster, 1931

*Labour Manifesto War Declared on Government, Manchester Guardian, August 28, 1931.