MacDonald, James Ramsay

MacDonald, James Ramsay (b. 12 Oct. 1866, d. 9 Nov. 1937). British Prime Minister 1924, 1929–35 Born in Lossiemouth (Morayshire), he was educated at a village school in Drainie. He left home in 1885 to go to Bristol and then London, where he did a number of clerical jobs. While working as a journalist he joined the Independent Labour Party in Southampton in 1894. With Keir Hardie, he was at the heart of the creation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, whose secretary he became. As such, he concluded an electoral pact with the Liberal Party, which enabled him and almost thirty other Labour members to be elected to Parliament in 1906. He was elected leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1911, but when war broke out in 1914, his pacifism, and criticism of the government's prewar diplomacy, meant that he was unable to support the Labour Party's desire to cooperate fully in the war effort. Increasingly marginalized after his resignation as party leader, he lost his seat in 1918. He was not re-elected until 1922, when his previous skilful leadership in Parliament ensured his immediate re-election to lead the party.

In the 1923 election Labour became the second largest party in a hung parliament, and in January 1924 his consistent efforts at moderation and good relations with Liberals paid off when the latter supported him to become the first Labour Prime Minister. Owing to its weak parliamentary position, Labour achieved little in its short term of office (January to November 1924), but he demonstrated that it was a responsible party of government. Back in opposition, he was criticized in his own ranks for not giving stronger support to the 1926 General Strike. Nevertheless, he led the party to victory in 1929, when it became the strongest party in Parliament, though it still did not possess an overall majority. However, he became unable to find a coherent response to the Great Depression, as he was paralysed by the conflicting demands of the Bank of England, which demanded cuts in public spending, and of his own party, which refused to contemplate cuts that would increase individual economic hardship still further.

In response, he formed a National Government that was based on Conservative and Liberal support. Unsurprisingly, he was expelled and vilified as a traitor by the Labour Party, and replaced by George Lansbury. His weak position, which gave the Conservative leader Baldwin an increasingly important role in the government, was compounded by his deteriorating health. In foreign affairs, he hoped to develop collective security through the League of Nations and, like many others, he did not see Nazi Germany as a particular threat to Britain. Following his resignation, he remained an isolated member of the Cabinet until 1937. While his decision to rule with the help of the Conservatives undoubtedly played a major part in the weakness of the Labour Party during the 1930s, his earlier leadership and his moderation was an equally important contributor to the party's advance as the accepted second party of British politics, ahead of the Liberals.