Independent Labour Party

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Independent Labour Party (ILP). The party was established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, composed of 120 delegates largely drawn from the industrial north and Scotland and chaired by Keir Hardie. By 1910 it had a membership of 28,000. Although the word ‘Socialist’ was deliberately excluded from its title, the ILP was still attacked by Liberal trade unionists. Chronic lack of union funding and modest successes at local and parliamentary elections led the ILP to take the initiative in forming the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. With the outbreak of war, a significant number of ILP members including Ramsay Macdonald adopted a pacifist stance. Some became involved in the Union of Democratic Control, thereby strengthening contact between Labour and left-wing Liberals.

The end of the war saw the ILP lose its seat on the NEC and much of its influence, as individuals could now join a Labour Party constituency association. However, under the skilful Clifford Allen, the ILP developed into a significant socialist pressure group. Its most important document was Socialism in our Time, which anticipated many of the later Attlee government reforms.

Disappointment over the second Labour government (1929–31) accelerated the leftward drift of the ILP and made many of its members rebellious in Parliament. As a result the party, under the Clydeside firebrand Jimmy Maxton, disaffiliated from Labour in 1932. The consequences of disaffiliation were far reaching. By 1935 the ILP, which assumed a neo-Marxist character, had fewer than 5,000 members, only a quarter of the previous figure. However, the party still played an important role in the Unity Campaign, hunger marches, and anti-fascist activities. In 1939 the party opposed an ‘imperialist war’ and its decline continued after 1945. Yet the ILP continued to exist and rejoined the Labour Party in 1975.

Lewis Mates

Independent Labour Party (ILP) (UK) One of the organizations which formed the Labour Representation Committee (LRC). It was a socialist organization founded in Bradford in 1893, initially led by Keir Hardie. Other early members included Ramsay MacDonald and Philip Snowden. When the LRC became the Labour Party in 1906, it formed an uneasy alliance with the ILP. The latter disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 1932, seeing it as too reformist. In the later 1930s, many Labour politicians saw it as an electoral liability because of its sympathy towards Communism, and its pacifism. Chaired by James Maxton (b. 1885, d. 1946) from 1926, it became increasingly centred on Glasgow, winning its only seats (four) there in 1935. After Maxton's death, its representation in Parliament dwindled from three in 1945 to none in 1950. It did not put forward any candidates after 1959. Its role in local government, and its discussion of foreign affairs, had influenced Labour's early years, and it had brought many middle-class idealists into the Labour Party.

Independent Labour Party (ILP). The party was established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, composed of 120 delegates largely drawn from the industrial north and Scotland and chaired by Keir Hardie. Chronic lack of union funding and modest successes at local and parliamentary elections led the ILP to take the initiative in forming the Labour Representation Committee in 1900. With the outbreak of war, a significant number of ILP members including Ramsay MacDonald adopted a pacifist stance. Some became involved in the Union of Democratic Control, thereby strengthening contact between Labour and left‐wing Liberals.

Disappointment over the second Labour government (1929–31) accelerated the leftward drift of the ILP and made many of its members rebellious in Parliament. As a result the party, under the Clydeside firebrand Jimmy Maxton, disaffiliated from Labour in 1932. By 1935 the ILP, which assumed a neo‐Marxist character, had fewer than 5,000 members, only a quarter of the previous figure.

Independent Labour Party (ILP) British socialist organization. It was founded at Bradford in 1893 under the leadership of Keir HARDIE. Its aim was to achieve equality in society by the application of socialist doctrines. The ILP was one of the constituent groups of the Labour Representation Committee (1900), which in 1906 became the LABOUR PARTY. A split developed between the ILP and the Labour Party between the two World Wars. The sympathy of the ILP for communism, its pacifism, and its theoretical approach to politics were regarded as electoral liabilities by leading Labour politicians; from 1939 its influence declined.