Liberal-Labour (UK)

Liberal-Labour
Liberal-Labour
Elections

The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representing the working classes, while remaining supportive of the Liberal Party in general.

The first Lib–Lab candidate to stand was

Operative Society of Masons and the movement reached its peak in 1885, with twelve MPs elected. These include William Abraham (Mabon)

in the Rhondda division whose claims to the Liberal nomination were essentially based on his working class credentials.

The candidates generally stood with the support of the Liberal Party, the

Taff Vale Case and largely unchallenged by the Liberal Party, and the foundation of the Independent Labour Party

in 1893 followed by its turn towards trade unionism.

The formation of the

Labour Representation Committee in 1900, followed by the Labour Party in 1906, meant that in the House of Commons, there were two groups of MPs containing trade union–sponsored MPs, sitting on either side of the chamber (about 28 took the Labour whip and about 23 took the Liberal whip). The Trades Union Congress decided to instruct its affiliate unions to require their MPs to stand at the next election as Labour Party candidates and take the Labour whip. Of the 23 trade union–sponsored Liberal MPs, 15 were sponsored by unions affiliated to the Miners Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). When the MFGB affiliated to the Labour Party in 1909, most of their MPs joined Labour after the January 1910 general election

.

The Liberal-Labour group finally died out at the

Father of the House) and Arthur Richardson

stood down.

List of Liberal-Labour MPs

Name	Constituency	Union	From	To	Notes
William Abraham	Rhondda	MFGB^[1]	1885	1910	Joined the Labour Party in 1910
Joseph Arch	North West Norfolk	NALU	1885	1886
Joseph Arch	North West Norfolk	NALU/None	1892	1900
William Brace	Glamorganshire, South	MFGB^[1]	1906	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909
Henry Broadhurst	Stoke-upon-Trent	Masons	1880	1885
Henry Broadhurst	Birmingham Bordesley	Masons	1885	1886
Henry Broadhurst	Nottingham West	Masons	1886	1892
Henry Broadhurst	Leicester	Masons^[1]	1894	1906
John Burns	Battersea	Local committee^[1]	1892	1905	Sat as a Liberal after joining the Henry Campbell-Bannerman cabinet. Retires as MP in 1918.
Thomas Burt	Morpeth	MFGB^[1]	1874	1918
William Pollard Byles	Shipley	None	1892	1895
Herbert James Craig	Tynemouth	None	1906	1918
William Crawford	Mid Durham	DMA	1885	1890
Randal Cremer	Haggerston	ASCJ^[1]	1885	1895
Randal Cremer	Haggerston	ASCJ	1900	1908
John Charles Durant	Stepney	None	1885	1886
Enoch Edwards	Hanley	MFGB^[1]	1906	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909
Charles Fenwick	Wansbeck	MFGB^[1]	1885	1918
Frederick Hall	Normanton	MFGB^[1]	1905	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909
William Edwin Harvey	North East Derbyshire	MFGB	1907	1910	Joined the Labour Party in 1910
John George Hancock	Mid Derbyshire	MFGB	1909	1918	Joined Labour Party 1910. Re-joined Liberal Party 1915.
John George Hancock	Belper	MFGB	1918	1923	Sat as a Liberal.
George Howell	Bethnal Green North East	Operative Bricklayers	1885	1895
John Hagan Jenkins	Chatham	Associated Shipwrights^[1]	1906	1906	Joined the Labour Party soon after election
John Johnson	Gateshead	MFGB^[1]	1904	1910 Jan
William Johnson	Nuneaton	MFGB^[1]	1906	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909; Liberal from 1914
Barnet Kenyon	Chesterfield	MFGB	1913	1929	Broadly a Liberal after 1918
Joseph Leicester	West Ham South	Glassmakers	1885	1886
Alexander Macdonald	Stafford	MNA	1874	1881
Fred Maddison	Sheffield Brightside	Typographical Association	1898	1900
Fred Maddison	Burnley	Typographical Association	1906	1910 Jan
George Nicholls	North Northamptonshire	NUAW	1906	1910 Jan
William Parrott	Normanton	MFGB	1904	1905
Ben Pickard	Normanton	MFGB	1885	1904
Arthur Richardson	Nottingham South	Local committee^[1]	1906	1910 Jan
Arthur Richardson	Rotherham		1917	1918
Thomas Richards	West Monmouthshire	MFGB^[1]	1904	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909
James Rowlands	Finsbury East	None^[1]	1886	1895
Albert Stanley	North West Staffordshire	MFGB	1907	1910	Joined the Labour Party in 1910
W. C. Steadman	Stepney	Barge Builders^[1]	1898	1900
W. C. Steadman	Finsbury Central	Barge Builders	1906	1910 Jan
Henry Harvey Vivian	Birkenhead	ASCJ	1906	1910 Dec
John Wadsworth	Hallamshire	MFGB^[1]	1906	1910	Joined the Labour Party in 1910
John Williams	Gower	MFGB^[1]	1906	1909	Joined the Labour Party in 1909
Havelock Wilson	Middlesbrough	Sailors and Firemen	1892	1900
Havelock Wilson	Middlesbrough	Sailors and Firemen^[1]	1906	1910 Jan
John Wilson	Houghton-le-Spring	DMA	1885	1886
John Wilson	Mid Durham	MFGB^[1]	1890	1915
Sam Woods	Ince	MFGB	1892	1895
Sam Woods	Walthamstow	MFGB	1897	1900

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "The labour members and the Labour Party", The Times, 30 January 1906

[members-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t "The labour members and the Labour Party", The Times, 30 January 1906

[1]

List of Liberal-Labour MPs

See also

References