Second MacDonald ministry
Second MacDonald ministry | |
---|---|
1929–1935 | |
Deputy Prime Minister | [note 1] |
Total no. of members | 86 appointments |
Member party | Labour Party |
Status in legislature | 287 / 615 (47%) |
Opposition party | Conservative Party |
Opposition leaders |
|
History | |
Election | 1929 general election |
Legislature terms | 35th UK Parliament |
Predecessor | Second Baldwin ministry |
Successor | First National Government |
The second MacDonald ministry was formed by
Background
The government formed lacked a parliamentary
Policy
The government faced practical enforcement difficulties with its legislation, such as the
The Land Utilisation Bill of 1931 would have given ministers sweeping powers to purchase land nationwide (to be run by local authorities and other such bodies). It was mauled by the House of Lords and had no backing from the Treasury so reduced to limited powers to improve agricultural productivity and provide and subsidise smallholdings to the unemployed and agricultural workers, as the
Immediate measures carried out by the government upon taking office included the
Expenditure on the insurance fund was raised as a means of ensuring that unemployed persons would not be reduced so quickly to poor relief.
The
The 1930 Labour budget provided for largely increased expenditure, contained measures to prevent tax evasion, raised the standard rate of income tax as well as the surtax while making concessions to the smaller taxpayer.
In education, various measures were introduced to promote equality and opportunity. More generous standards of school-planning were secured, while special attention was given to the provision of adequate accommodation for practical work. The number of “black-listed” schools was reduced from about 2,000 to about 1,500. From 1929 to 1931, the number of certified teachers in service was increased by about 3,000, while the number of classes with more than 50 children was reduced by about 2,000. Capital expenditure on elementary school building approved by the Board of Education during 1930–1931 stood at over £9 million, more than double the amount approved during 1928–29, the Conservative government's last year in office.[3] In addition, an annual grant to the universities was increased by £250,000.[15] Various military reforms were carried out, with the raising of the minimum age of enrolment into Officers' Training Corps from 13 to 15, the abolition of the death penalty for certain offences, and the modification of the disciplinary code “in the direction of clemency.”[16]
A circular was issued that urged the need for an expansion of provisions for the health and welfare of children under the compulsory school age by the development of nursery schools and other services, and by April 1931, the amount of accommodation available in nursery schools was doubled. The number of staff in the school medical services was increased, while about 3,000 new places were provided in day and residential special schools for crippled or blind children and in open-air schools for delicate children. There was also a large increase in the number of meals supplied to school children, while support given by the government to the National Milk Publicity Council's scheme for supplying milk to children resulted in 600,000 children benefiting daily from this service. Technical education was developed and arrangements were made for co-operation between technical colleges and industry, while new regulations facilitated an expansion of adult education.
To improve safety standards at sea, an international conference was convened by the Labour President of the Board of Trade, which led to 27 governments signing a convention establishing for the first time uniform safety rules for all the cargo ships throughout the world. Conditions for soldiers were improved, while the death penalty for certain offences was abolished. A seven-year limit in connection with war pensions was also removed, while a programme for afforestation was increased.[3]
The
The
A number of measures were also introduced to improve standards of health and safety in the workplace. As a means of improving industrial hygiene, regulations were introduced on 1 June 1931 that prescribed measures of hygiene for establishments engaged in electrolytic chromium plating, while regulations introduced on 28 April 1931 dealt with conditions in the refractory materials industries. On 24 February 1931, special regulations were issued by the Home Office for the prevention of accidents in the shipbuilding industry.
The
A number of other initiatives were undertaken by the Office of Works during Labour's time in office, including extensions in the amenities of the parks and palaces under its charge, and the spending of thousands of pounds on various improvements for the preservation of memorials across the country, as characterised by the restoration of a castle at Porchester near Portsmouth.[16]
In Scotland, various welfare initiatives were carried out by the Scottish Office. Medical services in the Highlands and Islands were extended and stabilised, while limits imposed by a previous Conservative administration on the scale of Poor Law relief were scrapped, along with a system of offering the Poor House "as test for able-bodied men who have been out of work for a long period."[15]
The Second Labour Government's achievements in social policy were, however, overshadowed by the government's failure to tackle the effects of the Great Depression, which left mass unemployment in its wake. Spending on public works was accelerated, although this proved to be inadequate in dealing with the problem. By January 1930, 1.5 million people were out of work, a number which reached almost 2 million by June, and by December it topped 2.5 million.[28] The Lord Privy Seal J. H. Thomas, who was put in charge of the problem of unemployment, was unable to offer a solution,[29] while Margaret Bondfield also failed to come up with an imaginative response.[30] Other members of the cabinet, however, put forward their own proposals for dealing with the Depression.
The one minister whose proposals may have helped Britain to recover quickly from the worst effects of the Great Depression was
Fate
In the summer of 1931, the government was gripped by a political and financial crisis as the value of the pound and its place on the Gold Standard came under threat over fears that the budget was unbalanced. A run on gold began when a report by the May Committee estimated that there would be a deficit of £120 million by April 1932, and recommended reductions in government expenditure and higher taxes to prevent this.[29]
MacDonald's cabinet met repeatedly to work out the necessary cutbacks and tax rises, while at the same time seeking loans from overseas. It later became clear that the bankers in New York would only provide loans if the government carried out significant austerity measures, such as a 10% reduction in the dole. During August 1931, the Cabinet struggled to produce budget amendments that were politically acceptable but proved unable to do so without causing mass resignations and a full-scale split in the party. The particular issue on which the split occurred was the vote of the cabinet after much discussion to reduce benefit paid to unemployed people under the National Assistance scheme. The Cabinet was unable to reach an agreement on this controversial issue, with nine members opposing the reduction in the dole and eleven supporting it, and on 24 August 1931 the government formally resigned.[29]
The Second Labour Government was succeeded by the First National Ministry, also headed by Ramsay MacDonald and made up of members of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberals, calling itself a National Government. Viewed by many Labour supporters as a traitor, Macdonald was subsequently expelled from the Labour Party, and remained a hated figure within the Labour Party for many years thereafter, despite his great services to his party earlier in his life.[29]
The circumstances surrounding the downfall of the Second Labour Government, together with its replacement by the National Government and its failure to develop a coherent economic strategy for dealing with the effects of the Great Depression, remained controversial amongst historians for many years.
Cabinet
June 1929 – August 1931
- Ramsay MacDonald – Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
- Lord Sankey – Lord Chancellor
- Lord Parmoor – Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
- J. H. Thomas – Lord Privy Seal
- Philip Snowden – Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Home Secretary
- Foreign Secretary
- Lord Passfield – Secretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
- Thomas Shaw- Secretary of State for War
- William Wedgwood Benn – Secretary of State for India
- Lord Thomson – Secretary of State for Air
- William Adamson – Secretary of State for Scotland
- A. V. Alexander – First Lord of the Admiralty
- William Graham – President of the Board of Trade
- President of the Board of Education
- Noel Buxton – Minister of Agriculture
- Minister of Labour
- Minister of Health
- George Lansbury – First Commissioner of Works
Changes
- June 1930 – J.H. Thomas succeeds Lord Passfield as Dominions Secretary. Passfield remains Colonial Secretary. Vernon Hartshorn succeeds Thomas as Lord Privy Seal. Christopher Addison succeeds Noel Buxton as Minister of Agriculture
- October 1930 – Lord Amulreesucceeds Lord Thomson as Secretary of State for Air
- March 1931 – Thomas Johnstonsucceeds Hartshorn as Lord Privy Seal
List of ministers
Members of
Office | Name | Date |
---|---|---|
Prime Minister First Lord of the Treasury Leader of the House of Commons |
Ramsay MacDonald | 5 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 |
Lord Chancellor | The Lord Sankey | 7 June 1929 |
Lord President of the Council Leader of the House of Lords |
The Lord Parmoor | 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 |
Lord Privy Seal | James Henry Thomas
|
7 June 1929 |
Vernon Hartshorn | 5 June 1930 | |
Thomas Johnston
|
24 March 1931 | |
Chancellor of the Exchequer | Philip Snowden[a] | 7 June 1929 – 5 November 1931 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury | Tom Kennedy
|
14 June 1929 |
Financial Secretary to the Treasury | Frederick Pethick-Lawrence | 11 June 1929 |
Lords of the Treasury
|
Charles Edwards
|
11 June 1929 – 13 March 1931 |
John Parkinson
|
11 June 1929 – 1 March 1931 | |
Alfred Barnes | 11 June 1929 – 23 October 1930 | |
William Whiteley | 27 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | |
Wilfred Paling | 27 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 | |
Ernest Thurtle | 23 October 1930 – 24 August 1931 | |
Henry Charleton
|
13 March 1931 – 23 August 1931 | |
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
|
Arthur Henderson | 7 June 1929 – 24 August 1931 |
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
|
Hugh Dalton | 11 June 1929 |
Secretary of State for the Home Department
|
John Robert Clynes
|
7 June 1929 |
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department
|
Alfred Short | 11 June 1929 |
First Lord of the Admiralty | A. V. Alexander | 7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty | Charles Ammon | 11 June 1929 |
Civil Lord of the Admiralty | George Hall | 11 June 1929 |
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
|
Noel Buxton
|
7 June 1929 |
Christopher Addison | 5 June 1930 | |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries
|
Christopher Addison | 11 June 1929 |
The Earl De La Warr | 5 June 1930 | |
Secretary of State for Air | The Lord Thomson | 7 June 1929 |
The Lord Amulree | 14 October 1930 | |
Under-Secretary of State for Air | Frederick Montague
|
11 June 1929 |
Secretary of State for the Colonies | The Lord Passfield
|
7 June 1929 |
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies | William Lunn | 11 June 1929 |
Drummond Shiels | 1 December 1929 | |
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs | The Lord Passfield
|
7 June 1929 |
James Henry Thomas
|
5 June 1930 | |
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs | Arthur Ponsonby | 11 June 1929 |
William Lunn | 1 December 1929 | |
President of the Board of Education
|
Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan | 7 June 1929 |
Hastings Lees-Smith | 2 March 1931 | |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education | Morgan Jones
|
11 June 1929 |
Minister of Health
|
Arthur Greenwood | 7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health | Susan Lawrence | 11 June 1929 |
Secretary of State for India | William Wedgwood Benn | 7 June 1929 |
Under-Secretary of State for India | Drummond Shiels | 11 June 1929 |
The Earl Russell
|
1 December 1929 | |
The Lord Snell | 13 March 1931 | |
Minister of Labour | Margaret Bondfield | 7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour | Jack Lawson | 11 June 1929 |
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | Sir Oswald Mosley | 7 June 1929 |
Clement Attlee | 23 May 1930 | |
The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede | 13 March 1931 | |
Paymaster General | The Lord Arnold | 7 June 1929 |
vacant | 6 March 1931 | |
Minister of Pensions
|
Frederick Roberts
|
7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions
|
vacant | |
Postmaster General
|
Hastings Lees-Smith | 7 June 1929 |
Clement Attlee | 2 March 1931 | |
Assistant Postmaster General
|
Samuel Viant | 7 July 1929 |
Secretary of State for Scotland | William Adamson | 7 June 1929 |
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland
|
Thomas Johnston
|
7 June 1929 |
Joseph Westwood | 25 March 1931 | |
President of the Board of Trade | William Graham | 7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade | Walter Robert Smith
|
11 June 1929 |
Secretary for Overseas Trade | George Gillett
|
7 July 1929 |
Secretary for Mines | Ben Turner | 1 June 1929 |
Emanuel Shinwell
|
5 June 1930 | |
Minister of Transport | Herbert Morrison[b] | 7 June 1929 |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport | The Earl Russell
|
11 June 1929 |
Arthur Ponsonby[c] | 1 December 1929 | |
John Parkinson
|
1 March 1931 | |
Secretary of State for War | Thomas Shaw | 7 June 1929 |
Under-Secretary of State for War | The Earl De La Warr | 11 June 1929 |
The Lord Marley | 5 June 1930 | |
Financial Secretary to the War Office | Emanuel Shinwell
|
11 June 1929 |
William Sanders
|
5 June 1930 | |
First Commissioner of Works | George Lansbury | 7 June 1929 |
Attorney General | Sir William Jowitt | 7 June 1929 |
Solicitor General | Sir James Melville | 7 June 1929 |
Sir Stafford Cripps | 22 October 1930 | |
Lord Advocate | Craigie Aitchison | 17 June 1929 |
Solicitor General for Scotland | John Charles Watson
|
17 June 1929 |
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household | John Henry Hayes
|
24 June 1929 |
Treasurer of the Household | Ben Smith
|
24 June 1929 |
Comptroller of the Household | Thomas Henderson | 24 June 1929 |
Lords in Waiting
|
The Earl De La Warr | 18 July 1929 – 24 August 1931 |
The Lord Muir Mackenzie | 18 July 1929 – 22 May 1930 |
- Notes
Notes
- ^ J. R. Clynes never acquired the title of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He did however serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party.
References
- ^ a b Hodge, B.; Mellor, W. L. Higher School Certificate History.
- ^ a b c Harmer, Harry. The Longman Companion to The Labour Party 1900–1998.
- ^ a b c d e f g h The Record of the Second Labour Government. The Labour Party. October 1935.
- ^ a b c Tanner, Duncan; Thane, Pat; Tiratsoo, Nick. Labour's First Century.
- ^ "Changing Britain (1760-1900)". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ "Council housing". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
- ^ Scott, Peter. The Making of the Modern British Home: The Suburban Semi and Family Life between the Wars.
- ^ a b c Cole, G. D. H. A History of the Labour Party from 1914.
- ^ "Philip Snowden: Biography". Archived from the original on 10 October 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
- ^ Derry, T. K.; Jarman, T. L. Modern Britain: Life and Work through Two Centuries of Change.
- ^ Hopkins, Eric. Industrialisation and society: a social history, 1830–1951.
- ^ Ellacott, S. E. Wheels on the Road.
- ^ Hassan, John. A history of water in modern England and Wales.
- ISBN 9780735552609.
- ^ a b c What the Labour Government Has Done. The Labour Party. 1932 – via Florida Atlantic University Digital Library.
- ^ a b Two Years of Labour Rule. The Labour Party. 1931 – via Florida Atlantic University Digital Library.
- ^ Townsend, Peter; Bosanquet, Nicholas (eds.). Labour and inequality: sixteen Fabian essays.
- ^ The welfare state: an economic and social history of Great Britain from 1945 to the present day by Pauline Gregg
- ^ The Coming of the Welfare State by Maurice Bruce
- ^ The ILO Yearbook 1931 (PDF). International Labour Office.
- ^ Annual Review 1930 (PDF). International Labour Office.
- ^ Fraser, Derek. The Evolution of the British Welfare State.
- ^ Wrigley, Chris. A companion to early twentieth-century Britain.
- ^ Hampton, Jameel. Disability and the welfare state in Britain. Changes in perception and policy 1948–79.
- ^ Serving the People: Co-operative Party History from Fred Perry to Gordon Brown.
- ^ Jones, Stephen G. Sport, Politics and the Working Class: Organized Labour and Sport in Inter-war Britain.
- ^ Mercer, Derrik (ed.). Chronicle of the Second World War.
- ^ a b Wright, Tony; Carter, Matt. The People's Party: the History of the Labour Party.
- ^ a b c d Hopkins, Eric. A Social History of the English Working Classes 1815–1945.
- ^ Vaizey, John. Social Democracy.
- ^ a b Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain between the wars: 1918–1940.
- ^ Worley, Matthew. Labour Inside the Gate: A History of the British Labour Party between the Wars.
- ^ Judge, Tony (2018). Margaret Bondfield: First Woman in the Cabinet.
Further reading
- Butler, David. Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000
- Carlton, David. MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government (2014).
- Heppell, Timothy, and Kevin Theakston, eds. How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay Macdonald to Gordon Brown (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
- Howell, David MacDonald's Party. Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1931, Oxford: OUP 2002; ISBN 0-19-820304-7
- ISBN 0-224-01295-9; the standard scholarly biography; favourable
- Marquand, David. "MacDonald, (James) Ramsay (1866–1937)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 accessed 9 Sept 2012; doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34704
- Morgan, Austen: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 1987; ISBN 0-7190-2168-5
- Morgan, Kevin. Ramsay Macdonald (2006)excerpt and text search
- Mowat, C. L."Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party," in Essays in Labour History 1886–1923, edited by Asa Briggs, and john Saville, (1971)
- Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955). online
- Owen, Nicholas. "MacDonald's Parties: The Labour Party and the ‘Aristocratic Embrace’ 1922–31," Twentieth Century British History (2007) 18#1 pp 1–53.
- Riddell, Neil. Labour in Crisis: The Second Labour Government, 1929-31 (1999).
- Rosen, Greg (ed.) Dictionary of Labour Biography, London: ISBN 978-1-902301-18-1
- Shepherd, John. The Second Labour Government: A reappraisal (2012).
- Skidelsky, Robert. Politicians and the Slump: The Labour Government of 1929–1931 (1967).
- Taylor, A.J.P. English History: 1914–1945 (1965)
- Williamson, Philip : National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926–1932, Cambridge: CUP 1992; ISBN 0-521-36137-0
- Wrigley, Chris. "James Ramsay MacDonald 1922–1931," in Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair, edited by Kevin Jefferys, (1999)
Primary sources
- Barker, Bernard (ed.) Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings, Allen Lane, London 1972
- Cox, Jane A Singular Marriage: A Labour Love Story in Letters and Diaries (of Ramsay and Margaret MacDonald), London: Harrap 1988; ISBN 978-0-245-54676-1
- MacDonald, Ramsay The Socialist Movement (1911) online
- MacDonald, Ramsay Labour and Peace, Labour Party 1912
- MacDonald, Ramsay Parliament and Revolution, Labour Party 1919
- MacDonald, Ramsay Foreign Policy of the Labour Party, Labour Party 1923
- MacDonald, Ramsay Margaret Ethel MacDonald, 1924