Labour Party (UK)

The principal center-left party of the United Kingdom, founded in 1900 from the trade union movement.

Overview

Labour emerged from the Labour Representation Committee of 1900, a union and socialist alliance formed after Liberal failures to represent workers, and took its name in 1906. It replaced the Liberals as the second party by the 1920s under Ramsay MacDonald, formed wartime governments under Churchill and Attlee, and in 1945 built the welfare state: the National Health Service and nationalization of major industries. Wilson, Callaghan, and after 1994 the New Labour of Tony Blair brought landslide victories and devolution. Defeats in the 2010s followed, and under Keir Starmer the party returned to government in 2024. Its structures still bind unions, members, and parliament in a unique federal constitution.