Barbados Labour Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Mia MottleyMP |
| Chairperson | Reginald Farley |
| General Secretary | Jerome Walcott |
| Founder | SirGrantley Adams |
| Founded | 31 March 1938(As the Barbados Progressive League) |
| Headquarters | Grantley Adams House, 111 Roebuck Street, Bridgetown |
| Youth wing | League of Young Socialists |
| Ideology | Social democracy Republicanism |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| International affiliation | Socialist International (1987–2014) |
| Colours | Red andGold |
| House of Assembly | 30 / 30 |
| Senate | 12 / 21 |
| Website | |
| www.blp.org.bb | |
TheBarbados Labour Party (BLP),colloquially known as the "Bees", is asocial democratic political party inBarbados established in 1938. It has served as thegoverning party of Barbados from 1954 to 1961, 1976 to 1986, 1994 to 2008, and since 2018.
The currentParty Leader isPrime MinisterMia Amor Mottley,SC,MP while the Chairman isReginald Farley,FB and General-Secretary isDr. Jerome Walcott, FB,FRCS.Santia Bradshaw, MP isDeputy Prime Minister andLeader of Government Business inThe House of Assembly,The Parliament of Barbados.
Former party leaders includeSir Grantley Adams,Dr. Hugh Gordon Cummins,Sir Harold Bernard St. John,Tom Adams,Sir Henry Forde andProfessor Owen Arthur,PC.
Like Barbados' other major party, theDemocratic Labour Party or the "Dems", the BLP has been broadly described as acentre-leftsocial-democratic party, with local politics being largely personality-driven and responsive to contemporary issues and the state of the economy. However, the party distinguishes itself by being rooted inAsquithian Liberal policies, including a focus on trade as a way of bolstering economic growth over the creation of social services.[1]
The BLP is a former observer member of theSocialist International.[2]
Originally called the Barbados Progressive League until 1944, the party was founded on 31 March 1938 at the home ofJames Martineau. During the first meeting, Chrissie Brathwaite andGrantley Adams were elected as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. Adams had entered the House of Assembly in 1934 partly through his deconstruction of the labour-focused efforts of theCharles Duncan O'Neal's Democratic League,[3] but this new party turned to organizing the political movement brought on by theunrest of 1937 that he had earlier opposed. As such, their objectives included many of the league's original goals, such asadult suffrage, free education, and better housing and health care.[4]
The BLP first participated in general elections in 1940. In 1994,Owen Arthur became the prime minister as leader of the Barbados Labour Party. In the2003 elections the BLP won 23 out of the 30 seats. The number increased to 24 in 2006, when in an almost unprecedented development the leader of the opposition, after a bitter and tumultuous internal battle within his own party, resigned the post and joined the governing party.
The Barbados Labour Party governed from 1994 to 2008, which was commonly called the "Owen Arthur Administration". Prime Minister Arthur was chosen from among leaders around the globe to deliver theWilliam Wilberforce lecture on the 200th anniversary of theAbolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade Act.
The party lost power in the2008 general election, winning 10 seats against 20 for theDemocratic Labour Party (DLP).[5] After the election, Arthur stepped down as BLP leader and was replaced by former deputy prime ministerMia Mottley in a leadership election againstAttorney-General of BarbadosDale Marshall. Mottley also became opposition leader.[6]
In the summer of 2008 Hamilton Lashley, MP for St. Michael South East, resigned from the party to become an independent candidate in theHouse of Assembly. He was thereafter given a job by the DLP, the party he had belonged before crossing the floor to the BLP, as a consultant on poverty. This move by the member reduced to nine the number of seats the Barbados Labour Party had in the House.
After a decade in opposition, the BLP returned to poweron 25 May 2018 under Mia Mottley, who became Barbados's first female prime minister.[7] The party originally won all of the seats in the House of Assembly, but BishopJoseph Atherley, the MP for St. Michael West, became an independent MP (later founder and leader of thePeople's Party for Democracy and Development[8]) and theleader of the opposition on 2 June 2018.[9]
In January 2022, the BLP obtained a landslide victory, winning all 30 legislative seats, in the first generalelection since Barbados became a republic in 2021.[10]
In February 2024, BLP MPRalph Thorne left the party, crossing the floor and becoming Leader of the Opposition. He joined the DLP shortly thereafter, becoming the party's leader its the first MP since 2018.[11]
In the2026 Barbadian general election on 11 February, the BLP again won all 30 seats in the House of Assembly.[12]
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Grantley Herbert Adams | 53,321 | 54.5% | 15 / 24 |  15 | 1st | Majority government |
| 1956 | 48,667 | 49.3% | 15 / 24 |  | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1961 | Hugh Gordon Cummins | 40,096 | 36.8% | 4 / 24 |  11 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1966 | Grantley Herbert Adams | 47,610 | 32.6% | 8 / 24 | 4 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1971 | Harold Bernard St. John | 39,376 | 42.4% | 6 / 24 | 2 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1976 | Tom Adams | 51,948 | 52.7% | 17 / 24 | 11 | 1st | Supermajority government |
| 1981 | 61,883 | 52.2% | 17 / 27 | | 1st | Majority government | |
| 1986 | Harold Bernard St. John | 54,367 | 40.4% | 3 / 27 | 14 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1991 | Henry Forde | 51,789 | 43.0% | 10 / 28 | 7 | 2nd | Opposition |
| 1994 | Owen Arthur | 60,504 | 48.3% | 19 / 28 | 9 | 1st | Majority government |
| 1999 | 83,445 | 64.9% | 26 / 28 | 7 | 1st | Supermajority government | |
| 2003 | 69,294 | 55.9% | 23 / 30 | 3 | 1st | Supermajority government | |
| 2008 | 61,316 | 46.5% | 10 / 30 | 13 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 2013 | 74,121 | 48.2% | 14 / 30 | 4 | 2nd | Opposition | |
| 2018 | Mia Mottley | 112,955 | 73.5% | 30 / 30 | 16 | 1st | Supermajority government |
| 2022 | 78,960 | 69.3% | 30 / 30 | | 1st | Supermajority government | |
| 2026 | 71,109 | 69.8% | 30 / 30 | | 1st | Supermajority government |
| Election | Party Group | Leader | Votes | Seats | Position | Government | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Share | No. | Share | ||||||||
| 1958[13] | WIFLP | Grantley Herbert Adams | 72,054 | 57.8% | 4 / 5 | 80.0% | 1st | WIFLP | |||
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The women's branch of the Barbados Labour Party is called the Women's League. The youth branch is called the League of Young Socialists.
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