A speech by Ramsay MacDonald campaigning for the Labour Party whilst in opposition (recorded 1926)
James Ramsay MacDonald (néJames McDonald Ramsay; 12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British statesman[1] and politician who served asPrime Minister of the United Kingdom. The first two of his governments belonged to theLabour Party, where he led aminority Labour government fornine months in 1924 and again between1929 and 1931. In 1931, MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party, after he formed aNational Government dominated by theConservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members, his premiership of which lasted until 1935.
MacDonald, along withKeir Hardie andArthur Henderson, was one of the three principal founders of the Labour Party in 1900. He was chairman of the Labour MPs before 1914 and, after an eclipse in his career caused by his opposition to the First World War, he wasLeader of the Labour Party from 1922. The second Labour Government (1929–1931) was dominated by theGreat Depression. He formed the National Government to carry out spending cuts to defend thegold standard, but it had to be abandoned after theInvergordon Mutiny, and he called ageneral election in 1931 seeking a "doctor's mandate" to fix the economy.
The National coalition won an overwhelming landslide and the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons. His health deteriorated and he stood down as prime minister in 1935, remaining asLord President of the Council until retiring in 1937. He died later that year.
MacDonald's speeches, pamphlets and books made him an important theoretician. Historian John Shepherd states that "MacDonald's natural gifts of an imposing presence, handsome features and a persuasive oratory delivered with an arresting Highlands accent made him the iconic Labour leader". After 1931, MacDonald was repeatedly and bitterly denounced by the Labour movement as a traitor to its cause. Since the 1960s, some historians have defended his reputation, emphasising his earlier role in building up the Labour Party, dealing with theGreat Depression, and as a forerunner of the political realignments of the 1990s and 2000s.[2]
MacDonald was born at Gregory Place,Lossiemouth,Moray, Scotland, theillegitimate son of John MacDonald, a farm labourer, and Anne Ramsay, a housemaid.[3] Registered at birth as James McDonald (sic) Ramsay, he was known as Jaimie MacDonald. Illegitimacy could be a serious handicap in 19th-centuryPresbyterian Scotland, but in the north and northeast farming communities this was less of a problem; in 1868, a report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture noted that the illegitimacy rate was around 15%—nearly every sixth person was born out of wedlock.[4] MacDonald's mother had worked as a domestic servant at Claydale farm, nearAlves, where his father was also employed. They were to have been married, but the wedding never took place, either because the couple quarrelled and chose not to marry, or because Anne's mother, Isabella Ramsay, stepped in to prevent her daughter from marrying a man she deemed unsuitable.[5]
Bloody Sunday
Ramsay MacDonald received an elementary education at theFree Church of Scotland school in Lossiemouth from 1872 to 1875, and then at Drainie Parish School. He left school at the end of the summer term in 1881, at the age of 15, and began work on a nearby farm. In December 1881, he was appointed apupil teacher at Drainie parish school.[6] In 1885, he moved toBristol to take up a position as an assistant to Mordaunt Crofton, a clergyman who was attempting to establish a Boys' and Young Men's Guild atSt Stephen's Church.[7] In Bristol, Ramsay MacDonald joined the Democratic Federation, aRadical organisation, which changed its name a few months later to theSocial Democratic Federation (SDF).[8][9] He remained in the group when it left the SDF to become theBristol Socialist Society. In early 1886 he moved to London.[10]
Following a short period of work addressing envelopes at theNational Cyclists' Union inFleet Street, he found himself unemployed and forced to live on the small amount of money he had saved from his time in Bristol. MacDonald eventually found employment as an invoice clerk in the warehouse of Cooper, Box and Co.[11] During this time, he was deepening his socialist credentials, and engaged himself energetically inC. L. Fitzgerald'sSocialist Union which, unlike the SDF, aimed to progress socialist ideals through the parliamentary system.[12] MacDonald witnessed theBloody Sunday of 13 November 1887 inTrafalgar Square, and in response, had a pamphlet published by thePall Mall Gazette, titledRemember Trafalgar Square: Tory Terrorism in 1887.[13]
MacDonald retained an interest inScottish politics.Gladstone'sfirst Irish Home Rule Bill inspired the setting up of a Scottish Home Rule Association in Edinburgh. On 6 March 1888, MacDonald took part in a meeting of London-based Scots, who, upon his motion, formed the London General Committee of the Scottish Home Rule Association.[14] For a while, he supported home rule for Scotland, but found little support among London's Scots.[15] However, MacDonald never lost his interest in Scottish politics and home rule, and inSocialism: critical and constructive, published in 1921, he wrote: "The Anglification of Scotland has been proceeding apace to the damage of its education, its music, its literature, its genius, and the generation that is growing up under this influence is uprooted from its past."[16]
Politics in the 1880s was still of less importance to MacDonald than furthering his education. In 1886–87, MacDonald studiedbotany,agriculture,mathematics, andphysics at theBirkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution (now Birkbeck, University of London) but his health suddenly failed him due to exhaustion one week before his examinations, which put an end to any thought of a scientific career.[17] He would, however, later be appointed a Governor of the institution in 1895, and continued to have a great fondness for the mission of Birkbeck into his later years.[18]
In 1888, MacDonald took employment as private secretary toThomas Lough who was a tea merchant and aRadical politician.[19] Lough was elected as theLiberalMember of Parliament (MP) forWest Islington, in 1892. Many doors now opened to MacDonald: he had access to theNational Liberal Club as well as the editorial offices of Liberal and Radical newspapers; he made himself known to various London Radical clubs among Radical and labour politicians; and he gained valuable experience in the workings of electioneering. At the same time, he left Lough's employment to pursue a career as a freelance journalist. Elsewhere, as a member of theFabian Society for some time, MacDonald toured and lectured on its behalf at theLondon School of Economics and elsewhere.[20]
TheTrades Union Congress (TUC) had created theLabour Electoral Association (LEA) and entered into an unsatisfactory alliance with the Liberal Party in 1886.[21] In 1892, MacDonald was in Dover to give support to the candidate for the LEA in thegeneral election, who was well beaten. MacDonald impressed the local press[22][pages needed] and the Association and was adopted as its candidate, announcing that his candidature would be under a Labour Party banner.[23][page needed] He denied the Labour Party was a wing of the Liberal Party but saw merit in a working political relationship. In May 1894, the local Southampton Liberal Association was seeking to find a labour-minded candidate for the constituency. Two others joined MacDonald to address the Liberal Council: one was offered but turned down the invitation, while MacDonald failed to secure the nomination despite strong support among Liberals.[24]
In 1893,Keir Hardie had formed theIndependent Labour Party (ILP), which had established itself as a mass movement. In May 1894, MacDonald applied for membership and was accepted. He was officially adopted as the ILP candidate for one of the Southampton seats on 17 July 1894[25][page needed] but was heavily defeated at the election of 1895. MacDonald stood for Parliament again in 1900 for one of the two Leicester seats; he lost and was accused of splitting the Liberal vote, allowing the Conservative candidate to win.[26] That same year he became Secretary of theLabour Representation Committee (LRC), the forerunner of the Labour Party, allegedly in part because many delegates confused him with prominent London trade unionistJimmie MacDonald when they voted for "Mr. James R. MacDonald".[27] MacDonald retained membership of the ILP; while it was not aMarxist organisation it was more rigorously socialist than the Labour Party would prove to be, and ILP members would operate as a "ginger group" within the Labour Party for many years.[28]
As Party Secretary, MacDonald negotiatedan agreement with the leading Liberal politicianHerbert Gladstone (son of the late Prime MinisterWilliam Ewart Gladstone), which allowed Labour to contest a number of working class seats without Liberal opposition,[29] thus giving Labour its first breakthrough into theHouse of Commons. He marriedMargaret Ethel Gladstone, who was unrelated to the Gladstones of the Liberal Party, in 1896. Although not wealthy, Margaret MacDonald was comfortably well off,[30] and this allowed them to indulge in foreign travel, visitingCanada and theUnited States in 1897,South Africa in 1902,Australia andNew Zealand in 1906 and India several times.
Macdonald (third from left) in 1906, with other leading figures in the party
It was during this period that MacDonald and his wife began a long friendship with the social investigator and reforming civil servantClara Collet[31][32] with whom he discussed women's issues. She was an influence on MacDonald and other politicians in their attitudes towards women's rights. In 1901, he was elected to theLondon County Council forFinsbury Central as a joint Labour–Progressive Party candidate, but he was disqualified from the register in 1904 due to his absences abroad.[33][incomplete short citation]
In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "Labour Party", amalgamating with the ILP.[34] In that same year, 29 Labour MPs were elected, including MacDonald, forLeicester,[35][page needed] who then became one of the leaders of theParliamentary Labour Party. These Labour MPs undoubtedly owed their election to the 'Gladstone–MacDonald pact' between the Liberals and Labour, a minor party supporting the Liberal governments ofHenry Campbell-Bannerman andH. H. Asquith. MacDonald became the leader of the left wing of the party, arguing that Labour must seek to displace the Liberals as the main party of the left.[36][incomplete short citation]
Ramsay MacDonald bySolomon Joseph Solomon, 1911Hoist with his own petard. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald (Champion of Independent Labour). "Of course I'm all for peaceful picketing—on principle. But it must be applied to the proper parties." Cartoon fromPunch 20 June 1917
In 1911 MacDonald became "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party", the leader of the party. He was the chief intellectual leader of the party, paying little attention to class warfare and much more to the emergence of a powerful state as it exemplified the Darwinian evolution of an ever more complex society. He was an Orthodox Edwardian progressive, keen on intellectual discussion, and averse to agitation.[37]
Within a short period, his wife became ill with blood poisoning and died. This deeply and permanently affected MacDonald.[38]
MacDonald had always taken a keen interest in foreign affairs and knew from his visit to South Africa, just after theBoer War had ended, what the effects of modern conflict would be. Although theParliamentary Labour Party generally held an anti-war opinion, whenwar was declared in August 1914, patriotism came to the fore.[39] After the Foreign Secretary, SirEdward Grey, warned theHouse of Commons on 3 August that war with Germany was likely, MacDonald responded by declaring that "this country ought to have remained neutral".[40][41] In theLabour Leader he claimed that the real cause of the war was the "policy of thebalance of power through alliance".[42]
The Party supported the government in its request for £100,000,000 of war credits and, as MacDonald could not, he resigned from the party Chairmanship.Arthur Henderson became the new leader, while MacDonald took the party Treasurer's post.[43] Despite his opposition to the war, MacDonald visited theWestern Front in December 1914 with the approval ofLord Kitchener. MacDonald andGeneral Seely set off for the front atYpres and soon found themselves in the thick of an action in which both behaved with the utmost coolness. Later, MacDonald was received by the Commander-in-Chief atSt Omer and made an extensive tour of the front. Returning home, he paid a public tribute to the courage of the French troops, but said nothing then or later of having been under fire himself.[44]
During the early part of the war, he was extremely unpopular and was accused of treason and cowardice. Former Liberal Party MP and publisherHoratio Bottomley attacked him through his magazineJohn Bull in September 1915, by publishing an article carrying details of MacDonald's birth and his so-called deceit in not disclosing his real name.[45][46] His illegitimacy was no secret and he had not seemed to have suffered by it, but, according to the journal he had, by using a false name, gained access to parliament falsely and should suffer heavy penalties and have his election declared void. MacDonald received much internal support, but how the disclosures were made public had affected him.[47] He wrote in his diary:
...I spent hours of terrible mental pain. Letters of sympathy began to pour in upon me. ... Never before did I know that I had been registered under the name of Ramsay, and cannot understand it now. From my earliest years, my name has been entered in lists, like the school register, etc. as MacDonald.
Election poster produced for the 1923 election
In August 1916, theMoray Golf Club passed a resolution declaring that MacDonald's anti-war activities "had endangered the character and interests of the club" and that he had forfeited his right to membership.[48] In January 1917, MacDonald publishedNational Defence, in which he argued that open diplomacy and disarmament were necessary to prevent future wars.[49]
As the war dragged on, his reputation began to recover. However, he still lost his seat in the 1918 "Coupon Election", which saw the LiberalDavid Lloyd George's coalition government win a large majority. The election campaign inLeicester West focused on MacDonald's opposition to the war, with MacDonald writing after his defeat: "I have become a kind of mythological demon in the minds of the people".[50]
MacDonald denounced theTreaty of Versailles: "We are beholding an act of madness unparalleled in history".[51]
MacDonald stood for Parliament in the1921 Woolwich East by-election and lost. His opponent,Captain Robert Gee, had been awarded theVictoria Cross atCambrai; MacDonald tried to counter this by having ex-soldiers appear on his platforms. MacDonald also promised to pressure the government into converting theWoolwich Arsenal to civilian use.[52] Horatio Bottomley intervened in the by-election, opposing MacDonald's election because of his anti-war record.[53] Bottomley's influence may have been decisive in MacDonald's failure to be elected, as there were under 700 votes difference between Gee and MacDonald.[54]
In 1922, MacDonald was returned to the House as MP forAberavon inWales, with a vote of 14,318 against 11,111 and 5,328 for his main opponents. His rehabilitation was complete; the LabourNew Leader magazine opined that his election was, "enough in itself to transform our position in the House. We have once more a voice which must be heard".[55]By now, the party was reunited and MacDonald wasre-elected as Leader. HistorianKenneth O. Morgan examines his newfound stature:
as dissolution set in with the Lloyd George coalition in 1921–22, and unemployment mounted, MacDonald stood out as the leader of a new kind of broad-based left. His opposition to the war had given him a new charisma. More than anyone else in public life, he symbolised peace and internationalism, decency and social change.... [He] had become The voice of conscience.[56]
In 1922, MacDonald visitedPalestine.[57] In a later account of his visit, he contrastedZionist pioneers with 'the rich plutocratic Jew'.[57] MacDonald believed the latter "was the true economic materialist. He is the person whose views upon life make one anti-Semitic. He has no country, no kindred. Whether as a sweater or a financier, he is an exploiter of everything he can squeeze. He is behind every evil that Governments do, and his political authority, always exercised in the dark, is greater than that of Parliamentary majorities. He is the keenest of brains and the bluntest of consciences. He detests Zionism because it revives the idealism of his race, and has political implications which threaten his economic interests."[57]
MacDonald became noted for "woolly" rhetoric such as the occasion at theLabour Party Conference of 1930 atLlandudno when he appeared to implyunemployment could be solved by encouraging the jobless to return to the fields "where they till and they grow and they sow and they harvest". Equally, there were times when it was unclear what his policies were. There was already some unease in the party about what he would do if Labour was able to form a government.[58]
At the1923 election, the Conservatives had lost their majority, and when they lost a vote of confidence in the House in January 1924,King George V called on MacDonald to form a minority Labour government, with the tacit support of the Liberals under Asquith from the corner benches. On 22 January 1924,[59] he took office as the first Labour Prime Minister,[60] the first from a working-class background[60] and one of thevery few without a university education.[61]
MacDonald with ministers of his first government, January 1924Time cover, 18 August 1924
MacDonald had never held office but demonstrated energy, executive ability, and political astuteness. He consulted widely within his party, making the LiberalLord Haldane theLord Chancellor, andPhilip SnowdenChancellor of the Exchequer. He took the foreign office himself.[59] Besides himself, ten other cabinet members came from working-class origins, a dramatic breakthrough in British history.[62] His first priority was to undo the perceived damage caused by the 1919Treaty of Versailles, by settling thereparations issue and coming to terms withGermany. KingGeorge V noted in his diary, "He wishes to do the right thing.... Today, 23 years ago, dear Grandmama [Queen Victoria] died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government!"[63]
While there were no major labour strikes during his term, MacDonald acted swiftly to end those that did erupt. When the Labour Party executive criticised the government, he replied that "public doles,Poplarism [local defiance of the national government], strikes for increased wages, limitation of output, not only are not Socialism, but may mislead the spirit and policy of the Socialist movement".[64] The Government lasted only nine months and did not have a majority in either House of the Parliament, but it was still able to support the unemployed with the extension of benefits and amendments to the Insurance Acts.[65] In a personal triumph forJohn Wheatley, Minister for Health, aHousing Act was passed, which greatly expandedmunicipal housing for low-paid workers.[66] Several other reforms were carried out during MacDonald's first premiership in areas such as education,[67] social security,[68][69] agriculture,[70][71] and taxation.[72]
MacDonald had long been a leading spokesman for internationalism in the Labour movement; at first, he verged on pacifism. He founded the Union of Democratic Control in early 1914 to promote international socialist aims, but it was overwhelmed by the war. His 1917 book,National Defence, revealed his own long-term vision for peace. Although disappointed at the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty, he supported theLeague of Nations – but, by 1930, he felt that the internal cohesion of the British Empire and a strong, independent British defence programme might turn out to be the wisest British government policy.[73]
MacDonald moved in March 1924 to end construction work on the Singapore military base, despite strong opposition from theAdmiralty. He believed the building of the base would endanger thedisarmament conference; theFirst Sea LordLord Beatty considered the absence of such a base as dangerously imperilling British trade and territories East ofAden and could mean the security of the British Empire in the Far East being dependent on the goodwill ofJapan.[74]
In June 1924, MacDonald convened a conference in London of the wartimeAllies and achieved an agreement on a new plan for settling the reparations issue andFrench-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. German delegates joined the meeting, and the London Settlement was signed. An Anglo-German commercial treaty followed it. Another major triumph for MacDonald was the conference held in London in July and August 1924 to deal with the implementation of theDawes Plan.[75] MacDonald, who accepted the popular view of the economistJohn Maynard Keynes ofGerman reparations as impossible to pay, pressured French PremierÉdouard Herriot until many concessions were made to Germany, including the evacuation of theRuhr.[75][76]
Ramsay MacDonald andChristian Rakovsky, Head of the Soviet diplomatic delegation. February 1924.
A British onlooker commented, "The London Conference was for the French 'man in the street' one long Calvary ... as he saw M. Herriot abandoning one by one the cherished possessions of French preponderance on the Reparations Commission, the right of sanctions in the event of German default, the economic occupation of the Ruhr, the French-Belgian railroad Régie, and finally, the military occupation of the Ruhr within a year."[77] MacDonald was proud of what had been achieved, which was the pinnacle of his short-lived administration's achievements.[78] In September, he made a speech to theLeague of Nations Assembly inGeneva, the main thrust of which was for general European disarmament, which was received with great acclaim.[79]
MacDonald recognised theSoviet Union and informedParliament in February 1924 that negotiations would begin to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union.[80] The treaty was to cover Anglo-Soviet trade and the repayment of the British bondholders, who had lent billions to the pre-revolutionary Russian government and been rejected by the Bolsheviks. There were, in fact, two proposed treaties: one would cover commercial matters, and the other would address a fairly vague future discussion on the problem of the bondholders. If the treaties were signed, the British government would conclude a further treaty and guarantee a loan to the Bolsheviks. The treaties were popular neither with theConservatives nor with the Liberals, who, in September, criticised the loan so vehemently that negotiation with them seemed impossible.[81]
However, the government's fate was determined by the "Campbell Case", the abrogation of prosecuting the left-wing newspaper theWorkers' Weekly for inciting servicemen to mutiny. The Conservatives put down a censure motion, to which the Liberals added an amendment. MacDonald's Cabinet resolved to treat both motions asmatters of confidence. The Liberal amendment was carried, and the King granted MacDonald a dissolution of Parliament the following day. The issues that dominated the election campaign were the Campbell Case and the Russian treaties, which soon combined into the single issue of the Bolshevik threat.[82]
On 25 October 1924, just four days before the election, theDaily Mail reported that a letter had come into its possession which purported to be a letter sent fromGrigory Zinoviev, the President of theCommunist International, to the British representative on theComintern Executive. The letter was dated 15 September, and so before thedissolution of parliament, it stated that it was imperative for the agreed treaties between Britain and the Bolsheviks to be ratified urgently. The letter said that those Labour members who could apply pressure on the government should do so. It went on to say that a resolution of the relationship between the two countries would "assist in the revolutionising of the international and British proletariat ... make it possible for us to extend and develop the ideas ofLeninism in England and the Colonies".
The government had received the letter before its publication in the newspapers. It had protested to the Bolsheviks' London chargé d'affaires and had already decided to make public the contents of the letter with details of the official protest, but it had not been swift enough.[83] Historians mostly agree that the Zinoviev letter was a forgery, but it closely reflected attitudes current in the Comintern.
On 29 October 1924, the1924 United Kingdom general election was held and the Conservative Party underStanley Baldwin was returned decisively, gaining 155 seats for a total of 413 members of parliament. This was a landslide victory against the Liberals, who lost 118 seats (leaving them with only 40); their vote fell by over a million.
For Labour, the result was a defeat, not a disaster, holding on to 151 seats and losing 40. The real significance of the election was that the Liberal Party, which Labour had displaced as the second-largest political party in 1922, was now clearly the third party. Labour had put up more candidates than in 1923, and its total vote increased, suggesting that the Zinoviev letter had little effect. But for years, many Labourites blamed their defeat on the Letter, through misunderstanding the political forces at work.[84][85]
The strong majority held by the Conservatives gave Baldwin a full term during which the government had to deal with the1926 General Strike. Unemployment remained high but relatively stable at just over 10%, and apart from 1926, strikes were at a low level.[86] At theMay 1929 election, Labour won 288 seats to the Conservatives' 260, with 59 Liberals under Lloyd George holding the balance of power. MacDonald was increasingly out of touch with his supposedly safe Welsh seat atAberavon; he largely ignored the district, and had little time or energy to help with its increasingly difficult problems regarding coal disputes, strikes, unemployment and poverty. The miners expected a wealthy man who would fund party operations, but he had no money. He disagreed with the increasingly radical activism of party leaders in the district, as well as the permanent agent, and theSouth Wales Mineworkers' Federation. He moved toSeaham Harbour inCounty Durham, a safer seat, to avoid a highly embarrassing defeat.[87][88]
MacDonald at Tomb of Unknown Soldier, Washington, DC, 9 October 1929
Baldwin resigned and MacDonald again formed a minority government, with intermittent Liberal support. This time, MacDonald knew he had to concentrate on domestic matters.Arthur Henderson became Foreign Secretary, with Snowden again at the Exchequer.JH Thomas became Lord Privy Seal with a mandate to tackle unemployment, assisted by the young radicalOswald Mosley.Margaret Bondfield was appointed asMinister of Labour, becoming the first-ever woman cabinet minister.[89][90]
MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and was able to introduce a number of progressive reforms.[91] In 1930, for instance, it was able to raiseunemployment pay, pass an act to improve wages and conditions in thecoal industry (i.e. the issues behind theGeneral Strike) and pass theHousing Act 1930 which focused onslum clearances. However, an attempt by the Education MinisterCharles Trevelyan to introduce an act to raise the school-leaving age to 15 was defeated by opposition fromRoman Catholic Labour MPs, who feared that the costs would lead to increasing local authority control over faith schools.[66]
In international affairs, he also convened theRound Table conferences in London with the political leaders of India, at which he offered themresponsible government, but notindependence or evenDominion status. In April 1930 he negotiated theLondon Naval Treaty, limiting naval armaments, with France, Italy, Japan, and the United States.[66] Grants were also provided for colonial welfare through legislation introduced in 1929.[92]
MacDonald's government had no effective response to the economic crisis which followed theStock Market Crash of 1929.Philip Snowden was a rigid exponent of orthodox finance and would not permit anydeficit spending to stimulate the economy, despite the urgings ofOswald Mosley,David Lloyd George and the economistJohn Maynard Keynes. Mosley put forward amemorandum in January 1930, calling for the public control of imports and banking as well as an increase in pensions to boost spending power. When this was repeatedly turned down, Mosley resigned from the government in February 1931 and formed theNew Party. He later converted tofascism.
By the end of 1930, unemployment had doubled to over two and a half million.[93] The government struggled to cope with the crisis and found itself attempting to reconcile two contradictory aims: achieving abalanced budget to maintainsterling on thegold standard, and maintaining assistance to the poor and unemployed, at a time when tax revenues were falling. During 1931, the economic situation deteriorated, and pressure from orthodox economists for sharp cuts in government spending increased. Under pressure from its Liberal allies, as well as the Conservative opposition, who feared that the budget was unbalanced, Snowden appointed a committee headed by SirGeorge May to review the state of public finances. TheMay Report of July 1931, urged large public-sector wage cuts and large cuts in public spending, notably in payments to the unemployed, to avoid a budget deficit.[94]
Although there was a narrow majority in the Cabinet for drastic reductions in spending, the minority included senior ministers such asArthur Henderson who made it clear they would resign rather than acquiesce in the cuts. With this unworkable split, on 24 August 1931, MacDonald submitted his resignation and then agreed, on the urging of KingGeorge V, to form aNational Government with the Conservatives and Liberals. With Henderson taking the lead, MacDonald, Snowden, and Thomas were quickly expelled from the Labour Party.[95] They responded by forming a newNational Labour Organisation, which provided a nominal party base for the expelled MPs, but received little support in the country or the unions. Great anger in the labour movement greeted MacDonald's move. Riots took place in protest inGlasgow andManchester. Many in the Labour Party viewed this as a cynical move by MacDonald to rescue his career, and accused him of 'betrayal'. MacDonald, however, argued that the sacrifice was for the common good.[96][97]
In the1931 general election, the National Government won 554 seats, comprising 473 Conservatives, 13 National Labour, 68 Liberals (Liberal National and Liberal) and various others, while Labour, now led by Arthur Henderson won only 52 and theLloyd George Liberals four. Henderson and his deputyJ. R. Clynes both lost their seats in Labour's worst-ever rout. Labour's disastrous performance at the 1931 election greatly increased the bitterness felt by MacDonald's former colleagues towards him. MacDonald was genuinely upset to see the Labour Party so badly defeated at the election. He had regarded the National Government as a temporary measure, and had hoped to return to the Labour Party.[93]
Premiership of the National Government (1931–1935)
The National Government's huge majority left MacDonald with the largest mandate ever won by a British Prime Minister at a democratic election. Still, he had only a small following of National Labour men in Parliament. He was ageing rapidly and was increasingly a figurehead. In control of domestic policy were ConservativesStanley Baldwin as Lord President andNeville Chamberlain the chancellor of the exchequer, together withNational LiberalWalter Runciman at theBoard of Trade.[98] MacDonald, Chamberlain and Runciman devised a compromise tariff policy, which stopped short of protectionism while ending free trade and, at the1932 Ottawa Conference, cementing commercial relations within the Commonwealth.[99]
Besides his preference for a cohesive British Empire and aprotective tariff, he felt an independent British defence programme would be the wisest policy. However, budget pressures and a strong popular pacifist sentiment forced a reduction in the military and naval budgets.[100] MacDonald involved himself heavily in foreign policy. Assisted by the National Liberal leader and Foreign SecretaryJohn Simon, he continued to lead British delegations to international conferences, including theGeneva Disarmament Conference and theLausanne Conference in 1932, and theStresa Conference in 1935.[101] He went toRome in March 1933 to facilitateNazi Germany's return to the concert of European powers and to continue the policy of appeasement.[102] On 16 August 1932 he granted theCommunal Award upon India, partitioning it into separate electorates forHindus,Muslims,Sikhs andUntouchables. Most important of all, he presided at theWorld Economic Conference in London in June 1933. Nearly every nation was represented, but no agreement was possible. The American president torpedoed the conference with a bombshell message that the US would not stabilise the depreciating dollar. The failure marked the end of international economic cooperation for another decade.[103]
MacDonald was deeply affected by the anger and bitterness caused by the fall of the Labour government. He continued to regard himself as a true Labour man, but the rupturing of virtually all his old friendships left him an isolated figure. One of the only other leading Labour figures to join the government, Philip Snowden, was a firm believer infree trade and resigned from the government in 1932 following the introduction of tariffs after theOttawa agreement.[104][incomplete short citation]
By 1933, MacDonald's health was so poor that his doctorThomas Horder had to supervise his trip to Geneva personally. By 1934, MacDonald's mental and physical health had declined further, and he became an increasingly ineffective leader as the international situation grew more threatening. His speeches in the House of Commons and at international meetings became incoherent. One observer noted how "Things ... got to the stage where nobody knew what the Prime Minister was going to say in the House of Commons, and, when he did say it, nobody understood it". Newspapers did not report MacDonald denying to reporters that he was seriously ill because he only had "loss of memory".[66][27] His pacifism, which had been widely admired in the 1920s, ledWinston Churchill and others to accuse him of failure to stand up to the threat ofAdolf Hitler. His government began the negotiations for theAnglo-German Naval Agreement.
In these years, he was irritated by the attacks ofLucy, Lady Houston, the strongly nationalistic proprietor of theSaturday Review. Lady Houston believed that MacDonald was under the control of the Soviets and amused the nation by giving MacDonald such epithets as the 'Spider of Lossiemouth,' and hanging a large sign in electric lights from the rigging of her luxury yacht, theSY Liberty. According to some versions, it read 'Down with Ramsay MacDonald,' and to others 'To Hell with Ramsay MacDonald.' Lady Houston also sent agents to disrupt his election campaigns. In 2020, new research revealed how she purchased three letters, supposedly written by Ramsay MacDonald to Soviet officials but actually the work of an American forger. In 1935 Lady Houston stated that she intended to publish them but eventually handed them over toSpecial Branch, and MacDonald's solicitors entered a legal battle with her.[105][page needed]
MacDonald was aware of his fading powers, and in 1935, he agreed to a timetable with Baldwin to stand down as Prime Minister after King George V'sSilver Jubilee celebrations in May 1935. He resigned on 7 June in favour of Baldwin, and remained in the cabinet, taking the largely honorary post ofLord President vacated by Baldwin.[66]
His health was failing. King George V died a week before voting began in the Scottish by-election, and MacDonald deeply mourned his death,[108][109] paying tribute to him in his diary as "a gracious and kingly friend whom I have served with all my heart".[108][109] There had been genuine affection between the two and the king is said to have regarded MacDonald as his favourite prime minister.[110][111] Following the king's death MacDonald's physical and mental health collapsed.
A sea voyage (with his youngest daughterSheila) was recommended to restore MacDonald's health, but he died ofheart failure on board the linerMV Reina del Pacifico, on 9 November 1937, aged 71.[112]
MacDonald's body was transferred to the Royal Navy at Bermuda for return toPlymouth. All of the Bermuda-based cruisers of theAmerica and West Indies Station were away from Bermuda at that time except forHMSOrion andHMSApollo. AsApollo was undergoing a refit at the dockyard, it would have fallen toOrion to deliver MacDonald's body, but as she was temporary flagship sinceHMSYork had departed on 27 October forTrinidad (due to civil unrest there) she could not leave the station andApollo was consequently hurried through her refit instead.Orion was tasked with the memorial service for Macdonald. His body was taken aboard the Royal Navy tugSandboy from theReina del Pacifico and landed on Front Street inHamilton along with theRoyal Naval Dockyard Chaplain, theOrion's Chaplain, an honour guard, sentries and coffin bearers. MacDonald's coffin was borne on a gun carriage to theChurch of England'sCathedral of the Most Holy Trinity, in a procession that included the ship's company ofOrion and a detachment of theSherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), serving in theBermuda Garrison. At the cathedral,Arthur Browne, theBishop of Bermuda, conducted the memorial service, which was followed by alying in state. Thousands visited to pay their respects. MacDonald's body and his daughter departed Bermuda the following day aboardApollo, arriving at Plymouth on 25 November. His funeral was inWestminster Abbey on 26 November, followed by a private cremation service atGolders Green. After cremation, his ashes were taken to Lossiemouth, where a service commenced in his house, The Hillocks, followed by a procession toHoly Trinity Church, Spynie, where they were buried alongside his wife Margaret and their son David in his nativeMoray.[66][113][114]
Ramsay MacDonald marriedMargaret Ethel Gladstone (no relation to Prime Minister William Gladstone) in 1896. The marriage was a very happy one, and they had six children, includingMalcolm MacDonald (1901–1981), who had a distinguished career as a politician, colonial governor and diplomat, andIshbel (1903–1982) andSheila MacDonald, who were both very close to their father.[115] Another son, Alister Gladstone MacDonald (1898–1993) was aconscientious objector in theFirst World War, serving in theFriends' Ambulance Unit; he became a prominent architect who worked on promoting the planning policies of his father's government, and specialised in cinema design.[116]
MacDonald was devastated by Margaret's death from blood poisoning in 1911, and had few significant personal relationships after that time, apart from with Ishbel, who acted as his consort while he was Prime Minister and cared for him for the rest of his life. Following his wife's death, MacDonald commenced a relationship withLady Margaret Sackville.[117]
In the 1920s and 1930s, he was frequently entertained by the society hostessLady Londonderry, which was much disapproved of in the Labour Party since her husband was a Conservative cabinet minister.[118][incomplete short citation]
MacDonald was born into a religious family and was originally quite devout in his own beliefs. Raised in thePresbyterian church, he later joined theFree Church of Scotland as an adult "but neither creeds or ritual attracted him".[119] Subsequently, he became interested in theUnitarian movement during his time in London, and led Unitarian worship sessions. MacDonald was a passionate and prolific Unitarian preacher, leading more than 500 services.[120] Unitarianism led him to theEthical movement, attending services at the South Place Ethical Society (nowConway Hall).[121][122][123] He became intensely involved in the Union of Ethical Societies (today known asHumanists UK), and friends with its founder,Stanton Coit, writing regularly in Coit'sEthical World publication.[124] On more than one occasion he took the Chair at the annual meeting of the Union of Ethical Societies. His motives are evidenced in the manifesto of theSociety of Ethical Propagandists to which Macdonald was a signatory (including Coit). The manifesto stated that Ethical societies "are founded upon a conviction that the good life is desirable for its own sake, and rests upon no supernatural sanction".[125]
MacDonald's unpopularity in the country following his stance against Britain's involvement in theFirst World War spilt over into his private life. In 1916, he was expelled fromMoray Golf Club in Lossiemouth for being deemed to bring the club into disrepute because of his pacifist views.[47] The manner of his expulsion was regretted by some members, but an attempt to reinstate him by a vote in 1924 failed. However, a Special General Meeting held in 1929 finally voted for his reinstatement. By this time, MacDonald was Prime Minister for the second time. He felt the initial expulsion very deeply and refused to take up the final offer of membership, which he had framed and mounted.[126] He ultimately became a member of nearby Spey Bay Golf Club where he gifted the Club Championship trophy that is still used to this day.[127]
For half a century, MacDonald was demonised by the Labour Party as a turncoat who consorted with the enemy and drove the Labour Party to its nadir. Later, however, a number of scholars came to present him as an important founder and leader of the Labour Party, and a man who held Britain together during its darkest economic times.[128][129]
MacDonald's expulsion from Labour and its rejection of his National Labour Organisation's coalition with the Conservatives, combined with the decline in his physical and mental powers after 1931, left him a discredited figure. The downfall of the Labour government in 1931, his National coalition with the Conservatives and the electoral defeat were blamed on him, and few spoke on his behalf.[130]MacNeill Weir, MacDonald's former parliamentary private secretary, published the first major biographyThe Tragedy of Ramsay MacDonald in 1938. Weir demonised MacDonald for obnoxious careerism, class betrayal and treachery.[131]Clement Attlee in his autobiographyAs it Happened (1954) called MacDonald's decision to abandon the Labour government in 1931 "the greatest betrayal in the political history of the country".[132] The coming of war in 1939 led to a search for the politicians who had appeased Hitler and failed to prepare Britain; MacDonald was grouped among the "Guilty Men".[133]
By the 1960s, while union activists maintained their hostile attitude, academic writers showed a greater appreciation of his challenges and successes.[134] Finally, in 1977, he received a long scholarly biography that some historians have judged to be "definitive".[135] Labour MPDavid Marquand, a trained historian, wroteRamsay MacDonald with the stated intention of giving MacDonald credit for his work in founding and building the Labour Party, and in trying to preserve peace in the years between the two world wars. He also argued to place MacDonald's fateful decision in 1931 in the context of the crisis of the times and the limited choices open to him. Marquand praised what he saw as the prime minister's decision to place national interests before those of the Labour Party in 1931. He also emphasised MacDonald's lasting intellectual contribution to socialism and his pivotal role in transforming Labour from an outside protest group to an inside party of government.[136]
Similarly, scholarly analysis of the economic decisions made during the inter-war period, such as the return to the Gold Standard in 1925 and MacDonald's desperate efforts to defend it in 1931, has changed. ThusRobert Skidelsky, in his classic 1967 account of the 1929–31 government,Politicians and the Slump, compared the orthodox policies advocated by leading politicians of both parties unfavourably with the more radical, proto-Keynesian measures proposed by David Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley; subsequently, in the preface to the 1994 edition Skidelsky argued that recent experience of currency crises andcapital flight made it hard to be critical of politicians who wanted to achieve stability by cutting so-called "labour costs" and defending the value of the currency.[137] In 2004, Marquand advanced a similar argument:
In the harsher world of the 1980s and 1990s, it was no longer obvious that Keynes was right in 1931 and the bankers wrong. Pre-Keynesian orthodoxy had come in from the cold. Politicians and the public had learned anew that confidence crises feed on themselves; that currencies can collapse; that the public credit can be exhausted; that a plummeting currency can be even more painful than deflationary expenditure cuts; and that governments which try to defy the foreign exchange markets are apt to get their—and their countries'—fingers burnt. Against that background, MacDonald's response to the 1931 crisis increasingly seemed not just honourable and consistent, but right ... he was the unacknowledged precursor of theBlairs, theSchröders, and theClintons of the 1990s and 2000s.[138]
^Eichengreen, Barry J.; El-Ganainy, Asmaa; Esteves, Rui; Mitchener, Kris James (18 August 2021).In Defense of Public Debt. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-757789-9 – via Google Books.
^Keith Robbins, "Labour Foreign Policy and International Socialism: MacDonald and the League of Nations," in Robbins,Politicians, Diplomacy and War (2003) pp. 239–272
^Steiner, Zara (2005).The lights that failed : European international history, 1919–1933. Oxford: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0191518812.OCLC86068902.
^Wrench, David (2000). "'Very Peculiar Circumstances': Walter Runciman and the National Government, 1931–3".Twentieth Century British History.11 (1):61–82.doi:10.1093/tcbh/11.1.61.
^abMarquand 1977, p. 784 "George V's death in January 1936, had been a heavy blow to MacDonald; it is clear from his diary that he must have taken some time to recover from it."
^Owen, Nicholas (2007). "MacDonald's Parties: The Labour Party and the 'Aristocratic Embrace' 1922–31".Twentieth Century British History.18 (1):1–53.doi:10.1093/tcbh/hwl043.
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