Socialism in theUnited Kingdom is thought to stretch back to the 19th century from roots arising in theEnglish Civil War. It has taken many different forms from theutopianphilanthropism ofRobert Owen through to thereformist electoral project enshrined in theLabour Party that was founded in 1900 and nationalised a fifth of the British economy in the late 1940s.
In the turmoil of theEnglish Civil War in the 1640s, several proto-socialist groups emerged, most notably theLevellers. They advocatedelectoral reform, universaltrial by jury,progressive taxation and the abolition of the monarchy andaristocracy and of censorship. This was strongly opposed byOliver Cromwell's government, who also persecuted the moderatereformist group theFifth Monarchy Men and theradical utopian group theDiggers.[1]
TheIndustrial Revolution, the transition from a farming economy to an industrial one, began in the UK over thirty years before the rest of the world.Textile mills and coal mines sprang up across the whole country and peasants left the fields to work down the mines, or into the "Dark, Satanic Mills", the chimneys of which blackened the sky overLancashire andYorkshire. Appalling conditions for workers, combined with support for theFrench Revolution, turned some intellectuals to socialism.[2]
The pioneering work ofRobert Owen, a Welsh radical, atNew Lanark in Scotland, is often credited as being the birth of British Socialism. He stopped employing children under the age of ten, and instead arranged for their education, and improved the working and living conditions of all his workers. He also lobbied Parliament over child labour and helped to create theco-operative movement, before attempting to create a utopian community atNew Harmony in the United States.[3][4]
The trade union movement in Britain gradually developed from the Medievalguild system. Unions were subject to often severe repression until 1824, but were already widespread in cities such as London. Workplace militancy had also manifested itself asLuddism and had been prominent in struggles such as theRadical War (or Scottish Insurrection) inScotland in 1820, when 60,000 workers went on ageneral strike, which was soon crushed.
From 1830 on, attempts were made to set up nationalgeneral unions, most notably Robert Owen'sGrand National Consolidated Trades Union in 1834, which attracted a range of socialists fromOwenites to revolutionaries. It played a part in the protests after theTolpuddle Martyrs' case, but soon collapsed.
Militants turned toChartism, the aims of which were supported by most socialists, although none appear to have played leading roles.
More permanent trade unions were established from the 1850s, better resourced but often less radical. TheLondon Trades Council was founded in 1860, and theSheffield Outrages spurred the establishment of theTrades Union Congress in 1868. Union membership grew as unskilled and women workers were unionised, and socialists such asTom Mann played an increasingly prominent role.
The rise ofNon-Conformist religions, in particularMethodism, played a large role in the development of trade unions and of British socialism. The influence of the radical chapels was strongly felt among some industrial workers, especially miners and those in the north of England and Wales.
The first group calling itselfChristian Socialists formed in 1848 under the leadership ofFrederick Denison Maurice.[5] Its membership mainly consisted of Chartists (see below). The group became dormant after only six years, but there was a considerable revival of Christian socialism in the 1880s, and a number of groups sprang up. Ultimately, Christian socialists dominated the leadership of theIndependent Labour Party, includingKeir Hardie.[6]
TheChartist movement of the 1830s and 1840s was the first mass revolutionary movement of the British working-class. Mass meetings and demonstrations involving millions of proletariat and petty-bourgeois were held throughout the country for years.[7][8]
The Chartists published severalpetitions to the British Parliament (ranging from 1,280,000 to 3,000,000 signatures), the most famous of which was called thePeople's Charter (hence their name) in 1842, which demanded:[9]
The government subsequently subjected the Chartists to brutal reprisals and arrested their leaders. The remaining party then split as a result of a divide in tactics: theMoral Force Party believed in bureaucratic reformism, while thePhysical Force Party believed in workers' reformism (through strikes, etc.).
The Chartist movement's reformist goals, although not immediately and directly attained, were gradually achieved. In the same year as the People's Charter was created, theBritish Parliament instead responded by passing the1842 Mining Act. Carefully valving the steam of the working-class movement, Parliament reduced the working day to ten hours with theFactories Act 1847.[10]
Karl Marx andFriedrich Engels worked in England, and they influenced small émigré groups including theCommunist League. Engels' bookThe Condition of the Working Class in England[11] became a popular expose of conditions for workers, but initially Marxism had little impact among Britain's working class.
The first nominally Marxist organisation was theSocial Democratic Federation, founded in 1882. Engels refused to support the organisation, although Marx's daughterEleanor joined.
The party soon split, with theSocialist League ofWilliam Morris becoming divided between anarchists and Marxists such as Morris and Eleanor Marx. A much later split produced theSocialist Party of Great Britain, Britain's oldest existing socialist party, and theSocialist Labour Party.
Although Marxism had some impact in Britain, it was far less than in many other European countries, with philosophers such asJohn Ruskin andJohn Stuart Mill having much greater influence. Some non-Marxists[who?] theorise that this was because Britain was amongst the most democratic countries of Europe of the period, the ballot box provided an instrument for change, so a parliamentary, reformist socialism seemed a more promising route than elsewhere.
TheReform League, which was founded in 1865 to press for universal male suffrage and vote by secret ballot, qualified its demand for suffrage with the phrase "registered and residential" shortly before the passing of the1867 Reform Act. This qualifier excluded a great number of British labourers, casual workers, and unemployed. The change in policy has been attributed to donations received by the League fromLiberal Party politicians in 1866 and 1867.[12] At the time, Marx wrote that he and Engels had been "betrayed [...] in the Reform League where, against our wishes, [Cremer and Oder] have made compromises with the bourgeoisie".[13]
However, a great deal of collaboration came to exist between the Liberal Party and the leaders of the labour movement, though Marx saw these as effective bribes by the bourgeoisie and the government.[14] The1867 Reform Act passed and enfranchised roughly three million people, around half of whom were working class. This was extended to five million by theRepresentation of the People Act 1884, which extended the householder's franchise.[12] TheLiberal Party was worried about the prospect of a socialist party taking the bulk of the working-class vote, while their great rivals theConservatives initiated occasional intrigues to encourage socialist candidates to stand against the Liberals.
In 1874, the Liberals agreed not to put candidates againstThomas Burt andAlexander Macdonald, two miners' leaders who were standing forParliament. Both were elected and became known as Liberal-Labour orLib-Labs for short. Other miners' leaders entered Parliament via the same route.
In 1888,Robert Cunninghame-Graham the MP forLanarkshire North-West since the1886 general election left the Liberal Party and formed his own, independent,Scottish Labour Party, becoming the first socialist MP in theParliament of the United Kingdom.
At the1892 general election,Keir Hardie, another Liberal politician who had joined Cunninghame-Graham in the Scottish Labour Party, was elected as an Independent Labour MP, and this gave him the spur to found a UK-wideIndependent Labour Party in 1893.
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The early twentieth century saw a number of socialist groups and movements in Britain. As well as the Independent Labour Party and the Social Democratic Federation, there was a mass movement aroundRobert Blatchford's newspaperThe Clarion from the 1890s to the 1930s; the more intellectual gradualistFabian Society; and more radical groups such as theSocialist Labour Party. However, the movement was increasingly dominated by the formation of theBritish Labour Party.
In 1900, representatives of various trade unions and of the Independent Labour Party, Fabian Society and Social Democratic Federation agreed to form a Labour Party backed by the unions and with its own whips. TheLabour Representation Committee was founded withKeir Hardie as its leader. At the 1900 general election, the LRC won only two seats, and the SDF disaffiliated, but more unions signed up.
The LRC affiliated to theSocialist International and in 1906 changed its name toThe Labour Party. It formedan electoral pact with the Liberals, intending to cause maximum damage to theUnionist government at the forthcoming election. This was successful, and in the process, 29 Labour MPs were elected to theHouse of Commons.
The campaign for women's suffrage in Britain began in the mid-nineteenth century, with many early campaigners including Eleanor Marx being socialists, but many established socialists, including Robert Blatchford andErnest Belfort Bax opposed or ignored the movement. By the early twentieth century, the campaign had become more militant, but some of its leaders were reluctant to involve working-class women in it.Sylvia Pankhurst campaigned for enfranchisement among women in the East End of London and eventually built up theWorkers Socialist Federation.
Supporters ofDaniel De Leon in the Social Democratic Federation chiefly in Scotland split to form theSocialist Labour Party. Their fellowimpossibilists in London split from the SDF the following year to form theSocialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB, still in existence). The remainder of the SDF attempted to form a broader Marxist party, theBritish Socialist Party. The SLP and BSP parties came to influence theshop steward movement, which became particularly prominent in what became known asRed Clydeside. Socialists such asJohn Maclean led strikes and demonstrations for better working conditions and a forty-hour working week.
This activity took place against the background of theFirst World War, 1914-1918. The Labour Party, like almost all the Socialist International, enthusiastically supported their country's leadership in the war, as did the leadership of the British Socialist Party. This split the BSP, and a new anti-war leadership emerging.[15]
The shop steward movement worried many right-wingers, who believed that socialists were fomenting aBolshevik revolution in Britain. ACommunist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was founded, but it attracted only existing left-wing militants, with the British Socialist Party and Workers Socialist Federation joining many Socialist Labour Party activists in it.[16]
The CPGB soon became known for its loyalty to the line of theComintern, and proposed the motion to expelLeon Trotsky from the international. Under the leadership ofHarry Pollitt, it finally gained its first MP, and began to expelTrotskyists.[17]
The main labour unions and the Labour Party successfully fought multiple Communist attempts to infiltrate and control local operations.[18]
The Labour Party continued to grow as more unions affiliated and more Labour MPs were elected. In 1918, a new constitution was agreed, which laid out several aims of the party. These includedClause IV, calling for "common ownership" of key industry. With their success at the1923 general election, Labour were able to form their firstminority government, led byRamsay MacDonald. This government was undermined by the infamousZinoviev Letter, which was used as evidence of Labour's links with theSoviet Union. It was later revealed to be a forgery.
In 1926, British miners went on strike over their appalling working conditions. The situation soon escalated into theGeneral Strike, but theTrade Union Congress, ostensibly worried about reports of starvation in thepit villages, called the strike off. The miners tried to continue alone, but without TUC support had eventually to give in.
Labour formed a minority government in1929 again under MacDonald, but following theStock Market Crash of 1929, theGreat Depression engulfed the country. The government split over its response to the crisis. MacDonald and a few supporters agreed to form aNational Government with the Liberals and the Conservatives. The majority of the Labour Party regarded this as a betrayal and expelled them, whereupon they foundedNational Labour.
The Great Depression devastated the industrial areas of Northern England, Wales and Central Scotland, and theJarrow March of unemployed workers from the North East to London to demand jobs defined the period.
Ethical socialism is a variant ofliberal socialism developed by British socialists.[19][20] It became an important ideology within theLabour Party of the United Kingdom.[21] Ethical socialism was founded in the 1920s byR. H. Tawney, a BritishChristian socialist, and its ideals were connected to Christian socialist,Fabian, andguild socialist ideals.[22] Ethical socialism has been publicly supported by British Prime MinistersRamsay MacDonald,[23]Clement Attlee,[24] andTony Blair.[21]
The Independent Labour Party disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 1932, in protest at an erosion of their MPs' independence. For a time, they became a significant left-of-Labour force.
In 1936, theSpanish Civil War was viewed by many socialists as a contest against the rise of fascism which it was vital to win. Many CPGB and Independent Labour Party members went to fight for the Republic and with the Stalinist led International Brigades and the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM)anti-fascist forces, includingGeorge Orwell who wrote about his experiences inHomage to Catalonia.
The Labour Party leadership always supported British involvement inWorld War II, and they joined anational government with the Conservative Party and the Liberals, and agreed a non-contest pact in elections. The CPGB at first supported the war, but afterJoseph Stalin signed a treaty withAdolf Hitler, opposed it. After thefascistinvasion of the Soviet Union, they again supported the war, joined the non-contest pact, and did all in their power to prevent strikes. But strikes did occur, and they were supported by the anti-war Independent Labour Party and the newly formed TrotskyistRevolutionary Communist Party.
To widespread surprise, the Labour Party led by wartime Deputy Prime MinisterClement Attlee won a landslide victory over popular war leaderWinston Churchill at the1945 general election, and implemented theirsocial democratic programme. They established theNHS,nationalised some industries (for example, coal mining), and created awelfare state.
The CPGB also grew on the back of Stalinist successes in Eastern Europe and China, and recorded their best-ever result, with two MPs elected (one in London and another inFife). The Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party collapsed.
Labour lost power in1951 and after Clement Attlee retired as party leader in 1955, he was succeeded by the figurehead of the "right-establishment"Hugh Gaitskell, againstAneurin Bevan.
Although there were some disputes between theBevanites and theGaitskellites, these disputes were more about personality than ideology, and the rift was healed whenHarold Wilson, a Bevanite, was elected as Leader of the Labour Party after Gaitskell's sudden death.
TheCampaign for Nuclear Disarmament briefly gained leverage over Labour Party policy at the beginning of the decade, but soon went into a long eclipse. TheVietnam War, given lukewarm support byHarold Wilson, radicalised a new generation. Significant anti-war protests were organised. Trotskyist groups like theInternational Marxist Group and theVietnam Solidarity Campaign came to prominence, particularly due to high-profile members like the IMG'sTariq Ali.
After the Soviet Union's invasion ofCzechoslovakia in 1968, the CPGB became to divide between Stalinists andEurocommunists. The party suffered a series of splits. VariousMaoist inclined elements left, the most significant forming theCommunist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist). Later in 1977, other traditionalist pro-Russian elements left to form theNew Communist Party.
In 1969, Wilson's Labour Government introducedIn Place of Strife, a white paper designed to circumvent strikes by imposing compulsory arbitration. Opposed by many trade unionists, including Home SecretaryJames Callaghan; it was soon withdrawn. Later legislation passed byEdward Heath's Conservative government was successfully resisted as union militants, many close to the CPGB, led the successful1974 UK miners' strike. More ominously for the left, the unsuccessfulGrunwick dispute, and the 1978–79Winter of Discontent were also blamed on them. The Labour leadership's failure to work with trade unions, or for their opponents an inability to keep them under control, resulted in theelection in 1979 of an economically liberal Conservative government, led byMargaret Thatcher, which finally ended the post-war political consensus.
Following the 1979 Labour defeat,James Callaghan tried in vain to keep the left wing of the party (in whichTony Benn was prominent) and the right-wing (in whichRoy Jenkins was prominent) together. In 1980, the Labour Party conference was dominated by factional disputes and what Callaghan regarded asBennite motions. Callaghan resigned as party leader late that year and was replaced byMichael Foot, a left-winger who by then had distanced himself from Benn but failed to transmit this to the media or the voters. The following year,Denis Healey only narrowly won the deputy leadership in a contest with Benn.
In 1981, thirty MPs on the right-wing of the Labour Party defected to found theSocial Democratic Party, which formed analliance with theLiberal Party and opinion polls briefly saw the new alliance appear capable of winning a general election.
At the1983 general election, Thatcher benefited from increased popularity, an after effect of the successfulFalklands War, and a Labour manifesto which Labour MPGerald Kaufman described as "the longest suicide note in history". Labour suffered their worst election defeat since 1918 with eight and a half million votes, over three million votes down on the previous general election. Many former Labour voters had voted for theSDP-Liberal Alliance instead. The Alliance came close to Labour in terms of votes, but had only a fraction of its seats due to the limitations of thefirst-past-the-post system.[25]
Following the 1983 general election,Neil Kinnock, long associated with the left wing of the Labour Party, became the new leader. By that point in time, the Labour Party was factionalised between the right, including Healey and deputy leaderRoy Hattersley, a "soft left" associated with theTribune group, and a "hard left" associated with Benn and the newCampaign Group.
The TrotskyistMilitant tendency, usingentryist tactics in the Labour Party, had gradually increased their profile. By 1982, they controlledLiverpool City Council, and had a presence in many Constituency Labour Parties. The Labour NEC began to expel Militant members, beginning with their newspaper's "editorial board", in effect their Central Committee. A revival inmunicipal socialism seemed, for a time, a solution to Conservative hegemony for many on the left. TheGreater London Council, led byKen Livingstone, gained the most attention, seeming genuinely innovative to its support base, but the GLC was abolished by the Conservatives in 1986.
The defining event of the 1980s for British socialists was the1984–85 miners' strike. Miners in theNational Union of Mineworkers, led byArthur Scargill, struck against the closure of collieries. Despite support in the coalfields, including many miners' wives inWomen Against Pit Closures, the strike was eventually lost owing to a union split, amongst other reasons. The Conservatives had already begun toprivatise other state industries. Labour lost the1987 general election by a wide margin, although it did manage to reduce the Conservative majority significantly.[26]
Scottish andWelsh nationalism have been the concern of many socialists. Having been raised in the nineteenth century by Liberals also calling forIrish Home Rule, Scottish Home Rule became the official policy of the ILP, and of the Labour Party until 1958.John Maclean campaigned for a separate Communist Party in Scotland in the 1920s, and when the CPGB refused to support Scottish independence, he formed theScottish Workers Republican Party. The poetHugh MacDiarmid, a Communist, was also an early member of theNational Party of Scotland. The CPGB eventually changed their position in the 1940s.
The early nationalist parties had little connection with socialism, but by the 1980s they had become increasingly identified with the left, and in the 1990sPlaid Cymru declared itself to be a socialist party.
Following the establishment of theScottish Parliament andWelsh Parliament (established as the National Assembly for Wales), both theScottish National Party and Plaid have been challenged by socialists in recent years.[clarification needed] TheScottish Socialist Party, who also supportScottish independence as an immediate goal, has had recent electoral success; it won sixMSPs in the2003 Scottish Parliament election.Forward Wales, with a less militant programme, aimed to replicate their success.
Irish republicanism came to be supported by socialists in Britain. Labour's election manifestos for 1983, 1987 and 1992 included a commitment toIrish unification by consent.
In 1989 inScotland, and 1990 for the rest of the UK, the Conservatives introduced the deeply unpopularpoll tax. For the first time in the decade, socialists were able to organise effective opposition, culminating in the "poll tax riot" on 31 March 1990. Margaret Thatcher's own party compelled her to step down on 22 November that year, and she was replaced byJohn Major, who abolished the charge in 1991.
The CPGB dissolved itself in 1991, although their former newspaper, theMorning Star, continues to be published and follows the programme of theCommunist Party of Britain which was founded in 1988 after an internal crisis in the CPGB led to a split. The Eurocommunists, who had controlled the party's magazineMarxism Today, formed theDemocratic Left.[citation needed]
In the run-up to the1992 general election, polling showed that there might be ahung parliament, but possibly a small Labour majority – the party's lead on the opinion polls had shrunk and some polls had even seen the Tories creep ahead in spite of the deepening recession. In the event, the Conservatives led byJohn Major; won a fourth consecutive election with a majority of 21 seats. This has been attributed to both the Labour Party's premature triumphalism (in particular at theSheffield Rally) and the Tories' "Tax Bombshell" advertising campaign, which highlighted the increased taxes that a Labour government would impose. This general election defeat was shortly followed by Kinnock's resignation after nearly a decade as leader. And, as had happened in the aftermath of the1959 general election defeat, there was widespread public and media doubt as to whether a Labour government could be elected again, since it had failed in the face of a recession and rising unemployment.[27]
After the brief stewardship ofJohn Smith in the early 1990s,Tony Blair was elected leader following Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in May 1994. He immediately decided to revamp Clause IV, dropping Labour's commitment to public ownership of key industries and utilities, along with other socialist policies.[28]
Many members of the party were unhappy with the proposed changes and several unions considered using their block vote to kill the motion, but in the end their leaderships backed down and settled for a new clause declaring the Labour Party a "democratic socialist party", broadening the party's electoral appeal. However, Labour had been ascendant in the opinion polls since theBlack Wednesday economic fiasco a few months after the 1992 general election, and the increased lead of the polls under Blair's leadership remained strong in spite of the revolt, and the fact that the economy was growing again and unemployment was falling under Major's Conservative government. Labour's popularity was also helped by the fact that the Conservative government was now divided over Europe.[29]
Several party members, such asArthur Scargill, regarded this as a betrayal of Labour's ideology and left the Labour Party. Scargill formed theSocialist Labour Party (SLP) which initially attracted some support, much of which transferred to the Socialist Alliance on its formation, but the SA has since been wound up and the SLP has become marginalised.[citation needed]
The Scottish Socialist Party have proven much more successful, while Ken Livingstone became theMayor of London, standing against an official Labour Party candidate. Livingstone was re-admitted into the Labour Party in time for his re-election in 2004.
Under Blair, Labour launched a PR campaign to rebrand asNew Labour. The party also introduced women-only shortlists in certain seats and central vetting of Parliamentary candidates to ensure that its candidates were seen as on-message. Labour won the1997 general election with a landslide majority of 179 seats; their best result to date.[30]
The internationalanti-globalisation movement, while difficult to define, has become a focus for other socialists in the twenty-first century, and many see a reflection of it in the opposition of large sections of the population to the2003 Iraq War.
Several minor socialist parties merged in 2003 to form the Alliance for Green Socialism which is a socialist party that campaigns on a wide variety of policies including; economic, environmental and social.
AfterGeorge Galloway's expulsion from theLabour Party in October 2003 following his controversial statements about the war inIraq,[31] he became involved inRespect – The Unity Coalition (later renamed the Respect Party) in an alliance with theSocialist Workers Party and leading figures from theMuslim Association of Britain. Galloway, who stood as a candidate for Respect, was elected as the Member of Parliament forBethnal Green and Bow at the2005 general election, where he defeated the sitting Labour MP;Oona King. Galloway strongly opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq while King strongly supported it.[32] The association with the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) ended in 2007. Galloway did not seek re-election for Bethnal Green and Bow at the2010 general election, but stood at thePoplar and Limehouse constituency instead. However, he finished in third place, behind Tim Archer of theConservatives andJim Fitzpatrick of theLabour Party. After a two-year absence from Parliament, Galloway returned to the House of Commons after winning the2012 Bradford West by-election.[33] Respect though has suffered from the resignation of leading members over the years,[34][35] and Galloway lost his seat toNaz Shah of the Labour Party at the2015 general election.
In 2013, directorKen Loach made an appeal seeking to create a United Left Party in light of the perceived successes seen bySyriza inGreece, the perceived failures of previous Left of Labour projects such as Socialist Alliance and the perceived failings of Respect. TheLeft Unity political party was founded in November 2013 as a result of the appeal.
The Labour Party was defeated at the2010 general election after discussions about forming a coalition agreement with the Liberal Democrats failed. During their thirteen years in government, Labour made few changes to the trade union reforms passed by the previous Conservative governments, and the only nationalisation which took place during that time were of several leading banks facing collapse in theGreat Recession under the premiership ofGordon Brown. The Conservatives returned to power with theLiberal Democrats as acoalition government following ahung parliament; the first in36 years.[36]
Other socialists[who?] place their hopes in a trade union revival, perhaps around the "Awkward Squad" of the more left-wing trade union leaders, many of whom have joined theLabour Representation Committee. Others have turned to more community-based politics. Yet others[who?] believe they can reclaim the Labour Party.
TheTrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) was formed in January 2010 to contest the2010 general election. Founding supporters includeBob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT), Brian Caton, general secretary of the POA and Chris Baugh, assistant general secretary of the PCS. RMT andSocialist Party executive members, including Bob Crow, form the core of the steering committee. The coalition includes the Socialist Workers Party, which will also stand candidates under its banner,[37] RESPECT[38] and other trade unionists and socialist groups. This followed theNo2EU coalition which fought theEuropean elections in 2009 gaining the official backing of the RMT. The RMT declined to officially back the new TUSC coalition, but granted their branches the right to stand and fund local candidates as part of the coalition.[39]
TheScottish Socialist Party (SSP) has been actively campaigning for Scottish independence since the announcement of the2014 Scottish independence referendum. Its co-convenor,Colin Fox, sits on the advisory board of theYes Scotland campaign organisation. The party's support for Scottish independence is rooted in a belief that "the tearing of the blue out of the Union Jack and the dismantling of the 300-year-old British state would [be] a traumatic psychological blow for the forces of capitalism and conservatism in Britain, Europe and the USA", and that it would be "almost as potent in its symbolism as the unravelling of the Soviet Union at the start of the 1990s". Representatives of the party have also claimed that while the break-up of the United Kingdom would not result in "instant socialism", it would cause "a decisive shift in the balance of ideological and class forces".[40]
The campaign for independence has also enjoyed support from a minority of trade unionists. In 2013, a branch of theCommunications Workers Union covering Edinburgh, Lothians, Fife, Falkirk, and Stirling voted to back a motion describing independence as "the only way forward for workers in Scotland", and agreeing to "do all in our power to secure [aYes] outcome".[41] Additionally, theScottish Trades Union Congress has refused to take a stance on the referendum, instead laying out "challenges for both sides of the debate", in particular calling onBetter Together to "outline a practical vision of how social and economic justice can be achieved within the union".[42] Other left-wing sections refused to support a nationalist position, instead arguing either for working-class unity or a critical approach to both sides. Campaigns such as Socialism First and the Red Paper Collective were a challenge to the official campaigns on both sides arguing for "Class over Nation".
Until 2006, the RMT was affiliated with the Scottish Socialist Party.[43]
The Labour Party campaigned in favour of a "No" vote through the referendum campaign, headed by former Labourchancellor of the exchequerAlistair Darling, and throughUnited with Labour, a campaign composed solely of Labour Party figures. However, some members ofScottish Labour joinedLabour for Independence, a pressure group of Labour members who back Scottish independence. The appeal of independence is attributed by the group's leader to a feeling of being "let down and betrayed by a party who no longer represent them or the people of Scotland".[44]
Polls had suggested ahung parliament at the2015 general election, which was the party's first general election withEd Miliband at the helm. When the final results were counted however, Labour suffered a second consecutive defeat and the Conservatives, led byDavid Cameron, formed a majority government for the first time since1992. The number of Labour MPs declined by 26 from 2010, after they lost 40 of the 41 seats they had in Scotland to theScottish National Party and finished with 30.4% of the vote nationally and 232 seats in the House of Commons. Miliband resigned as party leader[45] following his party's defeat and subsequently triggered aLabour Party leadership election.Harriet Harman served as acting leader while the election was contested.
Miliband's election as Leader of the Labour Party on the back of trade union member votes had been seen by some[who?] as a return to the left following the New Labour years (1994-2010). Miliband was nicknamed "Red Ed" by some (predominantly right-wing) media.[46] After assuming office as Leader of the Opposition, Miliband softened some of the more left-wing ideas he had adopted during the leadership election, but remained committed to causes such as aliving wage and the 50% tax rate on high earners. However, the Labour Party under Miliband focused on calls for "responsible capitalism" rather than socialism.[47][48] Labour's then-Shadow ChancellorEd Balls also committed to maintaining some spending cuts scheduled for 2015 and 2016 by the Conservative-led coalition,[49] and was accused of planning to cut thestate pension.[50] These were unpopular ideas with traditional socialists.
Jeremy Corbyn became Leader of the Labour Party inSeptember 2015. Corbyn identifies as a democratic socialist.[51]
In August 2015, prior to the2015 leadership election, the Labour Party reported 292,505 full members.[52][53] As of December 2017[update], the party had approximately 570,000 full members, making it the largest political party by membership in Western Europe.[54][55]
On 18 April 2017, Prime MinisterTheresa May announced she would seek an unexpectedsnap election on Thursday 8 June 2017.[56] Corbyn said he welcomed May's proposal and said his party would support the government's move in the parliamentary vote announced for 19 April.[57][58] The necessarysuper-majority of two-thirds was achieved when 522 of the650 members of parliament voted in favour of an early election.[56] Some of theopinion polls had shown a 20-point Conservative lead over Labour before the election was called, but this lead had narrowed by the day of the2017 general election; which resulted in ahung parliament. Despite remaining in opposition for the third general election in a row, Labour won 40% of the popular vote, its greatest share of the vote since2001. It was also the first time the Labour Party had made a net gain of seats since their1997 landslide victory. Thirty new seats were gained to reach 262 total MPs, and, with a swing of 9.6%,[59] achieved the biggest percentage-point increase in its vote share at a single general election since1945.[60] Immediately following the election, party membership rose by 35,000.[61]
In July 2017, opinion polling suggested Labour leads the Conservatives, 45% to 39%[62] while aYouGov poll gave Labour an 8-point lead over the Conservatives.[63]
Following the2017 general election,Jeremy Corbyn continued as Leader of the Labour Party. As of December 2019[update], the party had approximately 532,046 full members.[64] This represented a slight decline from the peak membership levels reached in 2017, but Labour remained the largest political party by membership in Western Europe.
After becoming prime minister in July 2019,Boris Johnson made repeated attempts to hold asnap election under theFixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which required atwo-thirds supermajority to call an early election. All three initial attempts failed as Parliament insisted Johnson "take a no-deal Brexit off the table first".[65] Parliament eventually agreed to an election through a motion proposed by theLiberal Democrats andScottish National Party on 28 October 2019. TheEarly Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 was passed in theHouse of Commons by 438 votes to 20 on 29 October.[66] TheHouse of Lords gave its approval on 30 October, withroyal assent granted on 31 October for an election to be held on 12 December 2019.[67]
The2019 general election resulted in a decisive defeat for Labour, winning only 202 seats with 32.1% of the popular vote.[68] This represented a net loss of 60 seats compared to 2017 and was Labour's worst performance in terms of seats since the1935 general election.[69] Despite the poor seat performance, Labour's vote share of 32.1% was better than achieved by previous leadersGordon Brown in2010 (29%) andEd Miliband in2015 (30%).[70]
The Conservatives achieved a landslide victory with 365 seats and 43.6% of the popular vote, giving them a majority of 80 seats.[71] Many Conservative gains came in traditional Labour strongholds in thered wall constituencies of Northern England and the Midlands that had voted strongly for Brexit in the2016 EU referendum.[72] Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected in hisIslington North constituency with 64.3% of the vote share and a majority of 26,188, though Labour's vote share in the constituency fell by 8.7%.[73]
Immediately following the election result on 13 December 2019, Corbyn announced he would not lead Labour into the next general election, stating he would step down as leader following the election of a successor.[74] Corbyn attributed the defeat primarily to Brexit, saying in a post-election interview that the election was "taken over ultimately by Brexit" and that he remained "proud of the [Labour] manifesto".[75] However, polling suggested that Corbyn's leadership was itself a major factor in the party's defeat, with one post-election survey indicating 43% of voters who did not vote Labour cited "the leadership" as their reason.[76]
The2020 leadership election was conducted under aone member, one vote system usinginstant-runoff voting.Keir Starmer won the election in the first round with 56.2% of the vote, defeatingRebecca Long-Bailey andLisa Nandy.[77] The election saw 490,731 returned ballots from 784,181 eligible voters, representing a turnout of 62.6%.[78] Starmer's victory marked a shift towards the centre for the Labour Party, positioning it away from the left-wing policies of the Corbyn era.
Following the2019 general election andKeir Starmer's victory in the2020 leadership election, the relationship between socialist groups and the Labour Party underwent significant changes. Under Starmer's leadership, the party moved away from many of the left-wing policies of theJeremy Corbyn era and adopted a more centrist approach.[79]
Several prominent left-wing figures faced disciplinary action or suspension from the Labour Party during this period.Jeremy Corbyn was suspended from the party in October 2020 after responding to theEquality and Human Rights Commission report on antisemitism by stating that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media."[80] He was later readmitted as a member but remained suspended from the parliamentary party. Other left-wing MPs and activists also faced disciplinary measures as the party sought to distance itself from the Corbyn era.
Momentum, the grassroots organisation that had supported Corbyn's leadership, experienced a significant decline in influence and membership after 2020. Labour Party membership fell from 523,332 in 2020 to 432,213 by the end of 2021, a drop of approximately 17.4 percent, which Momentum attributed to Starmer's "factional" leadership approach.[81] By 2024, Momentum was reported to have approximately 10,000 members, down from its peak during the Corbyn era.[82] The organisation shifted its focus from internal party politics to community campaigning and policy development, though it continued to advocate for socialist policies within Labour.
The period also saw renewed activity among socialist organisations operating outside the Labour Party. TheTrade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), which had suspended electoral activity during Corbyn's leadership from 2017 to 2020, resumed standing candidates in local elections from 2021 onwards.[83] TUSC, originally co-founded byBob Crow of theRMT union, positioned itself as an electoral alternative for trade unionists and socialists disillusioned with Labour's direction. The decision to resume electoral activity was supported by the RMT national executive committee, which agreed that "in the new conditions of a Starmer leadership and the continued implementation of austerity cuts by many Labour-led authorities, we believe it is correct for TUSC to lift its suspension of electoral activity."[84]
In July 2025, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and MPZarah Sultana announced their intention to establish a new left-wing political party, using the temporary name "Your Party."[85][86] The announcement came after both had become independent MPs following their departures from Labour. The proposed party outlined broad policy objectives including wealth redistribution and opposition to military spending, with the final name to be decided at a founding conference scheduled for autumn 2025.
Several other socialist organisations continued their activities during this period.Left Unity, which had been formed in 2013, maintained its presence as a broad left party, though it had limited electoral success. TheWorkers Party of Britain, founded in 2019 and led byGeorge Galloway, briefly won parliamentary representation when Galloway won the2024 Rochdale by-election in February 2024 with 40 percent of the vote, overturning a Labour majority of 9,668.[87] However, he lost the seat to Labour's Paul Waugh at the subsequent2024 general election.[88]
The period from 2020 to 2025 was marked by significant industrial action across various sectors, particularly during 2022-2023 when cost-of-living pressures led to strikes in railways, postal services, healthcare, and education.[89] The strikes included national rail strikes involving 50,000 rail workers and strikes by 115,000 postal workers, representing some of the most significant industrial action in decades.While not all industrial action was explicitly socialist in nature, socialist organisations and activists played roles in supporting various disputes and arguing for broader political changes.
Trade unions faced new challenges including theStrikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023, which introduced restrictions on strike action in essential services including health, education, fire and rescue, border security, transport and nuclear decommissioning.[90] Socialist groups and some union activists argued for resistance to these laws, though union leadership generally adopted a more cautious approach, preferring to work through legal channels and parliamentary opposition. The legislation was later repealed by the incoming Labour government in 2024.[91]
Socialist parties and candidates generally received limited electoral support during this period. In the2024 general election, TUSC stood 40 candidates but received minimal vote shares.[92] TheGreen Party of England and Wales, while not exclusively socialist, attracted some support from voters seeking left-wing alternatives to Labour, winning four parliamentary seats and achieving 6.7 percent of the national vote, nearly tripling their vote share from 2019.[93][94] Polling data indicated that the Green Party particularly benefited from voters dissatisfied with Labour's positions on issues such as Gaza and transgender rights, with 48 percent of Labour-to-Green switchers citing the view that Labour had been "too right-wing or conservative" as a reason for their decision.[95]
The fragmentation of socialist politics was evident in occasional electoral competition between different left-wing groups, with some constituencies seeing multiple socialist or left-wing candidates standing against each other.[96] The 2024 general election saw a record 4,515 candidates standing, with some constituencies having up to thirteen candidates from different parties and political groupings.[97] This reflected broader challenges in achieving unity among various socialist organisations with different strategic approaches and ideological emphases.
The post-2019 period highlighted ongoing tensions within British socialist politics between those advocating work within the Labour Party and those supporting independent socialist organisation. Some argued that Labour remained the most viable vehicle for advancing socialist politics given its historic links with trade unions and its electoral prospects.[98] TheSocialist Campaign Group and other affiliated socialist societies within Labour continued to see themselves as representing the radical socialist tradition within the party.[99][circular reference] Others contended that the party's shift under Starmer made independent socialist organisation necessary, with trade unions like theBakers, Food and Allied Workers' Union (BFAWU) disaffiliating from Labour in 2021 after 119 years of membership.[100]
These debates were complicated by differing views on strategy, with some socialist groups emphasising electoral politics while others focused on industrial action, community organising, or movement building. The period also saw discussions about the potential for a new mass working-class party, though concrete progress toward such a formation remained limited.[101] TheSocialist Campaign Group within Parliament continued to see itself as representing the radical socialist tradition within Labour, while external organisations like TUSC argued for independent working-class political representation.[102][circular reference]
Portsmouth RMT stands in election with Bob Crow's support
the electorate is divided into three groups: 292,000 members, 148,000 union "affiliates" and 112,000 registered supporters who each paid £3 to take part
total of those who can vote now stands at 550,816 ... The total still eligible to vote are now 292,505 full paid-up members, 147,134 supporters affiliated through the unions and 110,827 who've paid a £3 fee.
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