1931 Labour Party leadership election (UK)

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1931 Labour Party leadership election
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  1922 28 August 1931 (1931-08-28) 1932  
  Arthurhenderson.jpg
Candidate Arthur Henderson
Popular voteUnopposed

Leader before election

Ramsay MacDonald

Elected Leader

Arthur Henderson

The 1931 Labour Party leadership election took place after the expulsion of incumbent Leader Ramsay MacDonald from the Labour Party. As Labour leader, MacDonald had been prime minister in 1924 and from 1929 to 1931, until he became head of a National Government that was opposed by the bulk of the Labour Party. MacDonald was then expelled from the party.

Ramsay MacDonald British statesman; Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

James Ramsay MacDonald was a British statesman who was the first Labour Party politician to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 and then in 1929–31. From 1931 to 1935, he headed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members. MacDonald was later vehemently denounced by and expelled from the party he had helped to found.

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Head of UK Government

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, until 1801 known as the Prime Minister of Great Britain, is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister directs both the executive and the legislature, and together with their Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Monarch, to Parliament, to their political party and ultimately to the electorate.

Arthur Henderson was the only candidate who stood, and was elected Leader unopposed by the Parliamentary Labour Party. [1]

Arthur Henderson British politician

Arthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the first Labour cabinet minister, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934 and, uniquely, served three separate terms as Leader of the Labour Party in three different decades. He was popular among his colleagues, who called him ‘Uncle Arthur’ in acknowledgement of his integrity, his devotion to the cause and his imperturbability. He was a transitional figure whose policies were, at first, close to those of the Liberal Party. The trades unions rejected his emphasis on arbitration and conciliation, and thwarted his goal of unifying the Labour Party and the trade unions.

In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary party of the Labour Party in Parliament: Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour Party and the Conservative and Liberal parties. The term Parliamentary Labour Party refers to the party in Parliament, whereas the term Labour Party refers to the entire Labour Party, the parliamentary element of which is the PLP.

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References

David Ian Marquand is a British academic and former Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP).