The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of Labour, 1903-1922

254 Pages·2018·2.85 MB·English

by  Samantha Wolstencroft

THE PROGRESSIVE
ALLIANCE AND
THE RISE OF LABOUR,
1903–1922
POLITICAL CHANGE
IN INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN
Samantha Wolstencroft
The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of Labour,
1903–1922
Samantha Wolstencroft
The Progressive
Alliance and the Rise
of Labour, 1903–1922
Political Change in Industrial Britain
Samantha Wolstencroft
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester, UK
ISBN 978-3-319-75743-8 ISBN 978-3-319-75744-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75744-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018935302
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To my husband Julian and in memory of my mother Kathy Frost
(1949–1981)
P
reface
There exists an enormous literature on the causes of political change in
Britain in the period immediately prior to and after the First World War.
The realignment that saw the demise of the Liberals as a party of govern-
ment and the subsequent rise of the Labour Party shaped British politics
for the remainder of the twentieth century. It is unsurprising that the sub-
ject has fascinated political historians for many years, and there have been
a variety of ways in which they have attempted to explain the process by
which Labour emerged as the principal opposition to the Conservatives
while the Liberals collapsed to third-party status. Some have emphasised
social and economic change, others have prioritised political circumstances
and what might be described as ‘accidental factors’. It is unlikely there will
ever be complete consensus in relation to the precise causes of such a
reversal in political fortunes. The Progressive Alliance and the Rise of
Labour, 1903–1922: Political Change in Industrial Britain evaluates elec-
toral politics in two of Britain’s leading industrial centres, Manchester and
Stoke-on-Trent. The book is the first to focus specific attention upon the
politics of the Progressive Alliance, the informal, though critically impor-
tant, electoral arrangement between the Liberal and Labour parties. It
explores the character, development and long-term viability of such an
electoral alliance and considers the difficulties faced by the early Labour
Party in its attempt to gain a foothold within the political landscape.
No single study has examined in detail both Liberal and Labour politics
in Manchester, Britain’s leading industrial city, during this critical period;
the political history of Stoke-on-Trent has been similarly neglected.
vii
viii PREFACE
Examination of both these localities, however, provides a valuable insight
into political alignment and electoral politics in Britain before and after
the upheaval of war. Detailed comparative analysis of two urban areas is
particularly useful for a number of reasons. It allows for a thorough and
contextualised understanding of political change during the early twenti-
eth century. Drawing upon extensive empirical evidence, the detailed local
study helps to prevent an overly determinist account of political change
which has a tendency to present party performance as simply the product
of changing social and economic circumstances and national develop-
ments. It also helps to prevent a reading of politics where political change
is perceived as a consequence of virtually autonomous processes, such as
the impact of national leadership. The health of local organisations has to
be seen as a critical factor in contextualising the debate concerning the
national strength, or otherwise, of political parties. Local networks, such
as the party associations and trade unions, were significant mechanisms of
political communication and were of critical importance for both the effi-
ciency of national organisation and in terms of mobilising popular sup-
port. Local political culture was also of considerable significance.
The book examines the evolving character of the political parties in the
decade before the First World War, in particular that of the Liberal Party
and the new Labour Party, the significance of candidates and the interre-
lationship between national issues and local political culture. Political his-
torians have traditionally tended to concern themselves with ‘high politics’
and political leadership at the centre. A principal objective of this book is
to show how individual candidates were of critical importance in shaping
the political agenda, influencing political change on the ground and in
mobilising party support. The book examines campaign speeches across
both parliamentary and municipal elections. Very few studies have pro-
vided a detailed evaluation of municipal elections and council politics in
the early twentieth century; given that much of Labour’s early activity
focused upon local government, this appears to be a significant omission
within the literature. This book examines electoral strategy and party per-
formance at the municipal level and explores the developing character of
council politics before and after 1914.
The impact of the experience of war upon the political parties was enor-
mous and the relationship between the two left-of-centre parties changed
forever. By 1922, the economic context and disillusionment with the
political status quo encouraged many voters in Britain’s industrial heart-
lands to desert the Liberal Party. This enabled Labour to build upon and
PREFAC E ix
consolidate its electoral position. In this book I recognise the power of
politics within the electoral process: the significance of issues and the can-
didates’ abilities to advocate party policy.
Samantha Wolstencroft
a
cknowledgements
A book of this kind relies heavily on the work of many other writers and I
am indebted to all those cited within the first chapter. Two historians,
however, stand out as having monumental importance in the historiogra-
phy of the early Labour Party, and the work of both was critical in igniting
my interest in the subject. I would like to express my considerable grati-
tude to the late Professor Duncan Tanner who was always exceptionally
generous with his time and provided tremendous encouragement in my
early research. I would like to thank sincerely Dr Ross McKibbin who very
kindly read the manuscript and contributed generously with comments
and advice. Many other people, in one way or another, have also contrib-
uted to this book. I would like to thank Professor Peter Barberis and Dr
James Moore for their academic guidance, but more particularly for their
long-term friendship. My colleagues within the Department of History,
Politics and Philosophy at Manchester Metropolitan University have
always been enormously supportive over the years and I am immensely
grateful to Dr Nigel Hems, Dr Steve Hurst, Dr John Gibbons, Stewart
Cowley and Dr Tony Adams. Equally, I would like to thank all of my poli-
tics students (past and present) at the Manchester Metropolitan University
who every year are a joy to teach and a pleasure to know. I would like to
express my gratitude to Dr Chris Godden, Professor David Dutton, Dr
Mark Garnett, Professor John Garrard, the late Professor Sam Davies and
the late Professor Howard Elcock who all read the manuscript in various
stages of development and offered many helpful suggestions. Of course,
any errors that remain are sadly my own. I would like to record a debt of
thanks to the staff of the various research libraries and record offices in
xi
xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Manchester, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Bristol and London, which are
acknowledged in the reference lists. I would like to thank Emily Russell
and Carmel Kennedy at Palgrave Macmillan for their considerable help in
guiding me through the production process of the book. Thank you to
Cynthia Berry for permission to use the front cover image. It has taken a
number of years to produce this book and it would not have been possible
without the exceptional support and practical contributions of my hus-
band Julian. I would also like to put on record my immense admiration for
many of the political activists (both Labour and Liberal) discussed within
this book. Their drive and dedication to create a more humane and demo-
cratic political system which exists to serve the many and not the few was
remarkable; some stood by their convictions when circumstances were by
no means favourable to them. In 1922 one Labour candidate in Manchester
told his audience that ‘something radically different must occur if life is to
be worth living’. The energy and determination with which political activ-
ists fought for a ‘life worth living’ for the greater proportion of the popu-
lation during the earlier twentieth century should continue to inspire us
all. I hope what follows goes some way to providing an insight into the
efforts of those activists.