Labour Party (UK)

Labour Party
Governing body	National Executive Committee
Leader	Keir Starmer
Deputy Leader	Angela Rayner
Chair	Ellie Reeves
General Secretary	Hollie Ridley
Lords Leader	The Baroness Smith of Basildon
Founded	27 February 1900; 124 years ago (1900-02-27)[1][2] (as the Labour Representation Committee)
Headquarters	Southside, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT[3] Labour Central, Kings Manor, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6PA[4]
Youth wing	Young Labour
Women's wing	Labour Women's Network
LGBT wing	LGBT+ Labour
Membership (March 2024)	366,604[5]
Ideology	Social democracy
Political position	Centre-left[11]
European affiliation	Party of European Socialists
International affiliation	Progressive Alliance Socialist International (observer)
Affiliate party	Co-operative Party (Labour and Co-operative) Former affiliates: Independent Labour Party (1906–1932) British Socialist Party (1916–1920) National Socialist Party (1918–1939/1942)
Other affiliations	Social Democratic and Labour Party (Northern Ireland)
Colours	Red
Slogan	Change Begins (2024)[12][13]
Anthem	"The Red Flag"
Devolved or semi-autonomous branches	London Labour Scottish Labour Welsh Labour Labour Party in Northern Ireland
Parliamentary party	Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP)
House of Commons	402 / 650
House of Lords	186 / 804
Scottish Parliament	22 / 129
Senedd	30 / 60
Regional mayors[nb]	11 / 12
London Assembly	11 / 25
PCCs and PFCCs	17 / 37
Directly elected mayors	10 / 16
Councillors[nb][14]	6,470 / 18,646
Election symbol
Website
labour.org.uk
Politics of the United Kingdom Political parties Elections ^ Mayor of London and 11 combined authority mayors. ^ Councillors of local authorities in England (including 25 aldermen of the City of London) and Scotland, principal councils in Wales and local councils in Northern Ireland.

Part of a series on
Social democracy
History Age of Enlightenment Frankfurt Declaration French Revolution Godesberg Program Humanism Internationalist–defencist schism Keynesianism Labor movement Marxism Orthodox Revisionist Nordic model Reformist–revolutionary dispute Socialism Revolutions of 1848 Utopian socialism Welfare capitalism
Concepts Civil liberties Critical theory Democracy Economic Industrial Representative Dirigisme Environmentalism Environmental protection Fair trade Gradualism Institutional abuse Internationalism Land reform Labor rights Left-wing nationalism Mixed economy Nationalization Negative and positive rights Progressivism Reformism Left Socialism Revolutionary socialism Secularism Social corporatism Social justice Social market economy Socialist state Capitalism Socialism Structural abuse Structural violence Trade union Tripartism Welfare Welfare state
Variants Democratic socialism Ethical socialism Evolutionary socialism Liberal socialism Socialism of the 21st century Third Way
People Ambedkar Allende Ardern Attlee Awolowo Batlle y Ordóñez Bebel Ben-Gurion Bernstein Betancourt Bhutto Blair Blanc Brandt Branting Brown Callaghan Cárdenas Clark Craxi Crosland Corbyn Curtin Daszyński Debs Douglas Drees Ebert Ecevit Engels Fraser Gaitskell Gandhi González Goulart Hardie Hilferding İnönü Jaurès Jenkins Jumblatt Junmai Katayama Kautsky Kerensky Kéthly Kirk Lagos Lassalle Layton Lenin Lévesque Liebknecht (father) Liebknecht (son) Luxemburg MacDonald Mandela Marx Myrdal Nehru Palme Plekhanov Prodi Russell Radbruch Sánchez Sanders Savage Stauning Thomas Den Uyl Webb Whitlam Wilson Zhordania
Organizations International Trade Union Confederation International Union of Socialist Youth Party of European Socialists Progressive Alliance Socialist International Young European Socialists Network of Social Democracy in Asia
By region Austria Germany United Kingdom United States
Related Communism "The Internationale" Socialism Types of socialism
Economics portal Politics portal Socialism portal
v t e

Part of a series on
Organised labour
Labour movement Conflict theories Decent work Exploitation of labour Timeline New unionism Proletariat Social movement unionism Social democracy Democratic socialism Socialism Communism Syndicalism Union busting Anarcho-syndicalism National-syndicalism
Labour rights Annual leave Child labour Collective bargaining Diversity, equity, and inclusion Eight-hour day Employment discrimination Employment protection Equal pay Four-day week Freedom of association Legal working age Minimum wage Occupational safety and health Overwork Paid time off Professional abuse Right to rest and leisure Right to sit Sabbatical Sick leave Six-hour day Toxic workplace Unfree labour Workers' right to access the toilet
Trade unions Trade unions by country Trade union federations International comparisons ITUC WFTU
Strike action Chronological list of strikes Hartal General strike Bandh newspapers Green bans Lockouts Overtime bans Pen-down strikes Sitdown strikes Solidarity action Walkouts Whipsaw strikes Wildcat strikes Work-to-rule
Labour parties Australia Barbados Brazil Fiji Georgia Hong Kong Ireland Israel Malta New Caledonia New Zealand Netherlands Norway Portugal Singapore South Korea United Kingdom Sweden
Academic disciplines Critique of work Industrial relations Labour economics Labour history Labour law Post-work society Refusal of work
v t e

The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom that sits on the centre-left of the political spectrum.^[15][16][17] In a broader sense, the party has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists.^[18] It is the governing party of the United Kingdom, having won the 2024 general election, and is currently the largest political party by number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons. There have been seven Labour prime ministers and fourteen Labour ministries. The party traditionally holds the annual Labour Party Conference during party conference season, at which senior Labour figures promote party policy.

The Labour Party was founded in 1900, having emerged from the trade union movement and socialist parties of the 19th century. It was electorally weak before the First World War, but in the early 1920s overtook the Liberal Party to become the main opposition to the Conservative Party, and briefly formed a minority government under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924. In 1929, Labour for the first time became the largest party in the House of Commons with 287 seats, but fell short of a majority, forming another minority government. In 1931, in response to the Great Depression, MacDonald formed a new government with Conservative and Liberal support, which led to his expulsion from the party. Labour was soundly defeated by his coalition in the 1931 election, winning only 52 seats, but began to recover in 1935, with 154 seats.

During the Second World War, Labour served in the wartime coalition, after which it won a majority in the 1945 election. Clement Attlee's government enacted extensive nationalisation and established the modern welfare state and National Health Service before losing power in 1951. Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour again governed from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1979. The party then entered a period of intense internal division which ended in the defeat of its left wing by the mid-1980s. After electoral defeats to the Conservatives in 1987 and 1992, Tony Blair took the party to the political centre as part of his New Labour project, which governed under Blair and then Gordon Brown from 1997 to 2010. After further electoral defeats in the 2010s, Keir Starmer again took Labour to the centre and has governed since 2024.

Labour is the largest party in the Senedd (Welsh Parliament), being the only party in the current Welsh government. The party won most Scottish seats in the 2024 general election. Labour is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Progressive Alliance, and holds observer status in the Socialist International. The party includes semi-autonomous London, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish branches; it supports the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland, while still organising there. As of March 2024^[update], Labour has 366,604 registered members.