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The Rise of Labour Politics (Chapter Two)

© Simon Hill

The development of independent labour politics can be attributed to a variety of reasons. Chief among these must be the perceived need for labour representation in parliament. This representation was sought as a way to promote certain legislation embodying socialist principles with an undisguised aim to improve conditions for working class people. While this would attract support from a sector of the working class it generated only mild interest for some of the demands from other sections of the population and the most socialist ideas were feared by the middle class. Socialism was seen as a threat to their way of life and they associated it with Bolshevism and revolution.

The support of the STUC (Scottish Trade Union Congress) was another important factor and this led to the formation of the Scottish Workers Election Committee in 1900 which also included the Glasgow Federation of Co-operative Societies and the Irish National League. The WEC provided more candidates and funding for electoral campaigns but again being obliged to run non-socialist candidates hampered the ILP, this was deemed worth it for the additional support. In the general election of 1895 the ILP had run 29 candidates in Britain and not one was returned however their share of the vote was growing at the Liberals expense. In the 1900 election Labour again won no seats. In 1906 Labour won 30 seats in Britain but only two of them were in Scotland. The WEC was not successful as it gradually lost its components. The Co-operatives pulled out taking with them a large portion of the funds, the INL were the next to go after arguments with the ILP and the trades council lost interest. The English based Labour Representation Committee was more successful and the WEC had little choice but to merge in 1909. This left Scotland without the required machinery for running labour candidates until the formation of the Scottish Advisory Council of the Labour Party in 1913.

The labour movement continued to meet with more success south of the border. As Hutchison says ‘The steady and persistent work of local labour parties is not so marked in Scotland as in England’(1). Additional reasons for this are the divide that existed in Scotland between the socialists and the trade unionists and the lack of effective organisation. After the WEC began to break down it really only contained the ILP and consequently it became more socialist. In Glasgow where the ILP had their greatest support their municipalising schemes were unpopular with the middle class who suffered under higher rates consequently the ILP lost seats. In 1910 Labour fought 11 seats in Scotland and won only two, in England they won 38 seats out of 67 contested. Hutchison suggests there was ‘not a great deal of evidence that Labour voters were attracted by socialist ideals’(2). Also many policies such as municipilisation were accepted by the Liberals and they nominated some social radicals as candidates in order to capture labour voters.

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