The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
,
democratic socialist
Democratic socialism is a left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self-management within a ...
Members of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
in the
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...
. It was formed in December 1982 following the
1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The Farabundo Martí National Liberation Fr ...
when a number of
soft left
The soft left is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left of Michael Foot from the hard left of Tony Benn.
History
The distinction between hard and soft left became eviden ...
MPs, led by
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
, refused to back
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
's campaign, leading a number of left-wing Benn-supporting MPs to split from the
Tribune Group
''Tribune'' is a democratic socialist political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left ...
to form the Socialist Campaign Group.
It was at a meeting of the Campaign Group in June 2015 that the decision was taken that
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
.
Origins
The Socialist Campaign Group was founded in 1982 due to a disagreement within the Labour left, traditionally organised around the
Tribune Group
''Tribune'' is a democratic socialist political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left ...
Denis Healey
Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey, (30 August 1917 – 3 October 2015) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979 and as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970; he ...
for the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party in 1981 was heavily criticised by Labour's leader,
Michael Foot
Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...
, who had long been associated with the Labour left and Tribune Group. Tribune Group member and future Labour leader
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
led a number of Labour MPs to support
John Silkin
John Ernest Silkin (18 March 1923 – 26 April 1987) was a British left-wing Labour politician and solicitor.
Early life
He was the third son of Lewis Silkin, 1st Baron Silkin, and a younger brother of Samuel Silkin, Baron Silkin of Dulwich. ...
in the deputy leadership election and abstain in the run-off between Healey and Benn. This sowed the seeds for a split in the left between a "
soft left
The soft left is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left of Michael Foot from the hard left of Tony Benn.
History
The distinction between hard and soft left became eviden ...
" supportive of Foot's leadership and a dissenting "
hard left
In the United Kingdom, the hard left are the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left.*
*
Term
The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980 ...
" organised principally around Benn.
The Campaign Group would go on to back
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
and
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
in their unsuccessful bids for the
leadership
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets view ...
and deputy leadership in 1983.
The Campaign Group subsequently organised itself around opposition to the direction the party took under the leadership of Kinnock and his successors.
An advertisement in ''
Tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...
'' (24 April 1983) gave the membership of the Campaign Group as:
Norman Atkinson
Norman Atkinson (25 March 1923 – 8 July 2013) was a British politician who served as Labour Member of Parliament for the London constituency of Tottenham from 1964 until 1987.
Early life
Manchester-born, Atkinson was educated at technical sch ...
,
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
,
Ron Brown
Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President of the United States, President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairm ...
,
Dennis Canavan
Dennis Andrew Canavan (born 8 August 1942) is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000 (known as West Stirlingshire from 1974 to 1983), first as a member of the Labour Party, and then as an I ...
,
Bob Cryer
George Robert Cryer (3 December 1934 – 12 April 1994) was an English Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician from Yorkshire. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parlia ...
Stuart Holland
Stuart Kingsley Holland (born 25 March 1940) is a British economist and former politician.
As a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party, Holland represented the Vauxhall constituency in Lambeth, London, from 1979 until 1989, when he resign ...
,
Bob Litherland
Robert Kenneth Litherland (23 June 193013 May 2011), known as Bob Litherland, was a British Labour politician.
He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central at a by-election in September 1979, and held the office until he ...
Bob McTaggart
Robert McTaggart (2 November 1945 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency), Glasgow Central, representing the L ...
,
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
,
Bob Parry
Robert Leslie "Bob" Parry is an Australian former cricket umpire. Parry umpired in One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals as well as in Australian domestic cricket from 1998 until 2012.
Umpiring career
In December 1998 he had hi ...
,
Reg Race
Denys Alan Reginald Race (born 23 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician.
Parliamentary career
He unsuccessfully contested the Conservative-held constituency of Ruislip-Northwood at the February 1974 general election and again at the ...
Ernie Roberts
Ernest Alfred Cecil Roberts (20 April 1912 – 28 August 1994) was a Labour Party politician. He worked for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, was a co-founder of the Anti-Nazi League in 1977 and was the MP for Hackney North and St ...
,
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Edward Skinner (born 11 February 1932) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party.
Known for his left-wing views and acerbic wi ...
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
was hostile to the Campaign Group. He pursued a '
carrot and stick
The phrase "carrot and stick" is a metaphor for the use of a combination of reward and punishment to induce a desired behaviour.
In politics, "carrot or stick" sometimes refers to the realist concept of soft and hard power. The carrot in th ...
' approach to undermining the Campaign Group by promoting MPs who were willing to leave the Campaign Group and renounce their previously held views and by isolating those who remained members.
1984–85 miners' strike
During the 1984–85 miners' strike MPs from the Socialist Campaign Group took action to support the striking miners by visiting picket lines and raising money to be donated to the miners' relief centres. This put pressure on the Labour Party leadership to support the strike, something Neil Kinnnock resisted until 10 months after the start of the strike. Members of the Socialist Campaign Group also led a "direct action protest" in the
House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
by refusing to sit down in order to force a debate on the strike.
Conservative Government Conservative or Tory government may refer to:
Canada
In Canadian politics, a Conservative government may refer to the following governments administered by the Conservative Party of Canada or one of its historical predecessors:
* 1st Canadian Mi ...
announced plans to introduce a flat-tax to fund local Government. The planned tax became known as the
poll tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
and was thought by many to be intended to save the rich money and move the expenses onto the poor.
Only 15 Labour MPs supported the Anti Poll Tax Federation. Socialist Campaign Group MPs made up a significant number of these including
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
who appeared at Highbury Magistrates' Court in 1991 for not paying his poll tax bill of £481. Corbyn was in court alongside 16 other
Islington
Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ar ...
residents all opposing the levy on grounds other than inability to pay. He told ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' newspaper "I am here today because thousands of people who elected me just cannot afford to pay."
The scale of public opposition in both polls and in the streets have been identified as one of the key causes of the end of Thatcher's premiership.
Labour historians have identified the campaign against the
Poll Tax
A poll tax, also known as head tax or capitation, is a tax levied as a fixed sum on every liable individual (typically every adult), without reference to income or resources.
Head taxes were important sources of revenue for many governments fr ...
as a "huge victory" for the Labour left who campaigned in alliance with the extra-parliamentary socialist left "against one of the most reactionary pieces of legislation dreamt up in the modern age". Tony Benn described the relationship of the campaign against the Poll Tax with the Labour Party:
During the New Labour years
Following the 1997 General Election, 7% of Labour MPs were members of the Campaign Group.
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
enthusiastically carried on Kinnock's attempts to "delegitimise the left". He sought to reduce the number of left-wing Labour MPs by centralising control of candidate selections and used "open shortlists in a fast and loose way, mainly to ensure that left candidates are excluded or defeated." Labour Party historian Alex Nunns described how "Left-wing hopefuls, like Christine Shawcroft or Mark Seddon, were stopped at all costs. Party workers were tasked with personal lobbying for the leadership’s preferred choice, or were even told to chase up certain postal votes but not others."
Blair's strategist
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...
reportedly described wanting the parliamentary left to become “a sealed tomb”.
Alan Simpson, a member of the Campaign Group during the
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
years, described it as "the only bolt-hole of real political thought that I found throughout my parliamentary years ... they were the MPs you would always find on picket lines, at trade union and social movement rallies, on anti-war marches and at the forefront of campaigns to restore rather than exploit the planet."
Opposition to single parent benefit cuts
Under Blair, the Labour government introduced plans to cut lone parent benefit, a measure which members of the Campaign Group believed would disproportionately harm women. The cut was brought in by
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman (born 30 July 1950) is a British politician and solicitor who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Camberwell and Peckham, formerly Peckham, since 1982. A member of the Labour Party, she has served in various Cabi ...
, Secretary of State for Social Security, who championed the cut despite the majority of people affected being women and children who were already poor.
Backbench
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
Labour MPs, led by the Campaign Group, opposed these plans, speaking and voting against them in Parliament. Blair ally
Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is an Australian-born British government adviser and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health from 2005 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, she previously served as Secretar ...
was alleged to have described the rebellion as a "conspiracy organised by the Socialist Campaign Group"
47 Labour MPs voted against the proposals including Campaign Group members
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...
,
Ronnie Campbell
Ronald Campbell (born 14 August 1943) is a former British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blyth Valley from 1987 until 2019.
Early life
Campbell was born in Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings. He atten ...
, Tony Benn, Jeremy Corbyn,
Ann Cryer
Constance Ann Cryer JP (''née'' Place; born 14 December 1939) is a British former politician who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Keighley from the 1997 general election up until she stood down at the 2010 general election ...
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
,
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Edward Skinner (born 11 February 1932) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party.
Known for his left-wing views and acerbic wi ...
,
Audrey Wise
Audrey Wise (''née'' Brown; 4 January 1932Wise gave her age as thirty-nine when nominated for the Coventry parliamentary seat, though she had just turned forty-two when she was elected in February 1974. Her date of birth was routinely reported ...
, and
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A member of the Labour Party, she served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Sh ...
.
Despite the scale of the opposition from Labour MPs and campaigners, Harman continued to implement the cuts. She was sacked from Cabinet the following year.
Opposition to the Iraq War & founding the Stop The War Coalition
The
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition (StWC), informally known simply as Stop the War, is a British group established on 21 September 2001, shortly after the September 11 attacks, to campaign against what it believes are unjust wars.
The Coalition has c ...
was founded in the weeks following
9/11
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
, when
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
announced the "
War on terror
The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international Counterterrorism, counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campa ...
", and has since campaigned to oppose and end the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere.
Socialist Campaign Group MPs Jeremy Corbyn and
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 ...
, along with Tony Benn, (who had been in the Socialist Campaign Group until he stood down as an MP at the 2001 General Election) were among the most high profile of the initial sponsors of the Stop the War Coalition at the meeting on 21 September 2001, along with figures such as
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...
,
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...
Lindsey German
Lindsey Ann German ''Evening Standard'' (This is London), 14 May 2004 (born 1951) is a ...
, who became the convenor of Stop the War.
The Coalition organised what is widely thought to be the largest demonstration in British history, when on 15 February 2003, over a million people marched against the
War in Iraq
This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states.
Other armed conflicts involving Iraq
* Wars during Mandatory Iraq
** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921
* Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...
.
Campaign Group MP Alan Simpson launched Labour Against The War to coordinate parliamentary opposition to Tony Blair's decision to follow George W. Bush in invading Iraq. Although Blair was able to win these votes with the support of Conservative MPs, 139 Labour MPs voted against his plans for war, one of the largest rebellions ever seen in the Commons.
Opposition to academisation
In 2005, Blair's government announced plans to encourage every school to become an independent self-governing trust. These schools would, like
academies
An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...
, determine their own curriculum and ethos, appoint the governing body, control their own assets, employ their own staff and set their own admissions policy. These plans were described as intending to "all but abolish local authority involvement in state schools" and
Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
argued that it would "condemn a generation of poorer children to ghettos of collapsing schools".
14 Campaign Group MPs, working with other Labour backbenchers, sought to block the plans by proposing an alternative plan for education.
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
, then Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group, argued "Our sincere hope is that the prime minister desists from relying upon a avidCameron coalition to force his education policies through in the face of this overwhelming opposition within the parliamentary Labour party."
With Tory support, the reforms were eventually passed by 422 to 98 votes. However, this was the largest rebellion a Labour government had ever suffered at the
third reading
A reading of a bill is a stage of debate on the bill held by a general body of a legislature.
In the Westminster system, developed in the United Kingdom, there are generally three readings of a bill as it passes through the stages of becoming, ...
of a
Bill
Bill(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
* Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States)
* Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature
* Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer
* Bill, a bird or animal's beak
Plac ...
.
Reform 2019–24
While Corbyn was party leader, from 2015 to 2019, Socialist Campaign Group activity reduced as many members joined the shadow cabinet. The rule that shadow cabinet MPs could not be group members caused difficulties, and this rule was removed, allowing the group to recover to 23 members by 2019.
In January 2020, the Socialist Campaign Group was reformed. It supported
Rebecca Long-Bailey
Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (' Long; born 22 September 1979), is a British politician and former solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow ...
for
Leader
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group or organization to "lead", influence or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations. The word "leadership" often gets vi ...
and
Richard Burgon
Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow C ...
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...
and
Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...
, respectively.
In October, the Socialist Campaign Group produced a pamphlet called "Winning the Future", which proposed solutions to the
COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
.
Labour leadership elections
There have been nine Labour Leadership Elections since the formation of the Socialist Campaign Group:
1983
The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call.
Events January
* January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
,
1988
File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...
,
1992
File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...
,
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...
,
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
,
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
,
2015
File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...
,
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
and
2020
2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...
.
1983 leadership election
The Campaign Group backed
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
and
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
in their unsuccessful bids for the leadership and deputy leadership in 1983.
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
could not stand because he was not currently in Parliament at the time, having just lost his seat.
1988 leadership election
During his time as Leader
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
moved the Labour party to adopt
centrist
Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
's Conservatives won a landslide victory and were nearly 12% ahead of Labour in the popular vote. Following this defeat Kinnock introduced a Policy Review, which many on the left thought would lead to an abandonment of the party's commitment to
Clause IV
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the (UK) Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell a ...
,
public ownership
State ownership, also called government ownership and public ownership, is the ownership of an industry, asset, or enterprise by the state or a public body representing a community, as opposed to an individual or private party. Public ownershi ...
and the transformation of society. At a meeting of the Campaign Group following this election defeat, it was agreed that
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
should stand against Kinnock in a leadership election, although Benn himself was reluctant to run. The decision to run led to a number of MPs leaving the Campaign Group including
Clare Short
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003.
Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...
,
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
,
Jo Richardson
Josephine Richardson (28 August 1923 – 1 February 1994) was a British Labour Party politician. At the time of her death she was Member of Parliament for Barking, a post she had held almost exactly 20 years, since 1974.
Early life
She was b ...
and
Joan Ruddock
Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. Ruddock was Minister of State for Energy at the Departmen ...
.
Labour's electoral college was weighted 40% to affiliated unions, 30% to
Constituency Labour Parties
__NOTOC__
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliam ...
(CLPs) and 30% to MPs in the
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...
. Benn secured only 11.4% of the vote (17.2% of MPs, 19.6% of CLPs and 0.2% of affiliated unions). The scale of this defeat was a surprise to Benn, in particular the decline in support from CLPs since the 1983 election, and strengthened Kinnock's position, which he used to take the party further towards centrism.
Following this election the party rules were changed to quadruple the number of MPs required to nominate a candidate to launch a leadership challenge from 5% to 20% (lowered in 1993 to 12.5% for elections where the incumbent had resigned).
1992 leadership election
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
resigned just three days after he lost his second General Election, and tried to persuade candidates other than John Smith to stand aside so as to avoid a contest. Rules introduced following
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
's 1988 leadership challenge meant that candidates would have to secure nominations from 55 MPs to make it onto the ballot paper. Three candidates sought nominations: John Smith, the favourite, regarded as being "from the right" of the party,
Bryan Gould
Bryan Charles Gould (born 11 February 1939) is a New Zealand-born British former politician and diplomat. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 1994. He was a member of the Labour Party's Shadow Ca ...
, from the "centre-left" and
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...
, the Campaign Group candidate.
Bernie Grant
Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000.
Biography
Bernie Grant was born in Georgetow ...
sought nominations as the Campaign Group candidate for Deputy Leader.
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
were the other deputy leadership contenders.
It quickly became clear that the 20% nomination threshold risked eliminating all candidates except Smith:
To avoid this party officials changed the rules mid-contest, at the suggestion of Gould, to allow MPs who had already nominated a candidate to withdraw and support another instead. This ensured that Gould received enough nominations to ensure a contest between him and Smith, and that
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...
and
Bernie Grant
Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000.
Biography
Bernie Grant was born in Georgetow ...
were kept off the ballot.
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
described this change as "unprecedented".John Smith won the electoral college vote against Gould with 91% of the vote.
1994 leadership election
No candidate from the Campaign Group ran in the 1994 leadership election and the group did not endorse a candidate. However,
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
, who had been a member of the Campaign Group until 1988, was nominated by 18 Campaign Group MPs, with 5 nominating
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
. Beckett's campaign was supported due to her position that Tory anti-union laws should be repealed and that anti-union changes to the party constitution should stop.
No Campaign Group MPs backed
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, who went on to win the contest.
2007 leadership election
In 2007 only 24 of 353 Labour MPs were members of the Socialist Campaign Group and party rules required nominations from 45 MPs (12.5% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) to make it onto the ballot paper.
Both
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
, then Chair of the Campaign Group, and
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
, a member of the Campaign Group, sought nominations to run against
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
. Both McDonnell and Meacher agreed that whichever of them had the support of fewer Labour MPs at the point of
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
's resignation would withdraw from the campaign and support the other. However, although Meacher gave his support to McDonnell following Blair's resignation not all of his supporters switched allegiance, leaving McDonnell short of the nominations required and leading to
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...
becoming leader unopposed.
As part of his campaign
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
published his manifesto as a book entitled ''Another World Is Possible: A Manifesto for 21st Century Socialism.''
2010 leadership election
In 2010 nominations from 33 MPs (12.5% of the Parliamentary Labour Party) were required to make it onto the ballot paper.
Socialist Campaign Group MPs
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
and
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A member of the Labour Party, she served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Sh ...
both sought nominations to run; however, McDonnell withdrew from the race after it became clear he would not receive sufficient nominations, and instead supported Abbott to give her the best chance of making it onto the ballot. Abbott secured the necessary 33 nominations after being 'lent' nominations from a number of MPs who were not supporting her campaign but wanted to ensure that the contest was not exclusively white and male. It has been suggested that this practice of lending nominations to left candidate to widen the scope of debate "set a precedent" for
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
's run for Leadership in 2015. Abbott was the first black woman to ever contest the Labour leadership.
Despite beating both
Andy Burnham
Andrew Murray Burnham (born 7 January 1970) is a British politician who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. He served in Gordon Brown's Cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 2007 to 2008, Culture Secretary from 2008 ...
and
Ed Balls
Edward Michael Balls (born 25 February 1967) is a British broadcaster, writer, economist, professor and former politician who served as Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families from 2007 to 2010, and as Shadow Chancellor of the Exc ...
in total number of first preference votes cast (35,259 individual first preferences for Abbott compared to 28,772 for Burnham and 34,489 for Balls), Abbott was eliminated in the first round of voting, as she received fewer votes from MPs. Abbott secured the first-preference votes of 7 MPs:
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A member of the Labour Party, she served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Sh ...
,
Katy Clark
Kathryn Sloan Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (born 3 July 1967) is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, sh ...
,
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
,
Kelvin Hopkins
Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were ...
,
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
,
Linda Riordan
Linda June Riordan (née Haigh; 31 May 1953) is an English Labour Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax from the 2005 general election until standing down in 2015.
Early life
Riordan was born in Halifax ...
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
went on to win the leadership election.
2015 leadership election
The 2015 Leadership Election was the first held under new rules introduced by
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliband ...
following the Collins Review which recommended moving to a one-member one vote (OMOV) system. This reduced the previous weighting in favour of MPs and Trade Unions. The
Blairite
In Politics of the United Kingdom, British politics, Blairism is the political ideology of Tony Blair, the former leader of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and ...
wing of the Labour Party (including Blair himself) celebrated this reform, believing that the changes would mean that "the next Labour leader will be a
Blairite
In Politics of the United Kingdom, British politics, Blairism is the political ideology of Tony Blair, the former leader of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, and ...
".
At a meeting of the Socialist Campaign Group on 3 June it was decided that, with McDonnell and Abbott both ruling themselves out after having stood previously,
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
should be the left's candidate for leader. Corbyn was immediately nominated by Campaign Group MPs including
John McDonnell
John Martin McDonnell (born 8 September 1951) is a British politician who served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hayes and Harlington since 1997. ...
(who became chair of his campaign),
Diane Abbott
Diane Julie Abbott (born 27 September 1953) is a British politician who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Hackney North and Stoke Newington since 1987. A member of the Labour Party, she served in the Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn as Sh ...
,
Ronnie Campbell
Ronald Campbell (born 14 August 1943) is a former British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blyth Valley from 1987 until 2019.
Early life
Campbell was born in Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings. He atten ...
,
Kelvin Hopkins
Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were ...
,
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
,
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Edward Skinner (born 11 February 1932) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party.
Known for his left-wing views and acerbic wi ...
,
Richard Burgon
Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow C ...
Cat Smith
Catherine Jane Smith (born 16 June 1985) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster and Fleetwood since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, she was a member of the shadow cabinets of Jeremy Corbyn and Ke ...
. The
campaign
Campaign or The Campaign may refer to:
Types of campaigns
* Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed
*Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme
* Bl ...
quickly mobilised grassroots Labour members and activists to pressure MPs to nominate Corbyn, even if they disagreed with him, in order to ensure a proper debate about the future of the Labour Party.
Two minutes before the deadline Corbyn reached the threshold of 35 nominations, having been 'lent' nominations from MPs who did not support him but were persuaded to nominate him by grassroots members and Campaign Group MPs.
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
was one of those who nominated Corbyn despite disagreeing with him, and later described herself as a "moron" for doing so. Immediately following his success in getting on the ballot Corbyn attended a protest against the treatment of women detained at Yarls Wood Detention Centre and against the 13-year detention by the US of British resident
Shaker Aamer
Shaker Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Aamer (born 21 December 1966)Guantanamo Bay without charge.
Corbyn outlined an anti-austerity domestic agenda and an international agenda opposed to military intervention. He campaigned on issues with wide popular support that had been outside of the political mainstream for many years, including rail re-nationalisation, free higher education, regional investment and a higher minimum wage.
On 12 September 2015 Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party in a
landslide victory
A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...
, with 59.5% of
first-preference votes
In certain ranked-voting systems, a first-preference vote (or first preference, 1st preference, or primary vote) is the individual voter's first choice amongst (possibly) many. In certain ranked systems such as Instant-Runoff Voting or Single T ...
.
2016 leadership election
During the 2016 referendum Corbyn led Labour in campaigning to remain. Corbyn spoke at 15 rallies from London to Hastings to Aberdeen, reached more than 10 million people with his Remain messages on social media, made six statements in the Commons and put forward Remain arguments during interviews on Sky, BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Analysis from academics at
Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, when L ...
found that the BBC had excluded Labour voices during the campaign and instead covered the campaign as a
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
civil war.
When the result of the referendum was announced Corbyn's opponents on the right and centre of the
Parliamentary Labour Party
In UK politics, the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) is the parliamentary group of the Labour Party in Parliament, i.e. Labour MPs as a collective body. Commentators on the British Constitution sometimes draw a distinction between the Labour P ...
sought to trigger a leadership election on the grounds that they did not think he had campaigned sufficiently vigorously for Remain. MPs hostile to Corbyn leaked internal emails to the BBC which showed that Corbyn's team had resisted moves to pursue a more hostile line on immigration and suggested that this was evidence that Corbyn had sought to "sabotage" the remain campaign. Anti-Corbyn MPs had been briefing the media "for months to “expect movement” against Corbyn on 24 June", suggesting that the opposition to Corbyn was not primarily motivated by his actions during the referendum.
In the days following the referendum a number of Corbyn's critics resigned from the Shadow Cabinet and the parliamentary party passed a
vote of no confidence
A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
in Corbyn by 172 votes against to 40 for. Corbyn promoted a number of Campaign Group MPs to fill his Shadow Cabinet including
Richard Burgon
Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow C ...
,
Rebecca Long-Bailey
Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (' Long; born 22 September 1979), is a British politician and former solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow ...
,
Grahame Morris
Grahame Mark Morris (born 13 March 1961) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician. He was elected at the 2010 United Kingdom general election, 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Easington (UK Parliament c ...
and Clive Lewis, and with their support along with that of other left wing MPs and the mobilisation of members by
Momentum
In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
Corbyn refused to resign.
Owen Smith
Owen Smith (born 2 May 1970) is a former Labour Party politician and subsequently a British lobbyist, who has been the UK government relations director for pharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb since 2020. Smith was Member of Parliamen ...
secured the required nominations to run against him.
Corbyn's opponents in the
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
were alleged by
Robert Peston
Robert James Kenneth Peston (born 25 April 1960) is an English journalist, presenter, and author. He is the political editor of ITV News and host of the weekly political discussion show ''Peston'' (previously ''Peston on Sunday''). From 2006 u ...
to have sought to "fix" the result by increasing the fee for becoming a registered supporter from £3 to £25 and excluding from voting the 130,000 new members who had joined in the previous 6 months.
On 24 September 2016, Corbyn was re-elected Leader of the Labour Party in another landslide victory, increasing his share of the vote from 59.5% to 61.8%.
2020 leadership election
Following the 2019 general election, the Socialist Campaign Group reformed for 2019–2024. Campaign Group members
Rebecca Long-Bailey
Rebecca Roseanne Long-Bailey (' Long; born 22 September 1979), is a British politician and former solicitor serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salford and Eccles since 2015. A member of the Labour Party, Long-Bailey served in the Shadow ...
and
Richard Burgon
Richard Burgon (born 19 September 1980) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds East since 2015. Burgon served as Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor in the Shadow C ...
ran for leader and deputy leader of the Labour Party respectively. Both were defeated by
Keir Starmer
Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...
and
Angela Rayner
Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...
respectively.
Views
Although the Campaign Group did not require members to adhere to a particular set of policies, the group did occasionally set out statements of principle. The February 1988 edition of Campaign Group News included "The Aims and Objectives of the Labour Party" a statement agreed by the Campaign Group of Labour MPs and circulated "to provide a focus for political discussion and education within the party ... and to be the basis of our long-term political work". The statement set out the ideological basis for Benn's 1988 campaign to be Labour leader. The document outlines a socialist, internationalist and democratic agenda and starts by listing the rights that members thought out to be fought for:
Campaign Group News
First published in March 1986, ''Socialist Campaign Group News'' was the monthly magazine of the Campaign Group. The paper published articles by Campaign Group MPs alongside left wing Labour Party activists and trade unionists.
Issues regularly covered included:
women's liberation
The women's liberation movement (WLM) was a political alignment of women and feminist intellectualism that emerged in the late 1960s and continued into the 1980s primarily in the industrialized nations of the Western world, which effected great ...
liberation struggle
The Liberation Struggle in Kerala (1958–59) was a period of anticommunist protest against the first elected state government in Kerala, India, which was led by E. M. S. Namboodiripad of the Communist Party of India. Organised opposition to ...
s, internal Labour Party democracy and elections, reports from the
National Executive Committee National Executive Committee is the name of a leadership body in several organizations, mostly political parties:
* National Executive Committee of the African National Congress, in South Africa
* Australian Labor Party National Executive
* Nationa ...
, proposed resolutions for
Labour Party Conference
The Labour Party Conference is the annual conference of the British Labour Party. It is formally the supreme decision-making body of the party and is traditionally held in the final week of September, during the party conference season when the ...
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
and the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
.
As of 2008 the editorial board was
Jim Mortimer
James Edward Mortimer (12 January 1921 – 23 April 2013) was a British trade unionist and the Labour Party General Secretary between 1982 and 1985.
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Anni Marjoram, Bill Michie MP and Pete Willsman.
A website of the same name, providing electronic versions of some of the articles in the printed edition and lists of Campaign Group MPs, was run from 1999 to 2010.
Membership
Before 2017, the Campaign Group was only open to
backbench
In Westminster and other parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a member of parliament (MP) or a legislator who occupies no governmental office and is not a frontbench spokesperson in the Opposition, being instead simply a member of the " ...
MPs; this was reformed to allow all Members of Parliament to be members.
Current members
The current members are listed on the Campaign Group's Twitter account as:
Former members
Deceased
The following died while still serving in Parliament:
*
Bob McTaggart
Robert McTaggart (2 November 1945 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish politician who served as a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency), Glasgow Central, representing the L ...
Pat Wall
Charles Patrick Wall (6 May 1933 – 6 August 1990) was an English Trotskyist political activist who was the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford North (UK Parliament ...
(d. 1990)
*
Eric Heffer
Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...
(d. 1991)
*
Bob Cryer
George Robert Cryer (3 December 1934 – 12 April 1994) was an English Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician from Yorkshire. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parlia ...
(d. 1994)
*
Bernie Grant
Bernard Alexander Montgomery Grant (17 February 1944 – 8 April 2000) was a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Tottenham, London, from 1987 to his death in 2000.
Biography
Bernie Grant was born in Georgetow ...
(d. 2000)
*
Audrey Wise
Audrey Wise (''née'' Brown; 4 January 1932Wise gave her age as thirty-nine when nominated for the Coventry parliamentary seat, though she had just turned forty-two when she was elected in February 1974. Her date of birth was routinely reported ...
These members left Parliament voluntarily, either to retire or for new opportunities elsewhere:
* Joan Maynard (1987)
*
Stuart Holland
Stuart Kingsley Holland (born 25 March 1940) is a British economist and former politician.
As a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party, Holland represented the Vauxhall constituency in Lambeth, London, from 1979 until 1989, when he resign ...
(1989, left Parliament to return to academia)
*
Bob Clay
Robert Alan Clay (born 2 October 1946), known as Bob Clay, is a left-wing politician and former Labour MP in the United Kingdom.
Early life
Robert Clay was educated at Bedford School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. Unusually for a ...
Bob Litherland
Robert Kenneth Litherland (23 June 193013 May 2011), known as Bob Litherland, was a British Labour politician.
He was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester Central at a by-election in September 1979, and held the office until he ...
(1997)
*
Eddie Loyden
Edward Loyden (3 May 1923 – 27 April 2003), known as Eddie Loyden, was a British Labour politician.
Loyden was Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool Garston from February 1974 until he lost the seat to the Conservatives in May 1979. How ...
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
(2001)
*
Maria Fyfe
Maria Fyfe ('' née'' O'Neill; 25 November 1938 – 3 December 2020) was a Scottish politician and educator who served as Member of Parliament for Glasgow Maryhill from 1987 to 2001. She was Deputy Shadow Minister for Women from 1988 to 1991, ...
(2001)
*
Tess Kingham
Teresa Jane Kingham (born 4 May 1963) is a British Labour Party politician. She was Member of Parliament (MP) for Gloucester from 1997 to 2001.
Kingham was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, and gained a BA from Royal Holloway, ...
(2001)
*
John McAllion
John McAllion (born 13 February 1948) is a campaigner for the Scottish Socialist Party, as well as a former Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), and convenor of Tayside Regional Council. He is also co ...
(2001, resigned to focus on his duties as a
Member of the Scottish Parliament
Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament.
Electoral system
The ad ...
)
*
Bill Michie
William Michie (24 November 1935 – 22 September 2017) was a British politician.
He was Labour Member of Parliament for Sheffield Heeley from 1983 to 2001, when he stood down. He was a member of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs and of th ...
Tam Dalyell
Sir Thomas Dalyell, 11th Baronet, , ( ; 9 August 1932 – 26 January 2017), known as Tam Dalyell, was a Scottish Labour Party politician who was a member of the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005. He represented West Lothian from 1962 to 1983 ...
Alice Mahon
Alice Mahon (born 28 September 1937) is a former British Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. She was also an active trade unionist during her working life. Mahon represented Halifax in the House of Commons from 1987 until 2005.
She is ...
(2005)
*
Llew Smith
Llewellyn Thomas Smith (16 April 1944 – 26 May 2021) was a British Labour Party politician.
Early life and education
According to Smith, his father was born in England and moved to Wales as a child. He began working at the local colliery ( Ne ...
(2005)
*
Jimmy Wray
James Aloysius Joseph Patrick Gabriel WrayAaron Goldstei"Jimmy Wray, R.I.P.", ''The American Spectator'', 25 May 2013. (28 April 1935 – 25 May 2013) was a Scottish politician and Labour Member of Parliament for Glasgow Baillieston and Glas ...
(2005)
*
Ernie Ross
Ernest Ross (27 July 1942 – 17 October 2021) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dundee West from 1979 to 2005. He was a member of the Labour Party.
Early life
Ross was born in Dundee, Scotland, on 27 ...
(2005)
*
John Austin John Austin may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* John P. Austin (1906–1997), American set decorator
* Johnny Austin (1910–1983), American musician
* John Austin (author) (fl. 1940s), British novelist
Military
* John Austin (soldier) (180 ...
(2010)
*
Michael Clapham
Michael Clapham (born 15 May 1943) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Barnsley West and Penistone from 1992 to 2010.
Early life
Born in Darton, in Barnsley, Clapham was educated at the Darton Se ...
(2010)
*
Harry Cohen
Harry Michael Cohen (born 10 December 1949) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton from 1983 to 1997 and Leyton and Wanstead from 1997 to 2010.
Early life
Cohen left the George Gascoigne Seco ...
(2010)
*
Ann Cryer
Constance Ann Cryer JP (''née'' Place; born 14 December 1939) is a British former politician who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Keighley from the 1997 general election up until she stood down at the 2010 general election ...
(2010)
*
Bill Etherington
William Etherington (born 17 July 1941) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Sunderland North from 1992 to 2010.
Early life
Bill Etherington was born in Sunderland, County Durham and was educated at t ...
(2010)
*
Neil Gerrard
Neil Francis Gerrard (born 3 July 1942) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Walthamstow from 1992 until 2010.
Early life
Gerrard was born in Farnworth, England, and educated at Manchester Grammar Schoo ...
(2010)
*
Lynne Jones
Lynne Mary Jones (born 26 April 1951) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Birmingham Selly Oak (UK Parliament constituency), Birmingham Selly ...
(2010)
*
Bob Marshall-Andrews
Robert Graham Marshall-Andrews KC (born 10 April 1944) is a British barrister, author, and retired politician, who was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Medway from 1997 to 2010. He defected from his former party at the 2017 general ele ...
Austin Mitchell
Austin Vernon Mitchell (19 September 1934 – 18 August 2021) was a British academic, journalist and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of Parliament (MP) for Great Grimsby (UK ...
(2015)
*
Linda Riordan
Linda June Riordan (née Haigh; 31 May 1953) is an English Labour Co-operative politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Halifax from the 2005 general election until standing down in 2015.
Early life
Riordan was born in Halifax ...
Ronnie Campbell
Ronald Campbell (born 14 August 1943) is a former British Labour Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Blyth Valley from 1987 until 2019.
Early life
Campbell was born in Tynemouth, and grew up with seven siblings. He atten ...
(2019)
Constituencies abolished
These members left the Commons following the abolition of their constituencies as a result of redrawing of boundaries:
* Mildred Gordon
*
Les Huckfield
Leslie John Huckfield (born 7 April 1942) is a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Nuneaton from 1967 to 1983 and as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1984 to 1989.
Early life
From 1960 to 1963, Hu ...
*
Andrew McMahon
Andrew Ross McMahon (born September 3, 1982) is an American singer-songwriter. He was the vocalist, pianist and primary lyricist for the bands Something Corporate and main songwriter for Jack's Mannequin and performs solo both under his own nam ...
*
Reg Race
Denys Alan Reginald Race (born 23 June 1947) is a British Labour Party politician.
Parliamentary career
He unsuccessfully contested the Conservative-held constituency of Ruislip-Northwood at the February 1974 general election and again at the ...
These members lost their seats in general elections:
*
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
(lost seat 1983, returned to Parliament in 1984)
*
Bob Cryer
George Robert Cryer (3 December 1934 – 12 April 1994) was an English Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician from Yorkshire. He sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parlia ...
(lost seat 1983, returned to Parliament 1987)
* Eileen Gordon (lost seat 2001)
*
John Cryer
John Robert Cryer (born 11 April 1964) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton and Wanstead since the general election in May 2010. He was previously MP for Hornchurch from 1997 until his de ...
(lost seat 2005, returned to Parliament in 2010)
*
Phil Sawford
Philip Andrew Sawford (born 26 June 1950) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kettering from 1997 to 2005. A member of the Labour Party, he was Leader of Kettering Borough Council from 1991 to 1997.
Early life ...
(lost seat 2005)
* David Drew (lost seat 2010, returned to Parliament in 2017, lost seat 2019)
*
Katy Clark
Kathryn Sloan Clark, Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (born 3 July 1967) is a British politician and life peer who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2021. A member of the Labour Party, sh ...
(lost seat 2015)
*
Emma Dent Coad
Emma Dent Coad (born Margaret Mary Dent, 2 November 1954) is a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kensington from 2017 to 2019. A member of the Labour Party, she has been a Member of Kensington and Chelsea London B ...
(lost seat 2019)
*
Karen Lee Karen Lee may refer to:
* Karen Lee (swimmer) (born 1983), British Olympic swimmer
*Karen Lee (politician)
Karen Elizabeth Lee (born 15 January 1959) is a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln be ...
(lost seat 2019)
*
Laura Pidcock
Laura Pidcock (born 19 August 1987) is a British former Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Durham from 2017 until 2019, when she lost her seat in what was the worst defeat for the Labour Party sin ...
(lost seat 2019)
*
Danielle Rowley
Danielle Rowley (born 25 February 1990) is a Scottish Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Midlothian from 2017 to 2019.
Early life and education
Danielle Rowley was born on 25 February 1990 and grew up on a council est ...
(lost seat 2019)
*
Dennis Skinner
Dennis Edward Skinner (born 11 February 1932) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bolsover for 49 years, from 1970 to 2019. He is a member of the Labour Party.
Known for his left-wing views and acerbic wi ...
(lost seat 2019)
* Laura Smith (lost seat 2019)
* Chris Williamson (lost seat in 2015, returned to Parliament in 2017, suspended from Party then lost seat 2019)
Expelled
The following members were expelled from the Labour Party:
*
Ron Brown
Ronald Harmon Brown (August 1, 1941 – April 3, 1996) was an American politician. He served as the United States Secretary of Commerce during the first term of President of the United States, President Bill Clinton. Prior to this he was chairm ...
(expelled in 1991 after he was convicted of criminal damage)
*
Dennis Canavan
Dennis Andrew Canavan (born 8 August 1942) is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000 (known as West Stirlingshire from 1974 to 1983), first as a member of the Labour Party, and then as an I ...
(expelled in 2000 for running as an independent for the
Scottish Parliament
The Scottish Parliament ( gd, Pàrlamaid na h-Alba ; sco, Scots Pairlament) is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyro ...
)
*
Terry Fields
Terence Fields (8 March 1937 – 28 June 2008) was a British politician and firefighter. A member of the Militant group, he was the Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen from 1983 to 1992. He was expelled from the Labour Party ...
(expelled in 1991 for his membership of the
Militant tendency
, native_name_lang = cy
, logo =
, colorcode =
, leader = collective leadership(''Militant'' editorial board)
, leader1_name = Ted Grant
, leader1_title = Political Secretary
, leader2_name = Pet ...
)
*
Dave Nellist
David John Nellist (born 16 July 1952) is a British Trotskyist activist who was the MP for the constituency of Coventry South East from 1983 to 1992. Elected as a Labour MP, his support for the Militant tendency led to his eventual expulsion f ...
(expelled in 1991 for his membership of the Militant tendency)
*
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office i ...
(expelled in 2000 for running as an independent for
Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
; later readmitted to the party.)
*
Claudia Webbe
Claudia Naomi Webbe (born 8 March 1965) is a British politician who is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East. Elected to Parliament for Labour in the 2019 general election, she currently sits as an independent.
Born in L ...
(expelled in 2021 following criminal conviction)
Suspended
*
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
(suspended 2020 following publication of EHRC report).
Deselected
The following members were deselected by their
Constituency Labour Parties
__NOTOC__
A constituency Labour Party (CLP) is an organisation of members of the British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party who live in a particular parliamentary constituency.
In England and Wales, CLP boundaries coincide with those for UK parliam ...
:
*
Norman Atkinson
Norman Atkinson (25 March 1923 – 8 July 2013) was a British politician who served as Labour Member of Parliament for the London constituency of Tottenham from 1964 until 1987.
Early life
Manchester-born, Atkinson was educated at technical sch ...
Ernie Roberts
Ernest Alfred Cecil Roberts (20 April 1912 – 28 August 1994) was a Labour Party politician. He worked for the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers, was a co-founder of the Anti-Nazi League in 1977 and was the MP for Hackney North and St ...
(deselected 1987)
*
Sam Tarry
Samuel Peter Tarry (; born 27 August 1982) is a British politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South since 2019. He is a member of the Socialist Campaign Group parliamentary caucus. On 11 October 2022 he was deselected ...
(deselected 2022)
*
Bob Wareing
Robert Nelson Wareing (20 August 1930 – 1 May 2015) was a British politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Liverpool West Derby from 1983 to 2010. Until 2007, he was a Labour MP but resigned the party whip following his deselecti ...
(deselected 2007)
Defected
In 2005,
Brian Sedgemore
Brian Charles John Sedgemore (17 March 1937 – 29 April 2015) was a British politician who served as a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 2005. He defected to the Liberal Democrats shortly after standin ...
resigned the Labour Party whip and defected to the Liberal Democrats.
Resigned
The following members resigned their membership of the Campaign Group in 1985 in a show of support for
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
's reforms:
*
Kevin Barron
Sir Kevin John Barron (born 26 October 1946) is a British Labour Party politician and former coal industry worker. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rother Valley from 1983 until 2019.
Early life
Kevin John Barron, the son of Richard ...
*
Derek Fatchett
Derek John Fatchett (22 August 1945 – 9 May 1999) was a British politician. He became Member of Parliament for Leeds Central in 1983 and was a member of the Labour Party. He was Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Deputy Foreign Secretary) ...
The following members resigned their membership of the Campaign Group in 1988 in protest at
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
's decision to challenge
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
for the Labour leadership that year:
*
Margaret Beckett
Dame Margaret Mary Beckett (''née'' Jackson; born 15 January 1943) is a British politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Derby South since 1983. A member of the Labour Party, she became Britain's first female Foreign S ...
*
Jo Richardson
Josephine Richardson (28 August 1923 – 1 February 1994) was a British Labour Party politician. At the time of her death she was Member of Parliament for Barking, a post she had held almost exactly 20 years, since 1974.
Early life
She was b ...
*
Joan Ruddock
Dame Joan Mary Ruddock, (née Anthony; born 28 December 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Lewisham Deptford from 1987 to 2015. Ruddock was Minister of State for Energy at the Departmen ...
*
Clare Short
Clare Short (born 15 February 1946) is a British politician who served as Secretary of State for International Development under Prime Minister Tony Blair from 1997 to 2003.
Short was the Member of Parliament for Birmingham Ladywood from 1983 t ...
*
Joan Walley
Joan Lorraine Walley (born 23 January 1949) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, who served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Stoke-on-Trent North (UK Parliament constituency), Stoke-on-Tr ...
The following members resigned their membership of the Campaign Group at various points in time when they became front bench spokespersons or members of the government, which was seen as incompatible with membership of the Campaign Group until 2017:
*
Michael Meacher
Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...
(joined the front bench 1983)
* Ray Powell (joined the front bench 1983)
*
Mark Fisher
Mark Fisher (11 July 1968 – 13 January 2017), also known under his blogging alias k-punk, was an English writer, music critic, political and cultural theorist, philosopher, and teacher based in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsm ...
(joined the front bench 1987)
*
Paul Boateng
Paul Yaw Boateng, Baron Boateng (born 14 June 1951) is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent South from 1987 to 2005, becoming the UK's first Black Cabinet Minister in May 2002, when he was appo ...
(joined the front bench 1989)
*
Gavin Strang
Gavin Steel Strang (born 10 July 1943) is a Scottish Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh East from 1970 until 2010 (including two terms for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh). He served as a minister in the ...
(joined the front bench 1992)
*
Malcolm Chisholm
Malcolm George Richardson Chisholm (born 7 March 1949) is a Scottish politician who served as Minister for Health and Community Care from 2001 to 2004 and Minister for Communities from 2004 to 2006. A member of the Scottish Labour Party, he w ...
(joined the government 1997)
*
Chris Mullin
Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee (in 2010 as a memb ...
(joined the government 1997)
*
Dawn Primarolo
Dawn Primarolo, Baroness Primarolo, (born 2 May 1954) is a Labour Party (UK), British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Bristol South (UK Parliament constituency), Bristol South ...
(joined the government, but remained a member until 2000)Robert Waller, Byron Criddle, ''The Almanac of British Politics'' (1999), p. 186. London: Psychology Press.
* Dave Anderson (joined the government 2006)
*
John Cryer
John Robert Cryer (born 11 April 1964) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leyton and Wanstead since the general election in May 2010. He was previously MP for Hornchurch from 1997 until his de ...
(elected Chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 2012, considered a front bench role)
*
Kelvin Hopkins
Kelvin Peter Hopkins (born 22 August 1941) is a British politician. He was first elected as the Labour Member of Parliament for Luton North in 1997. Hopkins was suspended by the Labour Party in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct were ...
(joined the front bench in 2016, whip suspended in 2017)
*
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
(elected party leader in 2015)
The following members resigned their membership of the Campaign Group for other reasons:
*
Alan Meale
Sir Joseph Alan Meale (born 31 July 1949) is a former British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mansfield from 1987 to 2017.
Early life
Meale attended St Joseph RC School in Bishop Auckland and studied at Ruskin ...
(resigned 1987)
*
Gerry Bermingham
Gerald Edward Bermingham (born 20 August 1940) is a British politician and barrister, and was Labour Member of Parliament for St Helens South from 1983 until 2001.
He was born 20 August 1940 in Dublin, Ireland, and educated at Cotton College, ...
(resigned 1991)
*
Terry Patchett
Terry Patchett (11 July 1940 – 11 October 1996) was a politician in the United Kingdom.
Patchett served as Member of Parliament for Barnsley East from 1983 until his death, and was a member of the Labour Party.
Early life
Patchett was bo ...
(resigned 1991)
*
Keith Vaz
Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz (born 26 November 1956) is a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester East for 32 years, from 1987 to 2019. He was the British Parliament's longest-serving Brit ...
(resigned 1991)
*
Jimmy Hood
James Hood (16 May 1948 – 3 December 2017) was a Scottish people, Scottish Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 United Kingdom general election, 1987 until being defeated in 2015 United Ki ...
(resigned 1997)
See also
*
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
*
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British politician, writer and diarist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabinet minister in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
*
Democratic Socialism
Democratic socialism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy, with a particular emphasis on economic democracy, workplace democracy, and workers' self- ...
Labour Party Black Sections
Labour Party Black Sections (LPBS), commonly known as Black Sections, was a caucus in the United Kingdom, made up of African, Caribbean, and Asian Labour Party members from 1983 to 1993.
Formation
Since the 1960s, the Labour Party has relied f ...
References
Further reading
* Kogan, David (2019). ''Protest and Power: The Battle for the Labour Party.'' Bloomsbury Reader. .
* Nunns, Alex (2nd ed. 2018)''. The candidate: Jeremy Corbyn's improbable path to power''. London: OR Books. .
* Hannah, Simon (2018). ''A Party With Socialists In It''. London: PlutoPress. .
* McDonnell, John (2007). ''Another World Is Possible: A Manifesto for 21st Century Socialism.'' Labour Representation Committee.