Ramsay MacDonald

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The Right Honourable  Ramsay MacDonald
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In office 24 August 1931 – 7 June 1935
Monarch	George V
Preceded by	himself, leading Labour Government 1929-1931 Resigned and reappointed same day
Succeeded by	Stanley Baldwin
In office 5 June 1929 – 24 August 1931
Monarch	George V
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	himself, leading National Government 1931-1935 Resigned and reappointed same day
In office 22 January 1924 – 4 November 1924
Monarch	George V
Preceded by	Stanley Baldwin
Succeeded by	Stanley Baldwin
Born	October 12, 1866(1866-10-12) Lossiemouth, Morayshire, United Kingdom
Died	9 November 1937 (aged 71) The Atlantic Ocean, on holiday aboard the liner Reina del Pacifico
Political party	Labour (until 1931), National Labour (from 1931)
Spouse	Margaret Gladstone
Alma mater	Birkbeck,University of London, United Kingdom
Religion	Presbyterian

James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937) was a British politician and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He rose from humble origins to become the first Labour Prime Minister in 1924. His second period as Prime Minister was during the crisis of the Great Depression when he formed a "National Government" in which a majority of MPs were from the Conservatives (earning him the unflattering nickname 'The Lucifer of the Left ) and as a result he was expelled from the Labour Party.

Contents 1 Early life 1.1 Lossiemouth 1.2 London 2 Active politics 3 Party leader 4 First government 4.1 The Zinoviev letter 5 Second government 5.1 The Great Depression 6 National Government 7 Retirement and death 8 Reputation 9 Mentions in popular culture 10 Personal life 11 MacDonald's governments 11.1 First Labour government: January - November 1924 11.2 Second Labour government: June 1929 - August 1931 11.2.1 Changes 11.3 First national government: August - November 1931 11.4 Second national government: November 1931 - May 1935 11.4.1 Changes 11.4.2 Key 12 Notes 13 Further reading 14 External links 15 Political offices

[edit] Early life

[edit] Lossiemouth

MacDonald was born in Lossiemouth, in Morayshire in northeast Scotland, the illegitimate son of John Macdonald, a farm labourer, and Anne Ramsay, a housemaid.^[1] Although registered at birth as James McDonald Ramsay, he was known as Jaimie MacDonald. Illegitimacy could be a serious handicap in 19th-century Presbyterian Scotland, but in the north and northeast farming communities, this was less of a problem; In 1868 a report of the Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture noted that the illegitimacy rate was around 15%^[2] and it is unclear to what extent the associated stigma affected MacDonald throughout his life. He received an elementary education at the Free Church of Scotland school in Lossiemouth, and then from 1875 at the local Drainie parish school. In 1881 he became a pupil teacher at Drainie and the entry in the school register as a member of staff was 'J. MacDonald'.^[3] He remained in this post until 1 May 1885 to take up a position as an assistant to a clergyman in Bristol.^[4] It was in Bristol, that he joined the Democratic Federation, an extreme Radical sect. This federation changed its name a few months later to the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).^[5][6] He remained in the group when it left the SDF to become the Bristol Socialist Society. MacDonald returned to Lossiemouth before the end of the year for reasons unknown but in early 1886 once again left Lossiemouth for London.^[7]

[edit] London

He arrived in London jobless^[8] but after some short-term menial work, he found employment as an invoice clerk.^[9] Meanwhile, MacDonald was deepening his socialist credentials. He engaged himself energetically in C. L. Fitzgerald's Socialist Union which, unlike the SDF, aimed to progress socialist ideals through the parliamentary system.^[10]

On 13 November, 1887, MacDonald witnessed the Bloody Sunday of 13 November, 1887 in Trafalgar Square and in response to this he had a pamphlet published by the Pall Mall Gazette entitled Remember Trafalgar Square: Tory Terrorism in 1887.^[11]

MacDonald retained an interest in Scottish politics. Gladstone's first Irish Home Rule Bill inspired the setting-up of a Scottish Home Rule Association in Edinburgh. On 6 March 1888, MacDonald took part in a meeting of Scotsmen who were London residents and who, on his motion, formed the London General Committee of Scottish Home Rule Association.^[12] He continued to support home rule for Scotland, but with little support from London Scots forthcoming, his enthusiasm for the committee waned and from 1890 he took little part in its work.^[13][14]

Politics at this time, however, was still of less importance to MacDonald than furthering himself in employment. To this end he took evening classes in science, botany, agriculture, mathematics, and physics at the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution but his health suddenly failed him due to exhaustion one week before his examinations. This put an end to any thought of having a career in science.^[15] In 1888, MacDonald took employment as private secretary to Thomas Lough who was a tea merchant and a Radical politician.^{[16] [17]} Lough was elected as the Liberal MP for West Islington, in 1892. Many doors now opened to MacDonald. He had access to the National Liberal Club as well as the editorial offices of Liberal and Radical newspapers. He also made himself known to various London Radical clubs and with Radical and labour politicians. MacDonald gained valuable experience in the workings of electioneering. In 1892, he left Lough’s employment to become a journalist and was not immediately successful. By then, MacDonald had been a member of the Fabian Society for some time and toured and lectured on its behalf at the London School of Economics and elsewhere.^[18]

[edit] Active politics

The TUC had created the Labour Electoral Association (LEA) and entered into an unsatisfactory alliance with the Liberal Party in 1886.^[19] In 1892, MacDonald was in Dover to give support to the candidate for the LEA in the General Election and who was well beaten. MacDonald impressed the local press^[20] and the Association, however, and was adopted as its candidate. MacDonald, though, announced that his candidature would be under a Labour Party banner.^[21] He denied that the Labour Party was a wing of the Liberal Party but saw merit in a working relationship. In May 1894, the local Southampton Liberal Association was trying to find a labour minded candidate for the constituency. MacDonald along with two others were invited to address the Liberal Council. One of three men turned down the invitation and MacDonald failed to secure the candidature despite the strong support he had among Liberals.^[22]

In 1893, Keir Hardie had formed the Independent Labour Party (ILP) which had established itself as a mass movement and so in May 1894 MacDonald applied for membership of, and was accepted into, the ILP. He was officially adopted as the ILP candidate for one of the Southampton seats on 17 July 1894^[23] but was heavily defeated at the election of 1895. MacDonald stood again for Parliament again in 1900 for one of the two Leicester seats and although he lost was accused of splitting the Liberal vote to allow the Conservative candidate to win.^[24] That same year he became Secretary of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), the forerunner of the Labour Party, while retaining his membership of the ILP. The ILP, while not a Marxist party, was more rigorously socialist than the future Labour Party in which the ILP members would operate as a "ginger group" for many years.

As Party Secretary, MacDonald negotiated an agreement with the leading Liberal politician Herbert Gladstone (son of the late Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone), which allowed Labour to contest a number of working-class seats without Liberal opposition,^[25] thus giving Labour its first breakthrough into the House of Commons. He married Margaret Gladstone, who was unrelated to the Gladstones of the Liberal Party, in 1896. Margaret Gladstone MacDonald was very comfortably off, although not hugely wealthy.^[26] This allowed them to indulge in foreign travel, visiting Canada and the United States in 1897, South Africa in 1902, Australia and New Zealand in 1906 and to India several times.

In 1906, the LRC changed its name to the "Labour Party", and absorbed the ILP.^[27] In that same year, MacDonald was elected MP for Leicester along with 28 others,^[28] and became one of the leaders of the Parliamentary Labour Party. These Labour MPs undoubtedly owed their election to the ‘Progressive Alliance’ between the Liberals and Labour which at this time was a minor party supporting the Liberal governments of Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith. MacDonald became the leader of the left wing of the party, arguing that Labour must seek to displace the Liberals as the main party of the left.

Up to 1910 his name was usually styled Ramsay Macdonald, thereafter Ramsay MacDonald.

[edit] Party leader

In 1911 MacDonald became Party Leader (formally "Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party"),^[29] but within a short period his wife became ill with blood poisoning and died. This affected MacDonald very much^[30] and it is doubtful whether or not he truly recovered. It made him a lonely figure prone to self-pity. MacDonald had always taken a keen interest in foreign affairs and knew from his visit to South Africa just after the Boer War had ended, what the effects of modern conflict would have.^[31] Although the Parliamentary Labour Party generally held an anti-war opinion, the fact was that when war was declared in August 1914, patriotism came to the fore.^[32] Labour supported the government in its request for £100,000,000 of war credits and, as MacDonald could not support this, he resigned the Chairmanship.^[33] Arthur Henderson became the new leader while MacDonald took the party Treasurer post.^[34] During the early part of the war he was extremely unpopular and was accused of treason and cowardice. The journal, John Bull published in September, 1915 an article carrying details of MacDonald’s so-called deceit in not disclosing his real name.^[35] His illegitimacy was no secret and he hadn’t seemed to have suffered by it, but according to the journal he had, by using a false name, gained access to parliament falsely and that he should suffer heavy penalties and have his election declared void. However, MacDonald received much support but the way in which the disclosures were made public had affected him.^[36] He wrote in his diary

... I spent hours of terrible mental pain. Letters of sympathy began to pour in upon me... Never before did I know that I had been registered under the name of Ramsay, and cannot understand it now. From my earliest years my name has been entered in lists, like the school register, etc. as MacDonald.

Yet, despite his opposition to the war, MacDonald still visited the front in December 1914.^[37] Lord Elton wrote:

... he arrived in Belgium with an ambulance unit organised by Dr Hector Munro. The following day he had disappeared and agitated enquiry disclosed that he had been arrested and sent back to Britain. At home he saw Lord Kitchener who expressed his annoyance at the incident and gave instructions for him to be given an “omnibus” pass to the whole Western Front. He returned to an entirely different reception and was met by General Seeley at Poperinghe who expressed his regrets at the way MacDonald had been treated. They set off for the front at Ypres and soon found themselves in the thick of an action in which both behaved with the utmost coolness. Later, MacDonald was received by the Commander-in-Chief at St Omer and made an extensive tour of the front. Returning home, he paid a public tribute to the courage of the French troops, but said nothing then or later of having been under fire himself.

As the war dragged on his reputation recovered but nevertheless he lost his seat in the 1918 "khaki election", which saw the Liberal David Lloyd George coalition government win a huge majority.

In 1922 the Conservatives left the coalition and Bonar Law, who had taken over from Lloyd George, called an election on 26 October. MacDonald was returned to the House as MP for Aberavon in Wales and his rehabilitation was complete; the Labour New Leader wrote that his election was

enough in itself to transform our position in the House. We have once more a voice which must be heard.^[38]

By now the party was reunited and MacDonald was re-elected as Leader. The Liberals by this point were in rapid decline and at the 1922 election Labour became the main opposition party to the Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin, making MacDonald Leader of the Opposition. By this time he had moved away from the hard left and abandoned the socialism of his youth — he strongly opposed the wave of radicalism that swept through the labour movement in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917 — and became a determined enemy of Communism. Unlike the French Socialist Party and the German SPD, the Labour Party did not split and the Communist Party of Great Britain remained small and isolated.

Although he was a gifted speaker, MacDonald became noted for "woolly" rhetoric such as the occasion at the Labour Party Conference of 1930 at Llandudno when he appeared to imply unemployment could be solved by encouraging the jobless to return to the fields "where they till and they grow and they sow and they harvest." Equally there were times it was unclear what his policies were. There was already some unease in the party about what he would do if Labour was able to form a government. At the 1923 election the Conservatives lost their majority, and when they lost a vote of confidence in the House in January 1924 King George V called on MacDonald to form a minority Labour government, with the tacit support of the Liberals under Asquith from the corner benches. MacDonald thus became the first Labour Prime Minister, the first from a "working-class" background and one of the very few without a university education.

[edit] First government

Main article: First Labour Government (UK)

Social democracy  v • d • e  Precursors ♦ The Age of Enlightenment ♦ Utopian socialism ♦ Trade Unionism ♦ The Revolutions of 1848 ♦ Orthodox Marxism Development ♦ Revisionism/Reformism ♦ Third way Policies ♦ Representative democracy ♦ Labour rights ♦ Civil liberties ♦ Welfare state ♦ Mixed economy ♦ Secularism ♦ Fair trade ♦ Environmental protection Organizations ♦ Social democratic parties ♦ Socialist International ♦ Party of European Socialists ♦ ITUC Important figures ♦ Eduard Bernstein ♦ Hjalmar Branting ♦ Friedrich Ebert ♦ Jean Jaurès ♦ Léon Blum ♦ Karl Kautsky ♦ Ramsay MacDonald ♦ Clement Attlee ♦ Tommy Douglas

MacDonald took the post of Foreign Secretary as well as Prime Minister, and made it clear that his main priority was to undo the damage which he believed had been caused by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles, by settling the reparations issue and coming to terms with Germany. He left domestic matters to his ministers, including J.R. Clynes as Lord Privy Seal, Philip Snowden as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Henderson as Home Secretary. Since the government did not have a majority in either House of the Parliament, there was in any case no possibility of passing any radical legislation.

MacDonald took the decision in March 1924 to end construction work on the Singapore military base despite strong opposition from the Admiralty^[39]. In June, MacDonald convened a conference in London of the wartime Allies, and achieved an agreement on a new plan for settling the reparations issue and the French occupation of the Ruhr. German delegates then joined the meeting, and the London Settlement signed. This was followed by an Anglo-German commercial treaty. MacDonald the neophyte Prime Minister was hugely proud of what had been achieved and was the pinnacle of his administration's achievements.^[40] In September he made a speech to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva, the main thrust of which was for general European disarmament which was received with great acclamation.^[41]

But before all of this the United Kingdom had recognised the Soviet Union and MacDonald informed parliament in February 1924 that negotiations would begin to negotiate a treaty with the Soviet Union.^[42] The treaty was to cover Anglo-Soviet trade and the situation of the British bondholders who had contracted with the pre-revolutionary Russian government and which had been rejected by the Bolsheviks. There were in fact to be two treaties. One covering commercial matters and the other to cover a fairly vague future discussion on the problem of the bondholders. If and when the treaties were signed, then the British government would conclude a further treaty and guarantee a loan to the Bolsheviks.^[43] The treaties were not popular with the Conservatives nor with the Liberals who, in September, criticized the loan so vehemently that negotiation with them seemed impossible.^[44]

However, it was the "Campbell Case" — the abrogation of prosecuting the left-wing newspaper the Workers Weekly — that determined its fate. The Conservatives put forth a censure motion, to which the Liberals added an amendment. MacDonald's Cabinet resolved to treat both motions as matters of confidence, which if passed, would necessitate a dissolution of government. The Liberal amendment carried and the King granted MacDonald a dissolution of parliament the following day.^[45] The issues which dominated the election campaign were, unsurprisingly, the Campbell case and the Russian treaties which soon combined into the single issue of the Bolshevik threat.^[46]

[edit] The Zinoviev letter

Main article: Zinoviev letter

On 25 October, just 4 days before the election, the Daily Mail reported that a letter had come into its possession which purported to be a letter sent from Zinoviev, the President of the Communist International, to the British representative on the Comintern Executive. The letter was dated 15 September and so before the dissolution of parliament; it stated that it was imperative that the agreed treaties between Britain and the Bolsheviks be ratified urgently. To this end, the letter said that those Labour members who could apply pressure on the government should do so. It went on to say that a resolution of the relationship between the two countries would ‘ assist in the revolutionising of the international and British proletariat …. make it possible for us to extend and develop the ideas of Leninism in England and the Colonies.’ The government had received the letter before the publication in the newspapers and had protested to the Bolshevik’s London chargé d'affaires and had already decided to make public the contents of the letter together with details of the official protest^[47] but had not been swift footed enough. MacDonald always believed that the letter was forgery ^[48] but damage had been done to his campaign.

Despite all that had gone on, the result of the election was not disastrous to Labour. The Conservatives were returned decisively gaining 155 seats for a total of 413 members of parliament. Labour lost 40 seats but held on to 151 while the Liberals lost 118 seats leaving them with only 40.

[edit] Second government

Main article: Labour Government 1929–1931

The strong majority enjoyed by Baldwin’s party allowed him to preside over a government that would serve a full term during which it would have to deal with the General Strike and miners’ strike of 1926. Unemployment in the UK during this period remained high but relatively stable at just over 10% and, apart from 1926, strikes were at a low level.^[49] At the May 1929 election, Labour won 288 seats to the Conservatives' 260, with 59 Liberals under Lloyd George holding the balance of power. (At this election MacDonald moved from Aberavon to the seat of Seaham Harbour in County Durham.) Baldwin resigned and MacDonald again formed a minority government, at first with Lloyd George's cordial support. This time MacDonald knew he had to concentrate on domestic matters. Henderson became Foreign Secretary, with Snowden again at the Exchequer. J.H. Thomas became Lord Privy Seal with a mandate to tackle unemployment, assisted by the young radical Oswald Mosley.

MacDonald's second government was in a stronger parliamentary position than his first, and in 1930 he was able to pass a revised Old Age Pensions Act, a more generous Unemployment Insurance Act, and an act to improve wages and conditions in the coal industry (i.e. the issues behind the General Strike). He also convened a conference in London with the leaders of the Indian National Congress, at which he offered responsible government, but not independence, to India. In April 1930 he negotiated a treaty limiting naval armaments with the United States and Japan.

[edit] The Great Depression

Main article: Great Depression in the United Kingdom

MacDonald's government had no effective response to the economic crisis which followed the Stock Market Crash of 1929. Snowden was a rigid exponent of orthodox finance and would not permit any deficit spending to stimulate the economy, despite the urgings of Moseley, David Lloyd George and the economist John Maynard Keynes.

During 1931 the economic situation deteriorated, and pressure from orthodox economists and the press for sharp cuts in government spending, including pensions and unemployment benefits, increased. Keynes, though, urged MacDonald to devalue the pound by 25% and abandon the existing economic policy of a balanced budget. MacDonald, Snowden and Thomas, however, supported such measures as necessary to maintain a balanced budget and to prevent a run on the Pound sterling, but the measures split the Cabinet down the middle and the trade unions bitterly opposed them.

Although there was a narrow majority in the Cabinet for drastic reductions, the minority included senior ministers such as Arthur Henderson who made it clear they would resign rather than acquiesce to the cuts. With this unworkable split, On August 24, 1931 MacDonald submitted his resignation and then agreed, on the urging of king George V to form a National Government including the Conservatives and Liberals.

MacDonald, Snowden and Thomas were expelled from the Labour Party and subsequently formed a new National Labour Party, but this had little support in the country or the unions.

Great anger in the labour movement greeted MacDonald's move. Mass riots by unemployed people took place in protest in Glasgow and Manchester. The Independent Labour Party disaffiliated from the Labour Party.

Shortly after this a General Election was called. the 1931 general election saw the Labour Party, now headed by Arthur Henderson go down to its worst ever defeat, winning only 52 seats. This further increased the bitterness felt towards MacDonald by his former colleages.

[edit] National Government

Main article: National Government (UK)

MacDonald did not want an immediate election, but the Conservatives forced him to agree to one in October 1931. The National Government won 554 seats, comprising 470 Conservatives, 13 National Labour, 68 Liberals (Liberal National and Liberal) and various others, while Labour won only 52 and the Lloyd George Liberals four. This was the largest mandate ever won by a British Prime Minister at a democratic election, but it left MacDonald at the beck-and-call of the Conservatives. Neville Chamberlain became Chancellor of the Exchequer while Baldwin held the real power in the government as Lord President.

Effectively powerless at home, MacDonald involved himself heavily in foreign policy, and attended in two conferences in 1932; the Geneva Disarmament Conference and the Lausanne Conference, which was concerned with German reparations.

MacDonald was deeply affected by the anger and bitterness caused by the fall of the Labour government. He continued to regard himself as a true Labour man, but the rupturing of virtually all his old friendships left him an isolated figure.

[edit] Retirement and death

During 1933 and 1934 MacDonald's health declined, and he became an increasingly ineffective leader as the international situation grew more threatening. His pacifism, which had been widely admired in the 1920s, led Winston Churchill and others to accuse him of failure to stand up to the threat of Adolf Hitler.

In May 1935 he was forced to resign as Prime Minister, taking the largely honorary post of Lord President vacated by Baldwin, who returned to power. At the election later in the year MacDonald was defeated at Seaham by Emanuel Shinwell. Shortly after he was elected at a by-election in January 1936 for the Combined Scottish Universities seat, but his physical and mental health collapsed in 1936. A sea voyage was recommended to restore his health, and he died at sea in November 1937.

[edit] Reputation

MacDonald's expulsion from Labour along with his National Labour Party's coalition with the Conservatives, combined with the decline in his mental powers after 1931, left him a discredited figure at the time of his death and receiving unsympathetic treatment from generations of Labour-inclined British historians.

Clement Attlee in his autobiography As it Happened (1954) called MacDonald's decision to abandon the Labour government in 1931 "the greatest betrayal in the political history of the country"^[50].

It was not until 1977 that he received a supportive biography, when Professor David Marquand, a former Labour MP, wrote Ramsay MacDonald with the stated intention of giving MacDonald his due for his work in founding and building the Labour Party, and in trying to preserve peace in the years between the two world wars. He argued also to place MacDonald's fateful decision in 1931 in the context of the crisis of the times and the limited choices open to him.

Similarly, opinion about the economic decisions taken in the inter-war period (Winston Churchill's decision to return to the Gold Standard in 1925, and MacDonald's desperate efforts to defend it in 1931) is no longer as uniformly hostile as was once the case. In the late 1960s Robert Skidelsky, in his classic account of the 1929-31 government, "Politicians and the Slump", compared the orthodox policies advocated by leading politicians of both parties unfavourably with the more radical, proto-Keynesian measures advocated by Lloyd George and Oswald Mosley. But in the preface to the 1994 edition Skidelsky argues that recent experience of currency crises and capital flight make it hard to be so critical of the politicians who wanted to achieve stability by cutting labour costs and defend the value of the currency.

[edit] Mentions in popular culture

In Howard Spring's 1940 novel Fame is the Spur (later made into film and TV adaptations) the lead character Hamer Shawcross is generally believed to be based upon Ramsay MacDonald ^[51].

The central character, Hamer Shawcross, starts as a studious boy in an aspirational working-class family in Ancoats, Manchester; he becomes a socialist activist and soon a career politician, who eventually is absorbed by the upper classes he had begun by combating.

In Muriel Spark's "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie", Ramsay Macdonald is mentioned in passing by the title character to her class on page 44. She is almost caught by the headteacher saying "Mussolino is one of the greatest men in the world, far more so than Ramsay Macdonald". This suggests that Brodie did have some respect for the PM, but not nearly as much as for Mussolini. It could also be seen to suggest that they were of a similar vein, if she thought to compare them.

In the Doctor Who Big Finish Audio Storm Waring, The Doctor and his companion, Charley, name a creature they captured Ramsay, after Ramsay McDonald.

[edit] Personal life

Ramsay MacDonald married Margaret Gladstone in 1896. The marriage was a very happy one, and they had six children, including Malcolm MacDonald (1901-81), who had a prominent career as a politician, colonial governor and diplomat, and Ishbel MacDonald (1903-82), who was very close to her father. MacDonald was devastated by Margaret's death from blood poisoning in 1911, and had few significant personal relationships after that time, apart from with Ishbel, who cared for him for the rest of his life. Following his wife's death, MacDonald commenced a relationship with Lady Margaret Sackville^[52]. In the 1920s and '30s he was frequently entertained by the society hostess Lady Londonderry, which was much disapproved of in the Labour Party since her husband was a Conservative cabinet minister, and it was said that MacDonald was infatuated with her.

MacDonald's unpopularity in the country following his stance against Britain's involvement in the First World War spilled over into his private life. In 1916, he was expelled from the Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth for supposedly bringing the club into disrepute because of his pacifist views.^[53] The manner of his expulsion was regretted by some members but an attempt to re-instate him by a vote in 1924 failed. However a Special General Meeting held in 1929 finally voted for his reinstatement. By this time, MacDonald was Prime Minister for the second time. He felt the initial expulsion very deeply and refused to take up the final offer of membership.^[54]

[edit] MacDonald's governments

[edit] First Labour government: January - November 1924

• Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Haldane - Lord Chancellor and joint Leader of the House of Lords
• Lord Parmoor - Lord President of the Council and joint Leader of the House of Lords
• John Robert Clynes - Lord Privy Seal and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons
• Philip Snowden - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Arthur Henderson - Home Secretary
• James Henry Thomas - Secretary of State for the Colonies
• Stephen Walsh - Secretary of State for War
• Sir Sydney Olivier - Secretary of State for India
• William Adamson - Secretary for Scotland
• Lord Thomson - Secretary for Air
• Lord Chelmsford - First Lord of the Admiralty
• Josiah Wedgwood - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Sidney Webb - President of the Board of Trade
• Noel Buxton - Minister of Agriculture
• Charles Philips Trevelyan - President of the Board of Education
• Vernon Hartshorn - Postmaster-General
• Frederick William Jowett - First Commissioner of Works
• Thomas Shaw - Minister of Labour
• John Wheatley - Minister of Health

[edit] Second Labour government: June 1929 - August 1931

• Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Sankey - Lord Chancellor
• Lord Parmoor - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Lords
• J.H. Thomas - Lord Privy Seal
• Philip Snowden - Chancellor of the Exchequer
• J.R. Clynes - Home Secretary
• Arthur Henderson - Foreign Secretary
• Lord Passfield - Secretary of State for the Colonies and Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
• Thomas Shaw- Secretary of State for War
• William Wedgwood Benn - Secretary of State for India
• Lord Thomson - Secretary of State for Air
• William Adamson - Secretary of State for Scotland
• A. V. Alexander - First Lord of the Admiralty
• William Graham - President of the Board of Trade
• Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan - President of the Board of Education
• Noel Buxton - Minister of Agriculture
• Margaret Bondfield - Minister of Labour
• Arthur Greenwood - Minister of Health
• George Lansbury - First Commissioner of Works

[edit] Changes

• June 1930 - J.H. Thomas succeeds Lord Passfield as Dominions Secretary. Passfield remains Colonial Secretary. Vernon Hartshorn succeeds Thomas as Lord Privy Seal. Christopher Addison succeeds Noel Buxton as Minister of Agriculture.
• October 1930 - Lord Amulree succeeds Lord Thomson as Secretary of State for Air.
• March 1931 - H.B. Lees-Smith succeeds Sir C.P. Trevelyan at the Board of Education. Herbert Morrison enters the cabinet as Minister of Transport. Thomas Johnston succeeds Hartshorn as Lord Privy Seal.

[edit] First national government: August - November 1931

• Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Sankey - Lord Chancellor*
• Stanley Baldwin - Lord President**
• Philip Snowden - Chancellor of the Exchequer*
• Sir Herbert Samuel - Home Secretary***
• Lord Reading - Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Lords***
• Sir Samuel Hoare - Secretary for India**
• J.H. Thomas - Dominions Secretary and Colonial Secretary*
• Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister - President of the Board of Trade**
• Neville Chamberlain - Minister of Health**

[edit] Second national government: November 1931 - May 1935

• Ramsay MacDonald - Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Sankey - Lord Chancellor*
• Stanley Baldwin - Lord President**
• Lord Snowden - Lord Privy Seal*
• Neville Chamberlain - Chancellor of the Exchequer**
• Sir Herbert Samuel - Home Secretary***
• Sir John Simon - Foreign Secretary****
• Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister - Colonial Secretary**
• J.H. Thomas - Dominions Secretary*
• Lord Hailsham - Secretary of State for War and Leader of the House of Lords**
• Sir Samuel Hoare - Secretary of State for India**
• Lord Londonderry - Secretary for Air**
• Sir Archibald Sinclair - Secretary of State for Scotland***
• Sir B. Eyres-Monsell - First Lord of the Admiralty**
• Walter Runciman - President of the Board of Trade****
• Sir John Gilmour - Minister of Agriculture*****
• Sir D. Maclean - President of the Board of Education***
• Sir Henry Betterton - Minister of Labour**
• Sir E. Hilton-Young - Minister of Health**
• William Ormsby-Gore - First Commissioner of Works**

[edit] Changes

• September 1932 - Stanley Baldwin succeeds Lord Snowden as Lord Privy Seal. Sir John Gilmour succeeds Sir Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary. Sir Godfrey Collins**** succeeds Sir Archibald Sinclair as Scottish Secretary. Walter Elliot***** succeeds Sir John Gilmour as Minister of Agriculture. Lord Irwin** succeeds Sir Donald Maclean as President of the Board of Education.
• December 1933 - Stanley Baldwin ceases to be Lord Privy Seal, and his successor in that office is not in the cabinet. He continues as Lord President. Kingsley Wood** enters the cabinet as Postmaster-General.
• June 1934 - Oliver Stanley** succeeds Sir H. Betterton as Minister of Labour

[edit] Key

• *=Member of the National Labour Party
• **=Member of the Conservative Party
• ***=Member of the Liberal Party
• ****=Member of the National Liberal Party
• *****=Member of the Scottish Unionist Party, which took the Conservative Whip invariably.

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Jane Cox, A Singular Marriage: a Labour Love Story in Letters and Diaries (of Ramsay and Margaret MacDonald), Harrap, London 1988
• Lord Elton, The Life of James Ramsay MacDonald 1939
• Bernard Barker (editor), Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings, Allen Lane, London 1972
• David Marquand, Ramsay MacDonald, Jonathan Cape, London 1977
• Greg Rosen (ed), Dictionary of Labour Biography. Politicos Publishing, London, 2001. ISBN 1188
• Greg Rosen, Old Labour to New, Politicos Publishing, London 2005.
• Ramsay MacDonald, The Socialist Movement, 1911
• Ramsay MacDonald, Labour and Peace, Labour Party 1912
• Ramsay MacDonald, Parliament and Revolution, Labour Party 1919
• Ramsay MacDonald, Foreign Policy of the Labour Party, Labour Party 1923
• Ramsay MacDonald, Margaret Ethel MacDonald, 1924
• McConnachie, John: The Moray Golf Club at Lossiemouth, 1988. ISBN:

[edit] External links

• A left-wing criticism of Macdonald's career
• More about Ramsay MacDonald on the Downing Street website.

[edit] Political offices

Political offices
Preceded by Herbert Henry Asquith	Leader of the Opposition 1922 – 1924	Succeeded by Stanley Baldwin
Preceded by Stanley Baldwin	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 22 January 1924 – 4 November 1924
	Leader of the House of Commons 1924
Preceded by The Marquess Curzon of Kedleston	Foreign Secretary 1924	Succeeded by Sir Austen Chamberlain
Preceded by Stanley Baldwin	Leader of the Opposition 1924 – 1929	Succeeded by Stanley Baldwin
	Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 5 June 1929 – 7 June 1935
	Leader of the House of Commons 1929 – 1935
	Lord President of the Council 1935 – 1937	Succeeded by The Viscount Halifax
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir John Rolleston Henry Broadhurst	Member of Parliament for Leicester with Henry Broadhurst, to March 1906; Franklin Thomasson, 1906–1910; Eliot Crawshay-Williams, 1910–1913; Sir Gordon Hewart, 1913–1918 1906 – 1918	Constituency abolished
Preceded by John Edwards	Member of Parliament for Aberavon 1922 – 1929	Succeeded by William George Cove
Preceded by Sidney Webb	Member of Parliament for Seaham 1929 – 1935	Succeeded by Emanuel Shinwell
Preceded by Noel Skelton	Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities 1936 – 1937	Succeeded by Sir John Anderson
Party political offices
New political party	Labour Party Secretary 1900 – 1912	Succeeded by Arthur Henderson
Preceded by Philip Snowden	Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1906 – 1909	Succeeded by Frederick William Jowett
Preceded by George Nicoll Barnes	Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party 1911 – 1914	Succeeded by Arthur Henderson
Preceded by Arthur Henderson	Treasurer of the Labour Party 1912 – 1924	Succeeded by Unknown
Preceded by John Robert Clynes	Leader of the British Labour Party 1922 – 1931	Succeeded by Arthur Henderson
Preceded by Sidney Webb	Chair of the Labour Party 1923 – 1924	Succeeded by Charles Cramp
New political party	Leader of the National Labour Party 1931 – 1937	Succeeded by Malcolm MacDonald

v • d • e Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of the Kingdom of Great Britain Walpole · Wilmington · Pelham · Newcastle · Devonshire · Newcastle · Bute · G Grenville · Rockingham · Chatham (Pitt the Elder) · Grafton · North · Rockingham · Shelburne · Portland · Pitt the Younger of the United Kingdom Pitt the Younger · Addington · Pitt the Younger · W Grenville · Portland · Perceval · Liverpool · Canning · Goderich · Wellington · Grey · Melbourne · Wellington · Peel · Melbourne · Peel · Russell · Derby · Aberdeen · Palmerston · Derby · Palmerston · Russell · Derby · Disraeli · Gladstone · Disraeli · Gladstone · Salisbury · Gladstone · Salisbury · Gladstone · Rosebery · Salisbury · Balfour · Campbell-Bannerman · Asquith · Lloyd George · Bonar Law · Baldwin · MacDonald · Baldwin · MacDonald · Baldwin · Chamberlain · Churchill · Attlee · Churchill · Eden · Macmillan · Douglas-Home · Wilson · Heath · Wilson · Callaghan · Thatcher · Major · Blair · Brown

v • d • e Leaders of the Labour Party Keir Hardie · Arthur Henderson · George Nicoll Barnes · Ramsay MacDonald · Arthur Henderson · William Adamson · J. R. Clynes · Ramsay MacDonald · Arthur Henderson · George Lansbury · Clement Attlee · Hugh Gaitskell · George Brown · Harold Wilson · James Callaghan · Michael Foot · Neil Kinnock · John Smith · Margaret Beckett · Tony Blair · Gordon Brown

v • d • e Foreign Secretaries of the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Fox · Grantham · Fox · Temple · Leeds · Grenville · Hawkesbury · Harrowby · Mulgrave · Fox · Howick · Canning · Bathurst · Wellesley · Castlereagh · Canning · Dudley · Aberdeen · Palmerston · Wellington · Palmerston · Aberdeen · Palmerston · Granville · Malmesbury · Russell · Clarendon · Malmesbury · Russell · Clarendon · Stanley · Clarendon · Granville · Derby · Salisbury · Granville · Salisbury · Rosebery · Iddesleigh · Salisbury · Rosebery · Kimberley · Salisbury · Lansdowne · Grey · Balfour · Curzon · MacDonald · Chamberlain · Henderson · Reading · Simon · Hoare · Eden · Halifax · Eden · Bevin · Morrison · Eden · Macmillan · Lloyd · Home · Butler · Gordon Walker · Stewart · Brown · Stewart Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Stewart · Douglas-Home · Callaghan · Crosland · Owen · Carrington · Pym · Howe · Major · Hurd · Rifkind · Cook · Straw · Beckett · Miliband