History of the Labour Party (UK)
The British Labour Party grew out of the trade union movement of the late 19th century and surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it stressed national planning, using nationalisation of industry as a tool, in line with Clause IV of the original constitution of the Labour Party which called for the "common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service".
A graph showing the percentage of the popular vote received by major parties in general elections (1832–2005), with the rapid rise of the Labour Party after its founding during the late 19th century being clear as it became one of the two major forces in politics
Keir Hardie, one of the Labour Party's founders and its first leader
Labour Party plaque from Caroone House, 14 Farringdon Street
Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister, 1924, 1929–35 (National from 1931 to 1935)
Clause IV is part of the Labour Party Rule Book, which sets out the aims and values of the British Labour Party. The original clause, adopted in 1918, called for common ownership of industry, and proved controversial in later years; Hugh Gaitskell attempted to remove the clause following Labour's loss in the 1959 general election.
Sidney Webb, a socialist economist and early member of the Fabian Society who drafted the original Clause IV in 1917
Tony Blair, Labour leader 1994–2007 and Prime Minister 1997–2007
