National Government (United Kingdom)
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In the politics of the United Kingdom, a National Government is a coalition of some or all of the major political parties. In a historical sense, it refers primarily to the governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which held office from 1931 until 1940.
Ramsay MacDonald was Prime Minister for the first four years of National Government
Stanley Baldwin was a dominant figure from the outset of National Government. He became Prime Minister when MacDonald retired.
Neville Chamberlain had succeeded Baldwin as Prime Minister in 1937
Winston Churchill succeeded Chamberlain in 1940. He served as prime minister for most of the Second World War.
Ramsay MacDonald
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James Ramsay MacDonald was a British statesman and politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 and again between 1929 and 1931. From 1931 to 1935, he headed a National Government dominated by the Conservative Party and supported by only a few Labour members. MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party as a result.
Portrait by Walter Stoneman, 1923
Bloody Sunday.
Macdonald (third from left) in 1906, with other leading figures in the party
Ramsay MacDonald by Solomon Joseph Solomon, 1911