Lessons for Keir Starmer from Britain’s first Labour government

ITSEEMS all but certain that the Labour Party will win the British , expected later this year. Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are lagging in the polls, consumed by . All this makes for a propitious moment to assess the first-ever Labour government, which took office in January 1924. The leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, himself christened after Labour’s first leader, Keir Hardie, could learn from the story.In “The Wild Men”, David Torrance, a journalist, recounts how Labour rocked the political establishment when it came to power. The minority Labour government, led by Ramsay MacDonald (pictured), lasted only nine months, during which it managed to make some progress with reforms in areas ranging from welfare to education and health. But its principal achievement was simply to demonstrate that, contrary to loud claims by Tories, Labour was fit to govern. In doing this, MacDonald paved the way for the collapse of the Liberal Party in the election of October 1924, creating the two-party system that has largely prevailed ever since.