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Second MacDonald ministry

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This article is about the second ministry led by Ramsay MacDonald. For other uses, see Macdonald ministry.

Second MacDonald ministry
1929–1931
Date formed5 June 1929 (1929-06-05)
Date dissolved24 August 1931 (1931-08-24)
People and organisations
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Prime Minister's history1929–1935
Deputy Prime Minister[note 1]
Total no. of members86 appointments
Member partyLabour Party
Status in legislature
287 / 615 (47%)
Opposition partyConservative Party
Opposition leaders
History
Election1929 general election
Legislature terms35th UK Parliament
PredecessorSecond Baldwin ministry
SuccessorFirst National Government

The second MacDonald ministry was formed by Ramsay MacDonald on his reappointment as prime minister of the United Kingdom by King George V on 5 June 1929. It was the second time the Labour Party had formed a government; the first MacDonald ministry held office in 1924.

Background

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The government formed lacked a parliamentary majority, its total of 288 seats (arising from 8,300,000 votes) compared to the Conservatives' 255 seats with 8,560,000 votes. Most remaining seats were those of 58 Liberal MPs. The disparity in seats versus votes cast was created by the outcome on boundaries at the time under the first past the post electoral system and the lack of a boundary change since the Representation of the People Act 1918. MacDonald thus had a minority government that needed the support of Lloyd George's MPs to pass legislation. His ministers rapidly faced the problems stemming from the impact of the Great Depression, having to reconcile budgetary considerations with the demands of trade unions. In particular, unemployed workers' organisations carried on regular and massive protest actions, including a series of hunger marches.[citation needed]

Policy

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The government faced practical enforcement difficulties with its legislation, such as the Coal Mines Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 34), which provided for a 71⁄2-hour daily shift in mines. Owners were guaranteed minimum coal prices through compulsory production quotas among collieries, thus doing away with cut-throat competition. This solution was introduced to prevent a fall in miners' wages.[1] The act introduced a philanthropic cartel replacing the coal merchants' oligopoly to allocate production quotas by control of a central council, while a Mines Reorganisation Commission was established to encourage efficiency through amalgamations. Many mine owners variously offended these provisions due to Labour's lack of enforcement powers.[2]

The Land Utilisation Bill of 1931 would have given ministers sweeping powers to purchase land nationwide (to be run by local authorities and other such bodies). It was mauled by the House of Lords and had no backing from the Treasury so reduced to limited powers to improve agricultural productivity and provide and subsidise smallholdings to the unemployed and agricultural workers, as the Agricultural Land (Utilisation) Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. 41).[3] Other legislation introduced include the Agricultural Marketing Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. 42) (which established a board to fix prices for produce),[1] Greenwood's Housing Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 39) (which provided subsidies for slum clearance[4]) and the London Transport Bill 1931 — this was passed by a subsequent Conservative government as the London Passenger Transport Act 1933 (23 & 24 Geo. 5. c. 14). The Housing Act 1930 resulted in the demolition of 245,000 slums by 1939,[5] and the construction of 700,000 new homes.[6] The Housing Act 1930 also allowed local authorities to set up differential rent schemes, with rents related to the incomes of the tenants concerned.[7]

Immediate measures carried out by the government upon taking office included the Unemployment Insurance Act 1929 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 3), which made temporary amendment of the Unemployment Insurance Acts, increasing the state contribution to the fund, the Development (Loan Guarantees and Grants) Act 1929 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 7) authorising grants up to £25 million and a further £25 million in guarantees for public works schemes designed to reduce unemployment, the parallel Colonial Development Act 1929 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 5) authorising grants up to £1 million a year for schemes in the colonies, a measure continuing at the existing levels the subsidies under the Housing Acts, which the Conservatives had threatened to reduce, and a removal of the appointed Guardians whom the Conservatives had put in office in place of the elected Boards in Bedwellty, Chester-le-Street, and Westham.[8] Changes were also made to the taxation system that resulted in the poor paying less tax and the rich paying more.[9]

Expenditure on the insurance fund was raised as a means of ensuring that unemployed persons would not be reduced so quickly to poor relief.[10] The Unemployment Insurance Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 16) increased insurance benefits for certain classes of unemployed who had been on a very low scale, and included a provision that (except in trade disputes) claims for benefits could no longer be disallowed except on the authority of a Court of Referees. Altogether, an estimated 170,000 people were brought into benefit by the combined exchanges in the act. A scheme for training unemployed workers who had little chance of being reabsorbed into their previous occupations was extended, while arrangements were made whereby youths who were helping to support their families out of unemployment pay could live at either the training centres (or lodgings in the vicinity) and have a special remittance of 9 shillings a week made to their homes. In addition, the provision of instruction for unemployed boys and girls between the ages of 14 and 18 was extended.[3]

The Widows', Orphans' and Old Age Contributory Pensions Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 70) was amended to cover some hundreds of thousands of additional pensioners, under improved conditions,[8] with the inclusion of widows between the ages of 55 and 70.[4] The Unemployment Insurance Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 16) re-drafted the terms of benefit, so as to remove the major part of the grievance relating to the disqualification of persons alleged to be "not genuinely seeking work", which led to greater numbers of people acquiring unemployment assistance.[11] Other measures carried out in 1929–30 included the Road Traffic Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 43) (which introduced third-party insurance to compensate for property damage and personal injury, made better provisions for road safety,[12] provided greater freedom to municipalities to run omnibus services, the principle of the Fair Wage Clause was applied to all employees on road passenger services, and placed a statutory limit on the working hours of drivers[3]), the Land Drainage Act[which?][clarification needed] (which provided some degree of progress in river management[13]), the Public Works Facilities Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 50) (conferring easier borrowing powers), the Workmen's Compensation (Silicosis and Asbestosis) Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 29) (which established disability compensation for asbestos[14]) and the Mental Treatment Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 23).

The 1930 Labour budget provided for largely increased expenditure, contained measures to prevent tax evasion, raised the standard rate of income tax as well as the surtax while making concessions to the smaller taxpayer.[8] A town and country planning act[which?][clarification needed] gave local authorities more power to control local and regional planning,[4] while the Housing (Rural Authorities) Act 1931 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. 39) provided a sum of £2 million to help the poorer rural districts which were willing but unable to fulfil their housing responsibilities. In addition, an act[which?] passed by the previous Conservative government providing assistance towards the improvement of privately owned cottages for land workers was extended for another five years.[3] To protect farm workers from exploitation, additional inspectors were appointed in 1929 to investigate "cases of refusal to pay minimum wages," and as a result of the work carried out by these investigators, wage arrears were recovered for 307 workers with the space of a few months. In addition, levels of support for war veterans and family members were expanded.[15]

In education, various measures were introduced to promote equality and opportunity. More generous standards of school-planning were secured, while special attention was given to the provision of adequate accommodation for practical work. The number of "black-listed" schools was reduced from about 2,000 to about 1,500. From 1929 to 1931, the number of certified teachers in service was increased by about 3,000, while the number of classes with more than 50 children was reduced by about 2,000. Capital expenditure on elementary school building approved by the Board of Education during 1930–1931 stood at over £9 million, more than double the amount approved during 1928–29, the Conservative government's last year in office.[3] In addition, an annual grant to the universities was increased by £250,000.[15] Various military reforms were carried out, with the raising of the minimum age of enrolment into Officers' Training Corps from 13 to 15, the abolition of the death penalty for certain offences, and the modification of the disciplinary code "in the direction of clemency."[16]

A circular was issued that urged the need for an expansion of provisions for the health and welfare of children under the compulsory school age by the development of nursery schools and other services, and by April 1931, the amount of accommodation available in nursery schools was doubled. The number of staff in the school medical services was increased, while about 3,000 new places were provided in day and residential special schools for crippled or blind children and in open-air schools for delicate children. There was also a large increase in the number of meals supplied to school children, while support given by the government to the National Milk Publicity Council's scheme for supplying milk to children resulted in 600,000 children benefiting daily from this service. Technical education was developed and arrangements were made for co-operation between technical colleges and industry, while new regulations facilitated an expansion of adult education.[3] In addition, the government increased the number of free places that local education authorities could offer to 50%.[17]

To improve safety standards at sea, an international conference was convened by the Labour President of the Board of Trade, which led to 27 governments signing a convention establishing for the first time uniform safety rules for all the cargo ships throughout the world. Conditions for soldiers were improved, while the death penalty for certain offences was abolished. A seven-year limit in connection with war pensions was also removed, while a programme for afforestation was increased.[3]

The Unemployment Insurance Act 1929 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 3) scrapped the "genuinely seeking work" clause in unemployment benefit (which was originally abolished by the first Labour government in 1924, and reintroduced by the Conservatives in 1928), increased dependants' allowances, extended provision for the long-term unemployed, relaxed eligibility conditions, and introduced an individual means test.[2] As a result of the changes made by the government to unemployment provision, the number of people on transitional benefits (payments given to those who had either exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits or did not qualify for them)[18] rose from 120,000 in 1929 to more than 500,000 in 1931.[19]

The National Health Insurance (Prolongation of Insurance) Act 1930 (21 & 22 Geo. 5. c. 5) extended provision of health insurance to unemployed males whose entitlement had run out, while the Poor Prisoners' Defence Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 32) introduced criminal legal aid for appearances in magistrates' courts. The Housing (Scotland) Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 40) and the Housing Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 39) provided local authorities with additional central government subsidies to construct new homes for people who had been moved out of slum clearance areas.[2] The Housing Act 1930 provided for rehousing in advance of demolition, and also for the charging of low rents. The act also made state aid available for the first time for building attractive little houses for older people without families. An obligation was put onto county councils to contribute towards houses built for farm workers, while provisions in the act for improving bad housing and clearing slums were applied to the country districts as well as to urban areas.[3]

A number of measures were also introduced to improve standards of health and safety in the workplace. As a means of improving industrial hygiene, regulations were introduced on 1 June 1931 that prescribed measures of hygiene for establishments engaged in electrolytic chromium plating, while regulations introduced on 28 April 1931 dealt with conditions in the refractory materials industries. On 24 February 1931, special regulations were issued by the Home Office for the prevention of accidents in the shipbuilding industry.[20] The Hairdressers' and Barbers' Shops (Sunday Closing) Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 35) (which came into force in January 1931) provided for the compulsory closing of hairdressers and barbers shops on Sundays and with certain exceptions provided that "no person may carry on the work of a hairdresser on Sunday." An order of February 1930 prescribed protective measures for cement workers, while an order of May 1930 contained provisions concerning the protection of workers in tanneries.[21]

The Local Government Act 1929[dubious – discuss] (19 & 20 Geo. 5. c. 17) abolished the workhouse test[22] and replaced the Poor Law with public bodies known as public assistance committees for the relief of the poor and destitute, while Poor Law hospitals came under the control of local authorities.[23] The Poor Law Act 1930 (20 & 21 Geo. 5. c. 17) also encouraged local authorities (in the words of one study) "to work with a local voluntary group to find suitable employment for deaf people."[24] The lid was kept on the (then) ever present risk of a naval arms race, while the system of naval officer recruitment was reformed to make it less difficult for working-class sailors to secure promotion from the ranks.[25] George Lansbury, the First Commissioner of Works, sponsored a "Brighter Britain" campaign and introduced a number of facilities in London parks such as mixed bathing, boating ponds,[26] and swings and sandpits for children.[27]

A number of other initiatives were undertaken by the Office of Works during Labour's time in office, including extensions in the amenities of the parks and palaces under its charge, and the spending of thousands of pounds on various improvements for the preservation of memorials across the country, as characterised by the restoration of a castle at Porchester near Portsmouth.[16]

In Scotland, various welfare initiatives were carried out by the Scottish Office. Medical services in the Highlands and Islands were extended and stabilised, while limits imposed by a previous Conservative administration on the scale of Poor Law relief were scrapped, along with a system of offering the Poor House "as test for able-bodied men who have been out of work for a long period."[15]

The Second Labour Government's achievements in social policy were, however, overshadowed by the government's failure to tackle the effects of the Great Depression, which left mass unemployment in its wake. Spending on public works was accelerated, although this proved to be inadequate in dealing with the problem. By January 1930, 1.5 million people were out of work, a number which reached almost 2 million by June, and by December it topped 2.5 million.[28] The Lord Privy Seal J. H. Thomas, who was put in charge of the problem of unemployment, was unable to offer a solution,[29] while Margaret Bondfield also failed to come up with an imaginative response.[30] Other members of the cabinet, however, put forward their own proposals for dealing with the Depression.

George Lansbury proposed land reclamation in Great Britain, a colonising scheme in Western Australia, and pensions for people at the age of sixty, while Tom Johnston pushed for national relief schemes such as the construction of a road round Loch Lomond (Johnston was successful in getting a coach road from Aberfoyle to the Trossachs rebuilt). These and similar schemes, however, failed in the Unemployment Committee (a group composed of Thomas and his assistants Johnston, Lansbury, and Oswald Mosley to develop a solution to the unemployment problem), where the four ministers received negative responses to their proposals from the top civil servants from the various government departments.[31]

The one minister whose proposals may have helped Britain to recover quickly from the worst effects of the Great Depression was Oswald Mosley, a former member of the Conservative Party. Frustrated by the government's economic orthodoxy (a controversial policy upheld by the fiscally conservative Chancellor, Philip Snowden), Mosley submitted an ambitious set of proposals for dealing with the crisis to the Labour Cabinet in what became known as "Mosley's Memorandum". These included much greater use of credit to finance development through the public control of banking, rationalisation of industry under public ownership, British agricultural development, import restrictions and bulk purchase agreements with foreign (particularly Imperial) producers, protection of the home market by tariffs, and higher pensions and allowances to encourage earlier retirement from industry and to increase purchasing power.[31] Although MacDonald was sympathetic to some of Mosley's proposals, they were rejected by Snowden and other members of the Cabinet, which led Mosley to resign in frustration in May 1930. The government continued to adhere to an orthodox economic course,[28] as characterised by the controversial decision of the Minister of Labour Margaret Bondfield to push through Parliament an Anomalies Act,[clarification needed] aimed at stamping out apparent "abuses" of the unemployment insurance system. This legislation limited the rights of short-time, casual and seasonal workers and of married women to claim unemployment benefit, which further damaged the reputation of the government amongst Labour supporters.[32] Bondfield was caught between the financial orthodoxy of Snowden, the critics of cuts on Labour's backbenches and the baying for even more cuts on the Opposition benches, and in the end she ended up satisfying none of them.[33]

Fate

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In the summer of 1931, the government was gripped by a political and financial crisis as the value of the pound and its place on the Gold Standard came under threat over fears that the budget was unbalanced. A run on gold began when a report by the May Committee estimated that there would be a deficit of £120 million by April 1932, and recommended reductions in government expenditure and higher taxes to prevent this.[29]

MacDonald's cabinet met repeatedly to work out the necessary cutbacks and tax rises, while at the same time seeking loans from overseas. It later became clear that the bankers in New York would only provide loans if the government carried out significant austerity measures, such as a 10% reduction in the dole. During August 1931, the Cabinet struggled to produce budget amendments that were politically acceptable but proved unable to do so without causing mass resignations and a full-scale split in the party. The particular issue on which the split occurred was the vote of the cabinet after much discussion to reduce benefit paid to unemployed people under the National Assistance scheme. The Cabinet was unable to reach an agreement on this controversial issue, with nine members opposing the reduction in the dole and eleven supporting it, and on 24 August 1931 the government formally resigned.[29]

The Second Labour Government was succeeded by the First National Ministry, also headed by Ramsay MacDonald and made up of members of Labour, the Conservatives and Liberals, calling itself a National Government. Viewed by many Labour supporters as a traitor, Macdonald was subsequently expelled from the Labour Party, and remained a hated figure within the Labour Party for many years thereafter, despite his great services to his party earlier in his life.[29]

The circumstances surrounding the downfall of the Second Labour Government, together with its replacement by the National Government and its failure to develop a coherent economic strategy for dealing with the effects of the Great Depression, remained controversial amongst historians for many years.

Cabinet

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June 1929 – August 1931

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Changes

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List of ministers

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Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.

Office Name Date
Prime Minister
First Lord of the Treasury
Leader of the House of Commons 		Ramsay MacDonald 5 June 1929 –
 24 August 1931
Lord Chancellor The Lord Sankey 7 June 1929
Lord President of the Council
Leader of the House of Lords 		The Lord Parmoor 7 June 1929 –
 24 August 1931
Lord Privy Seal James Henry Thomas 7 June 1929
Vernon Hartshorn 5 June 1930
Thomas Johnston 24 March 1931
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden[a] 7 June 1929 –
 5 November 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Tom Kennedy 14 June 1929
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Frederick Pethick-Lawrence 11 June 1929
Lords of the Treasury Charles Edwards 11 June 1929 –
 13 March 1931
John Parkinson 11 June 1929 –
 1 March 1931
Alfred Barnes 11 June 1929 –
 23 October 1930
William Whiteley 27 June 1929 –
 24 August 1931
Wilfred Paling 27 June 1929 –
 24 August 1931
Ernest Thurtle 23 October 1930 –
 24 August 1931
Henry Charleton 13 March 1931 –
 23 August 1931
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Arthur Henderson 7 June 1929 –
 24 August 1931
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Hugh Dalton 11 June 1929
Secretary of State for the Home Department John Robert Clynes 7 June 1929
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department Alfred Short 11 June 1929
First Lord of the Admiralty A. V. Alexander 7 June 1929
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty Charles Ammon 11 June 1929
Civil Lord of the Admiralty George Hall 11 June 1929
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Noel Buxton 7 June 1929
Christopher Addison 5 June 1930
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Christopher Addison 11 June 1929
The Earl De La Warr 5 June 1930
Secretary of State for Air The Lord Thomson 7 June 1929
The Lord Amulree 14 October 1930
Under-Secretary of State for Air Frederick Montague 11 June 1929
Secretary of State for the Colonies The Lord Passfield 7 June 1929
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies William Lunn 11 June 1929
Drummond Shiels 1 December 1929
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs The Lord Passfield 7 June 1929
James Henry Thomas 5 June 1930
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Arthur Ponsonby 11 June 1929
William Lunn 1 December 1929
President of the Board of Education Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan 7 June 1929
Hastings Lees-Smith 2 March 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education Morgan Jones 11 June 1929
Minister of Health Arthur Greenwood 7 June 1929
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health Susan Lawrence 11 June 1929
Secretary of State for India William Wedgwood Benn 7 June 1929
Under-Secretary of State for India Drummond Shiels 11 June 1929
The Earl Russell 1 December 1929
The Lord Snell 13 March 1931
Minister of Labour Margaret Bondfield 7 June 1929
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour Jack Lawson 11 June 1929
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Sir Oswald Mosley 7 June 1929
Clement Attlee 23 May 1930
The Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede 13 March 1931
Paymaster General The Lord Arnold 7 June 1929
vacant 6 March 1931
Minister of Pensions Frederick Roberts 7 June 1929
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions vacant
Postmaster General Hastings Lees-Smith 7 June 1929
Clement Attlee 2 March 1931
Assistant Postmaster General Samuel Viant 7 July 1929
Secretary of State for Scotland William Adamson 7 June 1929
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Thomas Johnston 7 June 1929
Joseph Westwood 25 March 1931
President of the Board of Trade William Graham 7 June 1929
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade Walter Robert Smith 11 June 1929
Secretary for Overseas Trade George Gillett 7 July 1929
Secretary for Mines Ben Turner 1 June 1929
Emanuel Shinwell 5 June 1930
Minister of Transport Herbert Morrison[b] 7 June 1929
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport The Earl Russell 11 June 1929
Arthur Ponsonby[c] 1 December 1929
John Parkinson 1 March 1931
Secretary of State for War Thomas Shaw 7 June 1929
Under-Secretary of State for War The Earl De La Warr 11 June 1929
The Lord Marley 5 June 1930
Financial Secretary to the War Office Emanuel Shinwell 11 June 1929
William Sanders 5 June 1930
First Commissioner of Works George Lansbury 7 June 1929
Attorney General Sir William Jowitt 7 June 1929
Solicitor General Sir James Melville 7 June 1929
Sir Stafford Cripps 22 October 1930
Lord Advocate Craigie Aitchison 17 June 1929
Solicitor General for Scotland John Charles Watson 17 June 1929
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household John Henry Hayes 24 June 1929
Treasurer of the Household Ben Smith 24 June 1929
Comptroller of the Household Thomas Henderson 24 June 1929
Lords in Waiting The Earl De La Warr 18 July 1929 –
 24 August 1931
The Lord Muir Mackenzie 18 July 1929 –
 22 May 1930
Notes
  1. ^ Retained post during Macdonald's National Government.
  2. ^ Entered the Cabinet 19 March 1931.
  3. ^ Created Baron Ponsonby of Shulbrede on 17 January 1930.

Notes

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  1. ^ J. R. Clynes never acquired the title of Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He did however serve as deputy leader of the Labour Party.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Hodge, B.; Mellor, W. L. Higher School Certificate History.
  2. ^ a b c Harmer, Harry. The Longman Companion to The Labour Party 1900–1998.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h The Record of the Second Labour Government. The Labour Party. October 1935.
  4. ^ a b c Tanner, Duncan; Thane, Pat; Tiratsoo, Nick. Labour's First Century.
  5. ^ "Changing Britain (1760–1900)". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  6. ^ "Council housing". UK Parliament. Retrieved 5 September 2019.
  7. ^ Scott, Peter. The Making of the Modern British Home: The Suburban Semi and Family Life between the Wars.
  8. ^ a b c Cole, G. D. H. A History of the Labour Party from 1914.
  9. ^ "Philip Snowden: Biography". Archived from the original on 10 October 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
  10. ^ Derry, T. K.; Jarman, T. L. Modern Britain: Life and Work through Two Centuries of Change.
  11. ^ Hopkins, Eric. Industrialisation and society: a social history, 1830–1951.
  12. ^ Ellacott, S. E. Wheels on the Road.
  13. ^ Hassan, John. A history of water in modern England and Wales.
  14. ^ Castleman, Barry I.; Berger, Stephen L. (2005). Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects. Aspen Publishers. ISBN 9780735552609.
  15. ^ a b c What the Labour Government Has Done. The Labour Party. 1932 – via Florida Atlantic University Digital Library.
  16. ^ a b Two Years of Labour Rule. The Labour Party. 1931 – via Florida Atlantic University Digital Library.
  17. ^ Townsend, Peter; Bosanquet, Nicholas (eds.). Labour and inequality: sixteen Fabian essays.
  18. ^ The welfare state: an economic and social history of Great Britain from 1945 to the present day by Pauline Gregg
  19. ^ The Coming of the Welfare State by Maurice Bruce
  20. ^ The ILO Yearbook 1931 (PDF). International Labour Office.
  21. ^ Annual Review 1930 (PDF). International Labour Office.
  22. ^ Fraser, Derek. The Evolution of the British Welfare State.
  23. ^ Wrigley, Chris. A companion to early twentieth-century Britain.
  24. ^ Hampton, Jameel. Disability and the welfare state in Britain. Changes in perception and policy 1948–79.
  25. ^ Serving the People: Co-operative Party History from Fred Perry to Gordon Brown.
  26. ^ Jones, Stephen G. Sport, Politics and the Working Class: Organized Labour and Sport in Inter-war Britain.
  27. ^ Mercer, Derrik (ed.). Chronicle of the Second World War.
  28. ^ a b Wright, Tony; Carter, Matt. The People's Party: the History of the Labour Party.
  29. ^ a b c d Hopkins, Eric. A Social History of the English Working Classes 1815–1945.
  30. ^ Vaizey, John. Social Democracy.
  31. ^ a b Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain between the wars: 1918–1940.
  32. ^ Worley, Matthew. Labour Inside the Gate: A History of the British Labour Party between the Wars.
  33. ^ Judge, Tony (2018). Margaret Bondfield: First Woman in the Cabinet.

Further reading

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  • Butler, David. Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000
  • Carlton, David. MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government (2014).
  • Heppell, Timothy, and Kevin Theakston, eds. How Labour Governments Fall: From Ramsay Macdonald to Gordon Brown (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
  • Howell, David MacDonald's Party. Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1931, Oxford: OUP 2002; ISBN 0-19-820304-7
  • Marquand, David Ramsay MacDonald, (London: Jonathan Cape 1977); ISBN 0-224-01295-9; the standard scholarly biography; favourable
  • Marquand, David. "MacDonald, (James) Ramsay (1866–1937)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2009 accessed 9 Sept 2012; doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/34704
  • Morgan, Austen: J. Ramsay MacDonald, 1987; ISBN 0-7190-2168-5
  • Morgan, Kevin. Ramsay Macdonald (2006)excerpt and text search
  • Mowat, C. L. "Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour Party," in Essays in Labour History 1886–1923, edited by Asa Briggs, and john Saville, (1971)
  • Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940 (1955). online
  • Owen, Nicholas. "MacDonald's Parties: The Labour Party and the 'Aristocratic Embrace' 1922–31," Twentieth Century British History (2007) 18#1 pp 1–53.
  • Riddell, Neil. Labour in Crisis: The Second Labour Government, 1929–31 (1999).
  • Rosen, Greg (ed.) Dictionary of Labour Biography, London: Politicos Publishing 2001; ISBN 978-1-902301-18-1
  • Shepherd, John. The Second Labour Government: A reappraisal (2012).
  • Skidelsky, Robert. Politicians and the Slump: The Labour Government of 1929–1931 (1967).
  • Taylor, A.J.P. English History: 1914–1945 (1965)
  • Williamson, Philip : National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926–1932, Cambridge: CUP 1992; ISBN 0-521-36137-0
  • Wrigley, Chris. "James Ramsay MacDonald 1922–1931," in Leading Labour: From Keir Hardie to Tony Blair, edited by Kevin Jefferys, (1999)

Primary sources

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  • Barker, Bernard (ed.) Ramsay MacDonald's Political Writings, Allen Lane, London 1972
  • Cox, Jane A Singular Marriage: A Labour Love Story in Letters and Diaries (of Ramsay and Margaret MacDonald), London: Harrap 1988; ISBN 978-0-245-54676-1
  • MacDonald, Ramsay The Socialist Movement (1911) online
  • MacDonald, Ramsay Labour and Peace, Labour Party 1912
  • MacDonald, Ramsay Parliament and Revolution, Labour Party 1919
  • MacDonald, Ramsay Foreign Policy of the Labour Party, Labour Party 1923
  • MacDonald, Ramsay Margaret Ethel MacDonald, 1924
Preceded by Government of the United Kingdom
1929–1931 		Succeeded by
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