11 - The first Labour government

Summary

Stanley Baldwin's decision in October 1923 to go to the country on the issue of trade protection, while designed to heal the split in the Conservative party, also uneasily united the fractious Liberals and put them alongside Labour on the main issue of the campaign. While Socialism may have been debated in the few constituencies where Labour and Liberal candidates fought each other, it was generally tariff reform that took priority. The government's attitude to the French occupation of the Ruhr was also an election issue, and here Labour had the advantage of being able to say ‘we told you so’. Rather than take a provocative stance on foreign policy, Labour promised to pave the way for disarmament by recognising the Soviet Union and revising the Treaty of Versailles in conjunction with Germany. A more pacific Europe would encourage trade and investment and so eventually reduce unemployment, and in the meantime Labour proposed various job-creation schemes and more generous unemployment benefits. It was very much a platform based on the ideas of the pre-war Progressive Alliance – as Kirkwood might have said, ‘a heritage from Liberalism’.

In Newcastle-under-Lyme the cry of free trade certainly had the effect of reuniting the Progressive Alliance, and Wedgwood was nominated by his old Liberal colleagues as well as his more recent Labour ones. His seat was now deemed so safe that he spent most of the campaign speaking elsewhere, and his election expenses only came to £200, compared with £800 the previous year. The result justified his insouciance, as he increased his share of the vote to 65.6 percent and his majority to 6,135. Nationwide the parties’ percentage of the votes barely changed, but the reunion of the Liberals and the chaotic mathematics of a first past the post electoral system led to a very different outcome. The Conservatives’ overall majority was eliminated. Labour remained the second largest party, now with 191 MPs and had, combined with the Liberals, more than half the seats in the Commons.

Wedgwood told his victory rally in Newcastle that the unexpected success might lead to a Labour government, albeit probably a short-lived one.