| Biography | James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS (12 October 1866 9 November 1937) was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms.
MacDonald entered Parliament at the 1906 General Election and had become chairman of the Labour MPs by 1914. His opposition to the First World War made him unpopular and he was defeated at the 1918 General Election, returning to Parliament at the 1922 General Election, at which Labour replaced the Liberals as the largest left-wing party in the UK. MacDonald was a powerful if woolly orator and by then had earned great public respect for his opposition to the war. His first government - formed with Liberal support - in 1924 lasted nine months, but was defeated at the 1924 General Election amidst allegations, now thought to have been fabricated, that his government was endorsed by the Soviet Foreign Minister Zinoviev.
Labour returned to power - this time as the largest party - in 1929 but was soon overwhelmed by the crisis of the Great Depression, in which the Labour government was split by demands for public spending cuts to preserve the Gold Standard. In 1931, he formed a National Government in which only two of his Labour colleagues agreed to serve and the majority of whose MPs were from the Conservatives. As a result, MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party, which accused him of "betrayal". The Gold Standard soon had to be abandoned after the Invergordon Mutiny and MacDonald's National Government won a huge "doctor's mandate" at the 1931 General Election, at which the Labour Party was reduced to a rump of around 50 seats in the House of Commons.
MacDonald remained Prime Minister of the National Government from 1931 to 1935; during this time his health rapidly deteriorated and he became increasingly ineffective as a leader. He stood down as Prime Minister in 1935 - losing his seat in the General Election that year and returning for a different constituency - but stayed in the Cabinet as Lord President of the Council until retiring from the government in 1937 and dying, still an MP, later that year. For many years his reputation remained low, particularly amongst Labour supporters, although his record is to some extent defended by modern historians. |