Chairman of The Parliamentary Labour Party
The Chairman of the PLP chairs meetings of the Parliamentary party. He or she is elected by Labour MPs at the start of each annual session of Parliament. By tradition, only elections at the start of each Parliament, following a general election, are competitive.
From 1921 to 1970, the Chairman of the PLP was also the leader of the party as a whole (before 1921, leadership of the party was arguably split between the Chairman of the PLP, the General Secretary and the Party Chairman). When the leaders of the Labour Party joined coalition governments during the First and Second World Wars, an acting chairman was appointed to lead the rump of the party in Opposition. When the Party was in government, a liaison committee was elected to facilitate communications between the cabinet and Labour backbenchers – the chairman of this committee also chaired meetings of the PLP as a whole during these periods. In 1970, the positions of Leader of the Labour Party and Chairman of the PLP were permanently split.
- Keir Hardie (1906–08)
- Arthur Henderson (1908–10)
- George Barnes (1910–11)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1911–14)
- Arthur Henderson (1914–17)
- John Hodge (1915–16) – in Opposition
- George Wardle (1916–17) – in Opposition
- William Adamson (1917–21)
- J. R. Clynes (1921–22)
- Ramsay Macdonald (1922–31)
- Robert Smillie (1924) – Liaison Committee
- Harry Snell (1929–30) – Liaison Committee
- James Barr (1930–31) – Liaison Committee
- Arthur Henderson (1931)
- George Lansbury (1931–35)
- Clement Attlee (1935–55)
- Hastings Lees-Smith (1940–42) – in Opposition
- Frederick Pethick-Lawrence (1942) – in Opposition
- Arthur Greenwood (1942–45) – in Opposition
- Neil Maclean (1945–46) – Liaison Committee
- Maurice Webb (1946–50) – Liaison Committee
- Glenvil Hall (1950–51) – Liaison Committee
- Hugh Gaitskell (1955–63)
- Harold Wilson (1963–70)
- Emanuel Shinwell (1964–67) – Liaison Committee
- Douglas Houghton (1967–70) – Liaison Committee
- Douglas Houghton (1970–74)
- Ian Mikardo (1974)
- Cledwyn Hughes (1974–79)
- Fred Willey (1979–81)
- Jack Dormand (1981–87)
- Stanley Orme (1987–92)
- Doug Hoyle (1992–97)
- Clive Soley (1997–01)
- Jean Corston (2001–05)
- Ann Clwyd (2005–06)
- Tony Lloyd (2006–12)
- David Watts (2012–)
Read more about this topic: Parliamentary Labour Party
Famous quotes containing the words chairman of the, labour party, chairman of, chairman, labour and/or party:
“You know, when these New Negroes have their convention—that is going to be the chairman of the Committee on Unending Agitation. Race, race, race!... Damn, even the N double A C P takes a holiday sometimes!”
—Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965)
“I know that the right kind of leader for the Labour Party is a kind of desiccated calculating machine.”
—Aneurin Bevan (1897–1960)
“You know, when these New Negroes have their convention—that is going to be the chairman of the Committee on Unending Agitation. Race, race, race!... Damn, even the N double A C P takes a holiday sometimes!”
—Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965)
“You know, when these New Negroes have their convention—that is going to be the chairman of the Committee on Unending Agitation. Race, race, race!... Damn, even the N double A C P takes a holiday sometimes!”
—Lorraine Hansberry (1930–1965)
“The habits of our whole species fall into three great classes—useful labour, useless labour, and idleness. Of these the first only is meritorious; and to it all the products of labor rightfully belong; but the two latter, while they exist, are heavy pensioners upon the first, robbing it of a large portion of its just rights. The only remedy for this is to, as far as possible, drive useless labour and idleness out of existence.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“There was an old party of Lyme
Who married three wives at one time.”
—Edward Lear (1812–1888)