ABSTRACT
The Great Depression exerted an effect on British politics which is important not only from a national but from a world point of view. In the late spring of 1929, before the Great Depression commenced, a general election was held in Britain. This resulted in the Labour Party forming its second government, and becoming, for the first time, the largest single party in the House of Commons. Ramsay MacDonald, the new Prime Minister, had been in office for only a few months when the Wall Street crash hit the United States. In the 1929 Labour Government, Sir Oswald Mosley became a junior minister. He took a great interest in the unemployment question, making some radical representations to government colleagues on the matter. On 24 August 1931, the Labour Government fell, and a National Government was formed in the first instance as a genuine all-party government. When the Liberal National group was formed just before the election, Walter Runciman joined it.
