ABSTRACT
In the 1923 election the Labour Party had polled 4,348,379 votes, and in January 1924 the first Labour Government took office under Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister. Looking back at the period from 1919 to 1926, it is possible to trace an increasing feeling of class consciousness within the Labour Party. The movement by 1925 had moved significantly left, and although the Labour Party made four gains at by-elections, the main attention of the political activists in the trade unions was being concentrated on industry, and once again, as in 1921, it was the mining industry in which the fuse was burning! The last day of April 1926 was a long day in the history of the trade union and Labour movement. Changes in the future will be made through the ballot box and this means rallying behind constitutional instrument of political change – the Labour Party.
