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Understanding the Labour Party (UK): A Quiz on History and Ideology

Test your knowledge of the Labour Party (UK) with this quiz covering its history, leadership, and ideological foundations.

#Labour Party #UK Politics #Political History #Political Ideology #Quizzes

1 Harold Wilson's personal popularity remained reasonably high but he unexpectedly resigned as Prime Minister in 1976, citing health reasons and was replaced by ________.

2 In 1899, a ________ member of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, Thomas R.

3 Where are the headquarters of Labour Party (UK)?

4 Who of the following is/was the leader of Labour Party (UK)?

5 A down-turn in the economy along with a series of scandals in the early 1960s (the most notorious being the ________) engulfed the Conservative government by 1963.

6 Where does Labour Party (UK) come from?

7 Michael Foot promptly resigned as leader and was replaced by the moderate ________ who progressively moved the party towards the centre.

8 ________, 1955–1964

9 What ideology does Labour Party (UK) subscribe to?

10 Finance proved a major problem for the Labour Party during this period; a "________" scandal under Tony Blair resulted in the drying up of many major sources of donations.

💡 Interesting Facts

  • British Labour Party Member of Parliament J. H. Hall worked in the trade union movement for over 40 years.
  • British Labour Party politician William Jackson was injured in the Battle of the Somme.
  • in May 1982, the British Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) Michael Welsh was one of 69 MPs who called for an immediate halt to hostilities in the Falklands War.
  • Brigadier Sir Otho Prior-Palmer, a British Conservative Member of Parliament, accused a Labour MP of "never [having] done a damned day's work in his life", and claimed that Labour sent someone to stop Spitfire construction.
  • Sir Patrick Hastings approved the prosecution of the Campbell Case which was instrumental in the fall of the first Labour government.
  • Hector Monro, Conservative and Unionist Party Member of Parliament for Dumfries for 33 years, was described by a Labour Party opponent as "the last of the decent Tories".
  • Leo Abse (born 1917) was a Labour Member of Parliament largely responsible for legalising male homosexual relations in the United Kingdom.
  • in the recent UK election Nick Smith regained Blaenau Gwent for Labour, keeping a promise to the late Michael Foot.
  • in the 1949 England and Wales county council elections for the boroughs outside London the Conservative Party had a 96% gain and the Labour Party an 87% seat loss.
  • the dramatist George Bernard Shaw campaigned for the Labour Party candidate at the St Albans by-election in 1919.
  • the founding of the Independent Labour Party's Guild of Youth in Britain provoked the Labour Party to found a youth wing of its own.
  • the imposition of an all-women shortlist caused the Labour Party to lose one of its safest UK Parliamentary seats in 2005.
  • the British Labour Party politician and trade unionist Richard Kelley opposed allowing coal miners to leave work early if they had finished their day's tasks.
  • the Labour party lost control of Hartlepool council for the first time in 21 years after the 2000 Hartlepool Council election.
  • social reformer Isabella Ford was the first woman to speak at a conference of the Labour Representation Committee (which went on to form the British Labour Party).
  • the 101 female Members of Parliament elected in the United Kingdom in Labour's landslide general election victory in 1997 were popularly known as Blair Babes.
  • Flora Solomon pioneered staff benefits programs at Marks & Spencer that influenced the development of the British National Health Service and Labour's concept of the welfare state.
  • Archibald Church, a veteran of the British intervention in the Russian Civil War and a Labour MP, introduced a eugenics bill to the House of Commons in 1931.
  • Scottish National Party politician Douglas Henderson was instrumental in passing the censure motion that led to the downfall of James Callaghan's Labour government in 1979, but narrowly lost his own seat in the ensuing general election.
  • British Labour Party MP Roland Boyes continued in office after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1995, but his condition had deteriorated so much that, upon his retirement in 1997, he was unaware that his party had gained control after 18 years in opposition.
  • British Labour Party Member of Parliament Martin Flannery was a Communist until the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 was crushed by the Soviet Union, but remained on the far left.
  • Labour's Alfred Dobbs was the shortest-serving post-war British Member of Parliament – just one day, before his death in 1945.
  • Labour Member of Parliament Ellen Wilkinson organised the 1936 Jarrow March of 200 unemployed men and women from Tyneside to London to demand jobs.
  • British Conservative MP Richard Hornby unsuccessfully challenged former Prime Minister and Labour leader Clement Attlee before securing a safe seat.
  • Labour Party politician Hugh Brown was a British negotiator with Iceland during the third Cod War in the 1970s.
  • British Labour Party politician Lena Jeger, Baroness Jeger was the oldest female former member of the British House of Commons at the time of her death.
  • British Labour MP Harry Ewing was joint chairman of the Scottish Constitutional Convention, formed in 1989 to plan for the devolution of Scotland.
  • British Labour politician Reg Freeson spent 23 years as an MP, including 14 years on the front bench, but was deselected in 1985 due to his "sensible left" views and replaced by Ken Livingstone.
  • British politician Jock Stallard was expelled from the Labour Party in the 1950s for flying the red flag from St Pancras town hall, but later served as a Labour MP and life peer.
  • British Labour politician Piara Singh Khabra was the fifth Asian MP, and was the oldest MP sitting in the House of Commons and the only sitting MP to have served in the armed forces during the Second World War at the time of his death.
  • British Labour politician Fiona Jones was disqualified from the House of Commons when she was convicted for submitting fraudulent election expense returns, but was later reinstated.
  • British Labour MP James Lamond was criticised in the 1980s as an apologist for the Soviet Union because he defended the invasion of Afghanistan.
  • British Labour politician Margaret Hodge defeated five challengers in the Parliamentary Barking by-election in 1994, including Conservative Theresa May and UKIP's Gerard Batten.
  • 17-year-old Emily Benn, granddaughter of veteran politician Tony Benn, is the youngest ever Labour Party parliamentary candidate, and would, if elected, become the youngest British MP since the Reform Act 1832.
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