The Catering Wages Act (1943), another initiative by Bevin, established a Catering Wages Commission to oversee wages and working conditions in restaurants and hotels. Inspectors were also appointed to ensure that employers complied with Bevin's insistence on the provision of canteens, welfare officers, and personnel officers in factories. [73] Bevin also did much to improve conditions for those with disabilities, of which little had been done for before the outbreak of the war. In 1941, Bevin introduced an interim retraining scheme, which was followed by the interdepartmental Tomlinson Committee of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement of the Disabled. According to the historian Pat Thane, the Committee served as "a mouthpiece for Bevin's own aspirations," and its proposals for improving the lives of the disabled culminated in the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944. [77] In 1892, Fred Jowett (a member of the Independent Labour Party) became the first socialist to be elected to Bradford City Council. A few months later, Jowett founded a branch of the Independent Labour Party in that city. As a member of Bradford City Council, Jowett was responsible for the passage of several important reforms that were eventually adopted by other local authorities. In 1904, for instance, Bradford became the first local authority in Britain to provide free school meals, while a successful campaign led to the clearing of a slum area and its replacement with new houses. Jowett was also a supporter of reforming the 1834 Poor Law, and attempted to improve the quality of the food given to the children in the Bradford Workhouse after being elected as a Poor Law Guardian. Main articles: Labour Party leadership of Ed Miliband and Shadow Cabinet of Ed Miliband Ed Miliband, leader of the party in opposition (2010–2015) Labour councils not only brought relief to the poorest sections of the community, they provided opportunities for employment and, through the funding of education and library facilities, self-improvement.

This alienated many of the party's more right-wing supporters. The Bennites were in the ascendency and there was very little that the right could do to resist or water down the manifesto, many also hoped that a landslide defeat would discredit Michael Foot and the hard left of the party moving Labour away from explicit Socialism and towards weaker social-democracy. Labour achieved a number of by-election upsets in the later part of the 1930s despite the depression ending and unemployment falling. Nevertheless, they remained a small weak party in Parliament. In the 2010 general election on 6 May that year, Labour with 29.0% of the vote won the second largest number of seats (258). The Conservatives with 36.5% of the vote won the largest number of seats (307), but no party had an overall majority, meaning that Labour could still remain in power if they managed to form a coalition with at least one smaller party. [169] However, the Labour Party would have had to form a coalition with more than one other smaller party to gain an overall majority; anything less would result in a minority government. [170] On 10 May 2010, after talks to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats broke down, Gordon Brown announced his intention to stand down as Leader before the Labour Party Conference but a day later resigned as both Prime Minister and party leader. [171] 2010–present: Return to opposition and internal conflict [ edit ] Mark Drakeford is the current First Minister of Wales, since 13 December 2018

Philip Snowden

Soon after this, another election was called. Labour narrowly lost the October 1951 election to the Conservatives, despite their receiving a larger share of the popular vote and, in fact, their highest vote ever numerically.

Main articles: Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Cabinet of Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the party in opposition (2015–2020)The Second World War also saw significant improvements in the position of trade unions, which were encouraged by Bevin. Trade unions were integrated into joint consultation at all levels of government and industry, with the TUC drawn in to represent labour on the National Joint Advisory Council (1939) and the joint Consultative Committee (1940). A similar status was bestowed upon employers' organisations, which led Middlemass to argue that capital and organised labour had become "governing institutions" within a tripartite industrial relations system "with the state at the fulcrum." The elevation of the status of organised labour to one of parity with capital in Whitehall was effectively summed up by Bevin's biographer as such: Bevin and the other Labour ministers were also able to ensure that, compared with the First World War, there was greater equality of sacrifice within society. Profiteering was effectively controlled, while rent controls and food subsidies helped to keep down wartime inflation. Wartime wages were allowed to increase in line with, and earnings to surpass, the rate of price inflation, while the tax system became more progressive, with taxation becoming heavier on the very rich (this movement towards greater progressivity was maintained under the Attlee government, with the top rate of income tax reaching 98% in 1949). These policies led to a narrowing of wealth inequalities, with the real value of wage incomes increasing by some 18% between 1938 and 1947, while the real value of property income fell by 15% and salaries by some 21% over that same period. [73] In the field of workmen's compensation, Labour succeeded in getting what Labour saw as an unsatisfactory bill withdrawn, and a new Bill introduced "to include single persons and to give improved allowances." The new Workmen's Compensation (Supplementary Allowances) Act, which came into effect in August 1940), provided a supplementary allowance not exceeding 5s a week to all disabled workers, together with a supplementary allowance of 4s a week each for the first and second child, and 3s for each other child younger than 15. For a man with 3 children, the improvement represented 16s a week. For agricultural workers, a bill increasing the maximum unemployment benefit for agricultural workers by 3s a week was amended by Ernest Bevin, with a more generous increase of 6s a week introduced. [70] Labour has had several spells in government, first as minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929–1931. MacDonald and half his cabinet split with the mainstream of the party and were denounced as traitors. Labour was a junior partner in the wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945. After the famous 1945 general election landslide under Clement Attlee (1945–1951) it set up the welfare state with the National Health Service, nationalised a fifth of the economy, joined NATO and opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Under Harold Wilson in 1964–1970 it promoted economic modernisation. Labour was in government again in 1974–1979 under Wilson and then James Callaghan. Escalating economic crises (the " Winter of Discontent") and a split with David Owen and others forming the Social Democratic Party, resulted in opposition status during the Thatcher years from 1979 to 1990. [ citation needed]

More money was allocated towards public health and welfare services by Morrison's administration. Somerville Hastings had a great influence over health policy in London and was for many years Chairman of the Public Health Committee, which was dominated by members of the Socialist Medical Association. [44] Hospitals were modernised and re-equipped, and more staff were employed, with improved conditions and pay. Patients also benefited from the installation of wirelesses, improved diets, and the ending of patient contributions for the residential treatment of tuberculosis. Mental patients were allowed a fortnight long holiday by the sea, and visitors to hospital inmates could have their fares paid. Services for the blind were also improved, and midwifery services were extended. [60] In addition, LCC ambulances were made free for maternity cases. [61]Labour's influence in the passage of the Liberal welfare reforms was the result of an informal Labour-Liberal alliance that was established in the run up to the general election of 1906. The Labour and Liberal parties reached agreement to accommodate each other's candidates. The Liberals, who were eager to cut deadweight electoral losses to the Conservatives, arrived at a list of 30 constituencies in which they would "stand down", thereby giving the LRC free run against Conservatives in exchange for some sway over LRC campaign planks. Winning 25 out of the 30 seats in question, Labour helped H. H. Asquith's government pass Britain's first national pension law in 1908 and, after extended collaboration in the election of 1910, the National Insurance Act 1911 providing National Insurance for both health and unemployment. [19] Labour was also successful in amending the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906 by the time of its implementation, such as in its level of coverage. [20] Early years and the rise of the Labour Party [ edit ] The 1970s Labour government faced enormous economic problems and a precarious political situation. Faced with a global recession and spiralling inflation. Many of Britain's traditional manufacturing industries were collapsing in the face of foreign competition. Unemployment, and industrial unrest were rising. Meanwhile, the Liberal Party declined rapidly and the party suffered a catastrophic split that allowed the Labour Party to co-opt much of the Liberals' support.