Editing Ramsay MacDonald (section)

== In Opposition (1924–1929) ==
{{Further|Second Baldwin ministry}}
{{Listen
| filename     = Ramsey MacDonald Speech from Lansbury's Labour Weekly.ogg
| title        = Speech by Ramsay MacDonald published by Lansbury's Labour Weekly
| description  = A speech by Ramsay MacDonald campaigning for the Labour Party whilst in opposition
}}

On 29 October 1924, the [[1924 United Kingdom general election]] was held and the Conservative Party under [[Stanley Baldwin]] was returned decisively, gaining 155 seats for a total of 413 members of parliament.  This was a landslide victory against the Liberals, who lost 118 seats (leaving them with only 40); their vote fell by over a million.

For Labour the result was a defeat not a disaster, holding on to 151 seats and losing 40.  The real significance of the election was that the Liberal Party, which Labour had displaced as the second-largest political party in 1922, was now clearly the third party.  Labour had put up more candidates than in 1923, and its total vote increased, suggesting that the Zinoviev letter had little effect.  But for years many Labourites blamed their defeat on the Letter, through misunderstanding the political forces at work.{{sfn|Taylor|1965|pp=219–220, 226–227}}<ref>{{cite book|author=C. L. Mowat| author-link = C. L. Mowat|title=Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lNgOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA188|year=1955|publisher=Taylor & Francis|pages=188–194}}</ref>