Editing Politics of the United Kingdom (section)

===Labour===
{{Main|Labour Party (UK)}}
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The Labour Party won the largest number of seats in the House of Commons at the 2024 general election, with 411 seats overall. The Party won the second-largest number of seats at the 2019 general election, with 202 seats, 60 seats less than 2017.

The history of the Labour Party goes back to 1900, when a [[Labour Representation Committee (1900)|Labour Representation Committee]] was established and changed its name to "The Labour Party" in 1906. After 1918, this led to the demise of the Liberal Party as the main reformist force in British politics. The existence of the Labour Party on the left-wing of British politics led to a slow waning of energy from the Liberal Party, which has consequently assumed third place in national politics. After performing poorly at the general elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal Party was superseded by the Labour Party as being the party of the left.

Following two brief spells in minority governments in 1924 and 1929–1931, the party was part of the [[Churchill war ministry]] during [[World War II]]. When the war ended the Labour Party won a landslide victory at the 1945 "[[1945 United Kingdom general election|khaki election]]"; winning a majority for the first time ever. Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, Labour governments alternated with Conservative governments. The Labour Party suffered the "wilderness years" of 1951–1964 (three consecutive general election defeats) and 1979–1997 (four consecutive general election defeats). During this second period, [[Margaret Thatcher]], who became Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, made a fundamental change to Conservative policies, turning the Conservative Party into an [[economically liberal]] party. At the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]], she defeated [[James Callaghan]]'s Labour government following the [[Winter of Discontent]]. For all of the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Conservative governments under Thatcher and her successor [[John Major]] pursued policies of [[privatisation]], anti-[[trade-union]]ism, and, for a time, [[monetarism]], now known collectively as [[Thatcherism]].

The Labour Party elected left-winger [[Michael Foot]] as their leader in 1980, and he responded to dissatisfaction within the Labour Party by pursuing a number of radical policies developed by its grassroots members. In 1981, several centrist and right-leaning Labour MPs formed a breakaway group called the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP), a move which split Labour and is widely believed to have made the Labour Party unelectable for a decade. The SDP formed an alliance with the Liberal Party which contested the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983]] and [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987]] general elections as a pro-European, centrist alternative to Labour and the Conservatives. Following some initial success, the SDP did not prosper (partly due to its unfavourable distribution of votes by the First-Past-the-Post electoral system), and was accused by some of splitting the Labour vote.
The SDP eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988.

The Labour Party was defeated in a landslide at the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]], and [[Michael Foot]] was replaced shortly thereafter by [[Neil Kinnock]] as party leader. Kinnock progressively expelled members of [[Militant tendency|Militant]], a [[left-wing]] group which practised [[entryism]], and moderated many of the party's policies. Despite these changes, as well as electoral gains and also due to Kinnock's negative media image, Labour was defeated at the 1987 and [[1992 United Kingdom general election|1992]] 
general elections, and he was succeeded by [[Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[John Smith (Labour Party leader)|John Smith]]. [[Shadow Home Secretary]] [[Tony Blair]] became Leader of the Labour Party following Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. He continued to move the Labour Party towards the "centre" by loosening links with the [[trade union|union]]s and continuing many of Thatcher's neoliberal policies. This, coupled with the professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide at the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]], after eighteen consecutive years of Conservative rule. Some observers say the Labour Party had by then morphed from a [[democratic socialist]] party to a [[social democratic]] party, a process which delivered three general election victories but alienated some of its core base; leading to the formation of the [[Socialist Labour Party (UK)|Socialist Labour Party]].{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} A subset of Labour MPs stand as joint [[Labour and Co-operative]] candidates due to a long-standing [[electoral alliance]] between the Labour Party and the [[Co-operative Party]] – the political arm of the [[British co-operative movement]]. At the [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019 general election]], 26 were elected.<ref>{{cite web|title=General Election results|url=https://party.coop/people/mps/|publisher=The Co-operative Party}}</ref>

Following [[Tony Blair]]'s election as leader of Labour, the part was reformed under the "[[New Labour]]" branding and won the 1997 election with an overall landslide victory. Under "New Labour", the [[Human Rights Act 1998|Human Rights Act]] and [[National Minimum Wage Act]] were passed in 1998.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/legal-rights/human-rights-act-1998/overview/|title=Human Rights Act 1988 – overview – Mind}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn06111/|title=Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 – House of Commons Library}}</ref>