Editing Sidney Webb, 1st Baron Passfield (section)

==Political career==
[[File:Beatrice and Sidney Webb, 1932.jpg|250px|thumb|left|Sidney Webb and [[Beatrice Webb]]]]
Webb and Potter were members of the Labour Party and took an active role in politics. Sidney became Member of Parliament for [[Seaham (UK Parliament constituency)|Seaham]] at the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922 general election]].<ref>The History of the Fabian Society, Edward R. Pease, Frank Cass and Co. LTD, 1963</ref> The couple's influence can be seen in their hosting of the [[The Coefficients|Coefficients]], a dining club that drew in some leading statesmen and thinkers of the day. In 1929, he was created '''Baron Passfield''' of Passfield Corner in the County of Southampton.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=33509 |date=25 June 1929 |page=4189}}</ref> He served as [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]] and as [[Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs]] in [[Ramsay MacDonald]]'s [[second Labour Government]] in 1929.{{cn|date=August 2024}}

As Colonial Secretary he issued the [[Passfield White Paper]] that revised the government policy on [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]], previously set by the [[Churchill White Paper]] of 1922. In 1930, failing health caused him to step down as Dominions Secretary, but he stayed on as Colonial Secretary until the fall of the Labour government in August 1931.{{cn|date=November 2021}}

The Webbs ignored mounting evidence of atrocities being committed by [[Joseph Stalin]] and remained supporters of the [[Soviet Union]] until their deaths. Having reached their seventies and early eighties, their books, ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilisation?'' (1935) and ''The Truth About Soviet Russia'' (1942), still gave a positive assessment of Stalin's regime. The [[Trotskyist]] historian [[Al Richardson (historian)|Al Richardson]] later dubbed ''Soviet Communism: A New Civilization?'' "pure Soviet propaganda at its most mendacious".<ref>Al Richardson, "Introduction" to [[C. L. R. James]], ''World Revolution 1917–1936: The Rise and Fall of the Communist International''. Humanities Press (reprint), 1994; {{ISBN|0-391-03790-0}}</ref>