Editing George Lansbury (section)

===First campaigns===
On his return to London, Lansbury took a job in Brine's timber business. In his spare time he campaigned against the false prospectuses offered by colonial emigration agents. His speech at an emigration conference at [[King's College London|King's College]] in London in April 1886 impressed delegates; shortly afterwards, the government established an Emigration Information Bureau under the [[Colonial Office]]. This body was required to provide accurate information on the state of labour markets in all the government's overseas possessions.<ref>Shepherd 2002, pp. 16–17</ref>

Having joined the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]] shortly after his return from Australia, Lansbury became first a ward secretary and then general secretary for the [[Bow and Bromley]] Liberal and Radical Association.<ref>Postgate, p. 31</ref> His effective campaigning skills had been noted by leading Liberals, including [[Samuel Montagu]], the Liberal [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|MP]] for [[Whitechapel (UK Parliament constituency)|Whitechapel]], who persuaded the young activist to be his agent in the [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885 general election]].<ref name= S19>Shepherd 2002, pp. 19–20</ref> Lansbury's handling of this election campaign prompted Montagu to urge him to stand for parliament himself.<ref>Lansbury, p. 75</ref> Lansbury declined this, partly on practical grounds (MPs were then unpaid and he had to provide for his family), and partly on principle; he was becoming increasingly convinced that his future lay not as a radical Liberal but as a [[socialist]].<ref name= S19/> He continued to serve the Liberals, as an agent and local secretary, while expressing his socialism in a short-lived monthly radical journal, ''Coming Times'', which he founded and co-edited with a fellow-dissident, William Hoffman.<ref>Schneer 1990, pp. 16–17</ref>