Did Ramsay MacDonald betray the Labour Party?
There are different views on Ramsay MacDonald forming the national government. Some people believe he was wrong to do so and betrayed the Labour Party. Whilst others believe it was for the good of the country and therefore was the right thing to do. In this essay I will explore both of these viewpoints.
Ramsay MacDonald was one of the founders of the Labour Party. Without him, there may have never been a Labour Party. He devoted a lot of time and effort in creating the party. He helped lead them into government in 1924, where he lead them and became British Prime Minister. Not only this, but during his time as Prime Minister, he had far more successes than failures, and was able to prove that Labour were fit to govern.
In 1929, Labour once again came into power with Ramsay MacDonald leading them, to form the second Labour government. However, in 1931, as a result of increasing unemployment figures and low government funds. MacDonald had to take action. He did so by reducing unemployment benefits. He cast a vote to make sure his party supported him. The vote was split 11-9, so he went through with it. Because the unemployment rate went down as a result of him helping more people into employment a lot of people were very supportive of him although on the other hand this also caused the unemployment benefits to go down meaning the people who weren’t employed still were getting even less money than before.
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... were more radically left wing than the labour party. In fact, the liberals supported the Macdonald governments' practices and even made appeals to ... time, the very people whom elected the party in the first place. The evolution of social democracy in the labour party of the ... -productive to the goals and ambitions stated in 1918. Ramsay Macdonald did a sparse amount to hide his obvious conservative ...
The economic crash of 1931 forced MacDonald to resign but the King once again asked him to form a National Government. He had already turned him down before. However, now MacDonald really had no other options. He could either resign or try to solve the financial crisis. So in order to solve the financial crisis, Ramsay MacDonald reluctantly accepted this offer and formed the National Government with Conservative and Liberal support. Considered to be a traitor, he was expelled from the Labour Party.
Many people to this day still believe that Ramsay MacDonald is a traitor to the Labour Party. He walked out on them and joined with the Conservatives and Liberals. Labour is a socialist party and has always been intent on helping out the working classes. For MacDonald to cut the unemployment benefit, he was turning his back on Labour’s beliefs. He left the unemployed and working classes to their fate. MacDonald had no true commitment to socialism.
Not only this, but he was too easily influenced. He listened to bankers and even his opposition. He had become arrogant and too involved with aristocratic people. Fame had gone to his head and he believed that he could single handedly save the nation; he therefore went off to create the National Government. If we were a strong Prime Minister, he would have come up with a solution in the Labour Party. Instead he reduced Labour to an opposition rump. The nation voted in the Labour Party, not Ramsay MacDonald.
On the other hand, people believe that he is a hero and was right to form the National Government. He had the country’s best interests at heart and so he did what was right for the nation. ‘Labour and the Nation’ it was in their manifesto. It was never his idea to form the National Government in the first place. He had already declined the offer from the king, and very reluctantly accepted when he was offered again. He had already proved himself to be a good leader, and his successes easily outweighed his failures.
For a man who had done so much for the Labour Party, he would not just walk out on them. He was thinking about the long term benefits. It may have affected Labour badly in the short term, but MacDonald had every intention of returning to the Labour Party once the economic depression was over. Some may even argue that Labour had become arrogant and cared too much about their appearance and therefore didn’t join MacDonald.
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I personally believe that MacDonald was right to form the National Government. The nation was struggling, and forming the National Government seemed to be the best option to take in order to sort out the depression. MacDonald was one of the founders of Labour and would have no intentions on betraying them. I believe that Ramsay MacDonald was not a traitor and did not betray the Labour Party.
