The Labour Party is a Centre-Left to Left-Wing party founded in 1900 which was set up to help workers their first main government in peacetime was 1945 in which they had a 146 seat majority to which they created the National Health Service and in 1950 and 1951 they did nothing much and they were kept out of power for 13 years losing seats at every General Election in the 1950s.
In 1964 Labour Came back to power under Harold Wilson and put many reforms including.Legalising Abortion ,Legalising Homosexuality,Abolishing the Death Penalty,Increasing The State Pension.
They lost the 1970 Election to Edward heath as he did not role back many reforms of that Labour Government 1964-1970 but Wilson came back to power in February 1974 and October 1974 then in 1975 they did a referendum on European Economic Community by 1976 Wilson Resigned as Labour Leader after 13 years and Prime Minister the leadership election was close but at the end James Callaghan won he had a 1 seat majority but there was financial crisis and the taxation had reached come to 36% basic rate and 83% higher rate which cutting it in 1979. Denis Healey the Chancellor had applied from a loan of £2 billion from the International Monetary Fund. In 1977 Thatcher put a motion of No Confidence in the Labour Government. Callaghan signed a deal with the Liberals 13 Mps the motion was defeated 298 for the motion and 322 against . In 1978 The Economy was recovering the growth rate had recovered and same with the deficit and there was a possibility of an Early General Election in October as it had been 4 years since Harold Wilson won a 3 seat Majority in 1979 there was another motion of no confidence it was passed 311-310. In the 1979 General Election the Tories got an Overall Majority 44 seat Majority with the Tories on 339 Labour on 269.
1980-1997 The Wilderness Years
In October 1980 , James Callaghan resigned as leader just before Tony Benn had put in a motion to reform the way leadership elections and the motion was passed and as Callaghan resigned the election was contested under the old rules he did this to make sure that Denis Healey won instead it was Micheal Foot who put policies that we were to leave the European Union with out a Referendum and also Nationalising Industries this was one of the main reason that 26 Labour Mps left the party to form the Social Democratic Party in 1982 Thatcher's Popularity sky-rocketed from 25% to 46% after the Falkland's war . in 1983 Bermondsey By Election Simon Hughes overturned a Labour Majority of 12,00 and that Peter Thatcell lost 30% of the vote and Margret Thatcher won the 1983 Election with a 144 seat Majority the Tory Manifesto had some vile stuff including the abolition of Greater London Council reducing union power and finishing Nationalised industries but the Labour Manifesto had a promise to Increase Benefits and to increase Nationalised industries also Unilateral Nuclear Disarmament.
In October 1983 Neil Kinnock was elected Labour leader Kinnock was a firebrand of the left but during the miners strike of 1984-85 which was miners trying to keep their jobs because of Thatcher trying to cut 100 Pitts and a 100,000 jobs that go with it Kinnock did not support the strike but abstained this infuriated people like Tony Benn and Arthur Scargil Kinnocks Director Of Communications Peter Mandleson who was on the hard right of the party tried to drag the party to the centre of politics but he also tried to remain socially Liberal because labour supported LGBT Rights but Mandleson failed in 1987 as Labour put nationalising industries at the centre of the manifesto also Nuclear Disarmament except their European policy which was them staying in Europe it was very Similar to 1983 Manifesto. Thatcher's Tory manifesto had some more diabolical policies wanting Trident and Cruise Missiles . Thatcher got a 102 seat Majority Thatcher won 376 seats to the Labour 229 seats.
After the 1987 Election Kinnock had become convinced that the party had not modernised enough they had done a review for 3 years which was them abolishing everything they had ever stood for Kinnock had decided to abolish everything they have stood for. Getting rid of Nationalisation of policies and abolishing unilateral nuclear disarmament also because they tried to become electable but by abandoning your values you are not going to get anywhere but in 1990 Thatcher Resigned and in 1992 General Election the Tories had lost 40 seats to 336 and Kinnock had gained 42 seats to 271. Kinnock resigned and gave the reins to John Smith he is mainly known for Supporting Mastricht Treaty and also reforming the Labour Party . Suddenly Smith died which Tony Blair his first act was to abandon Clause VI of the party which was one of the greatest acts of socialism . However it paid of in 1997 John Major lost power and lost 171 seats to 165 seats and Tony Blair to 418 seats which kept them in power for the next 13 years.
Blair and Brown Years 1997- 2010
With the Arrival of New Labour, winning the 1997 election with 419 of the 659 seats or a majority of 179, they embarked on a series of reforms from banks of England independence, to the minimum wage, maximum working hours, freedom of information, human rights, Scottish and welsh devolution, peace in Northern Ireland, Slashing NHS waiting lists, Ensuring 3 in 4 students got 5 GSCEs up from 46% in 1997. Reducing Crime, cancelling third world debt, Introducing the New Deal that created 2 million jobs, the winter fuel allowance, sure start, the free tv licence and many others reforms. However the controversies over tuition fees, the Iraq War and the seemed ditching of traditional labour Philosophy had cause apathy and whilst Blair won a 167 seat majority in 2001 winning 413 MPs, He did only win a 66 seat majority in 2005 and with it 356 MPs.
The Blair Premiershep Ended on 27th June 2007 with Gordon Brown becoming the PM, with his successful 100 days dealign with the attacks on Glasgow airport, the flooding, the foot and mouth outbreak and the near collapse of Northern Rock the Labour Party surged ahead of the tories in the opinion polls leading to speculation that GB was going to call an early General Election however after David Cameron's Formidable 2007 conference speech, Brown didn't go to the country. Instead with the 10% tax mess up and the overall de-stableising of the brown leadership then came the Global Financial Crisis which Brown lead the world notably with the 2009 G-20 Summit in which the world agreed to re-stablise it's financial markets and whilst the recession did hit the Expenses Scandal had caused New Labour to crash further and with the disastrous 2009 local election results, Gordon Brown with the help primarily of Peter Mandelson and Alastair Darling had taken labour out of the ditch but by th time of 2010 election with the first debate, bigotgate it led to a hung parliament with Labour losing 98 seats going down from 356 to 258 MPs.
2010-Present
With the Leadership Election of 2010, It was expected by many that David Milliband would become the leader of the Labour Party, However Ed Milliband won, the Labour Party were ahead throughout most of the Cameron's First Term primarily due to Austerity, However with the rubbishing of the New Labour record and allowing the media to rubbish it, Labour could allow the tories to say that the crash caused by Lehman Brothers in New York was actually caused by Labour spending to much money on the NHS. After the disastrous 2015 campaign Labour went backwards going down to 232 Seats.
With the Election of Jeremy Corbyn he decided to focus more on the left rather than centre, promising nationlisaitons abolishing tuition fees and whilst his policies were indeed progressive and did help in 2017 winning 40% of the vote, Labour went down to a humiliating 202 Mps in 2019