The reversal of the Osborne Judgement also provided substantial funding for the Labour Party. In 1909, MPs were not paid a salary by the state, and the Judgement disallowed unions to pay in support of political parties (especially the Labour Party), so the party was continually under funded. However in 1911, the Liberal government approved the payment of MPs to be of £400 a year, allowing the Labour party to actually put candidates up for election, permitting them to gain political influence, and later be present in the War Cabinet, which led to their later success. Therefore, this funding was essential in that the Labour party could be recognised as a valuable party to be present in War decisions, allowing the First World War to have a significant impact on the party’s expansion.
Leadership within the Labour party was also crucial in lifting the standards of a struggling party. Ramsay McDonald and Arthur Henderson, the new MPs had been rejected by the Liberals, allowing Henderson to repair the party’s disagreements over the war. Had these new MPs been accepted by the Liberals, the Labour party could have fallen apart and completely collapsed. Henderson’s work in reminding the party that they had a common goal to achieve support for the working class prevented the party’s self-destruction, and he did not expel any MPs that had slightly differing aims. In effect, Henderson as a leader prevented the party’s potential break-up, allowing it to carry on and later gain success, which may not have happened had the new MPs been accepted by the Liberals.
Also, union support for the Labour party after 1906 grew on a critical scale. The Miners’ Federation’s reversal from the Liberal party to Labour brought new members to the party as well as all twelve of its MPs to the Labour group in Parliament, allowing increased influence for the Labour party within the government. Also the growth of union membership between 1910 and 1914 due to the industrial unrest helped to speed up the process of increased trade union support for the Labour party, giving the party a larger support base. This was another contributing factor for the Labour party’s success.
The First World War aided in the dispersal of conventional social views that had governed Britain for so long. The huge demand for workers during the war and soldiers meant that civilians of all classes were forced to work alongside each other doing exactly the same thing to exactly the same level, urging upper classes to realise that they were little better in essence than lower ones, promoting a sense of companionship. The vitality of every class to the war effort meant that the government had to keep the lower classes on their side in order for them to conform, with the use of trade unions. As Labour already had a strong link with these unions, the result was many Labour MPs were placed in the War Cabinet, including one of the new leading figures, Henderson. This significantly increased the influence of the Labour MPs within the government, giving the party a much higher profile, and leading to its later success to 1918.
The heightened profile of the Labour party within the government likewise raised the views of the working class because of their position in the war, so they were allowed to vote, giving the Labour party a broader base of appeal. This allowed the party to access more votes, making them a bigger influence in Parliament.
The Liberal split due to their disagreement over whether or not to carry the coalition government on into peacetime meant that Asquith and Lloyd George were on opposing sides. This split made the party unstable and so unelectable, and greatly contributed to the Liberal party’s decline, removing political opponents for the Labour party, and allowing them to dominate the position that the Liberals had previously held. The war helped the Liberal decline, which gave way to Labour to lead the government.
In conclusion, it must be said that although there were underlying existing factors, the First World War can be seen as the most important one in the influencing of the Labour party’s success to 1918. Although the Lib-Lab pact allowed the Labours to access more votes, many of these were in effect Liberal, so the base of support was not really established as a result of the pact. Instead, the reversal of the Osborne Judgement allowed the (mostly unionist) supporters to financially express their support for the Labours, boosting the party’s influence, so can be seen as a more viable factor in the party’s later success. Also, unionist appeal brought MPs and support after their switch to the Labour party in 1909, which aided in the Labour rise, although the MPs gained numbered only 12. The war destroyed social divisions which helped the give the working classes more say and influence afterwards which led to the success of the Labour party due to their existing base of appeal in these rankings, so this event can be seen as the most important. Despite the war’s contribution to labour success though, there is a link between this and the work of Henderson to keep the party in shape, as without the latter, Labour could easily have collapsed and not even made it through the war, so no successful political advances would have been made at all. The fact that the party did not split over disagreements when it could easily have done in this period allowed it to gain important experience from the war time, boosting the Labour party as a necessary one for post-war British government. Therefore the work of various leading party members worked in a positive manner to allow the party to carry on through the war, which made Labour into a recognised party, and later to become a success.
