Ramsay macdonald biography of albert

Ramsay MacDonald  ©Macdonald was the first British Labour prime minister, but his decision in 1931 to lead a coalition government was considered a betrayal by many in the party he had done much to create.

James Ramsay MacDonald was born on 12 October 1866 in Lossiemouth, Morayshire, the illegitimate son of a crofter. He worked as a teacher locally and then moved to London where he became a clerk and then a journalist.

Ramsay macdonald biography of albert

He joined the Independent Labour Party in 1893. He stood unsuccessfully as a parliamentary candidate in 1895 and rose through the party ranks. He became leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) in 1911.

The early PLP was a largely unimaginative grouping of ageing trade-unionists, but MacDonald sought to give the new party a distinct ideology, and wrote on the relationship between socialism and parliamentary democracy, and between labourism and the Liberal tradition.

In 1914, MacDonald resigned as party leader because of