{"id":13660,"date":"2024-08-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=13660"},"modified":"2024-09-24T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T12:25:53","slug":"arthur-latham-labour-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2024\/08\/14\/arthur-latham-labour-left\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur Latham and the rise of the Labour Left"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On this day, 1930, Arthur Latham was born. Labour MP for Paddington North (later Paddington) from 1969 to 1979, his career both inside and outside the Commons reflected the ebb and flow of the Labour Party\u2019s \u2018hard left\u2019.<\/em> <\/em>Alfie Steer<\/em><\/strong><\/a> explores the significance of Latham\u2019s career, and what it reveals about the history of left-wing politics in late Twentieth Century Britain.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Latham\u2019s journey to parliament was a relatively conventional one for a Labour politician. Growing up in a working-class family, his father a trade unionist, Latham joined the Labour Party after the 1945 election. A councillor in Romford by 21, he rose through the ranks of local politics on Romford and later Havering Council, eventually becoming leader of the Labour Group. While personally uncomfortable with the self-promotion that came with seeking a parliamentary seat, he was selected to fight the safe Tory seat of Woodford in 1959, given the daunting task of challenging Sir Winston Churchill. In his 2014 History of Parliament oral history interview with Andrea Hertz, Latham describes the strange experience of spending a few hours with Churchill and his wife Clementine, at the election count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Latham interviewed by Andrea Hertz. Download ALT text here. <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While his political beginnings were similar to many Labour politicians in the post-war era, Latham\u2019s later activism reflected the emergence of new radical energies within the party and British politics more widely. Radical movements in 1960s Britain, typified by the student protests of 1968, the campaign against the American war in Vietnam, and new social movements around feminism, black radicalism and gay rights, frequently came into conflict with Harold Wilson\u2019s Labour government. While some activists sympathetic to these energies left the Labour Party in disillusionment, others formed grassroots pressure groups to challenge the Wilson government from within. One of these activist groups, Socialist Charter, was believed to play a direct role in securing Latham\u2019s victory in the 1969 Paddington North by-election, his campaign reportedly bolstered by the \u2018help of 200 to 300 activists\u2019 from the group [Kogan & Kogan, 13]. From then on Latham\u2019s career frequently intersected with the fortunes of the party\u2019s so-called \u2018hard left\u2019. His entry into parliament was both directly helped by left-wing activists, and formed an early part of a much wider change in the House of Commons\u2019 factional composition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latham\u2019s election was part of  an influx of new left-wing Labour MPs, mostly coalescing around the Tribune Group, a faction within the Parliamentary Labour Party founded in the early 1960s by  supporters of left-wing newspaper Tribune<\/em>, <\/em> which had grown significantly towards the end of the 1970s.  Further, this new generation were considered far more willing to rebel, even if it meant defeating the government on the floor of the Commons. A self-described \u2018rebel in the House\u2019 and considered by others \u2018a thorn in the side\u2019 of the 1974-79 government, Latham became chairman of the Tribune Group in November 1975, then at the height of its rebelliousness [Telegraph<\/em>, 22 Dec. 2016].<\/p>\n\n\n

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Arthur Latham, photographed in 2014 by Andrea Hertz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

While Latham was prepared to often be a lonely minority on matters of principle, there were some major disagreements between the government and backbench MPs during his time in Parliament. This was revealed through the whipping system, which privileged the top-down leadership of the government, rather than the collective view of the parliamentary party. This was in complete contrast to Latham\u2019s experience of local government decision-making and was illustrated particularly clearly when it came to parliamentary votes on joining the European Common Market.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Latham interviewed by Andrea Hertz. Download ALT text here. <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Latham\u2019s frustration reflected the growing disconnect between the Labour government and its backbenches, and anticipated the internal divisions that would plague the party into the 1980s. Yet there were still limits to the Tribune Group\u2019s rebelliousness. Latham describes how the group had to strike a \u2018delicate balance\u2019 between exerting pressure on the government without bringing it down entirely. At times, this meant that the Tribune Group was mobilised to support<\/em> the government rather than rebel against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Latham interviewed by Andrea Hertz. Download ALT text here. <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The period not only saw conflict between the Labour government and backbench MPs, but also a \u2018crisis of legitimacy\u2019 [Randall, 215] between the party\u2019s parliamentary leadership and its grassroots membership. Once again Latham played a part in this internal conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 1973, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy (CLPD) was formed. Made up largely of former Socialist Charter members, the pressure group was launched in reaction to Harold Wilson\u2019s vetoing of radical policies endorsed by party conference. To ensure similar such flagrant rebuffs of conference sovereignty did not happen again, CLPD advocated a series of major reforms to the party\u2019s constitution, ensuring that the party\u2019s parliamentary elites were more accountable to the grassroots membership. This included making it mandatory for incumbent MPs to go through a re-selection process, and widening the franchise for the election of party leader to include ordinary members and trade unionists, as well as MPs. It was Latham who booked the room in the House of Commons where CLPD met for the first time. In this small act he played an early facilitating role in the formation of a campaign that would eventually achieve major changes in Labour\u2019s constitution, decisively altering the relationship between the party\u2019s grassroots membership and its parliamentary elites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latham\u2019s career  reflected a wider reconceptualization of what an MP\u2019s role could be. The new generation of left-wing MPs were not only less deferential to the party leadership, but also ascribed greater importance to activism outside parliament. Latham spent little time in the Commons chamber and made few speeches, describing it in the 2014 interview as \u2018not a good investment of time\u2019. Instead, he was \u2018extremely busy\u2019 outside, both with constituency work and in supporting extra-parliamentary movements. A lifelong peace activist, Latham was a member of the British Campaign for Peace in Vietnam, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Movement for Colonial Freedom. In 1977 Latham was elected Executive Chair of the Greater London Labour Party. While ostensibly an administrative position, his election again reflected a wider shift to the left in London politics, which culminated in Ken Livingstone\u2019s radical administration on the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 to 1986. Latham returned to local government himself in 1986 and became leader of Havering Council in 1990. He would eventually briefly resign from the Labour Party in response to the Iraq War, once again reflecting a common experience of left-wing disillusionment within the party, and a period of dramatic decline in the party\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arthur Latham\u2019s career was therefore frequently a bellwether for the progress of Labour\u2019s \u2018hard left\u2019 from the 1960s onwards. His parliamentary career intersected the left\u2019s rise in influence and his later trajectory frequently emulated the experience of other left-wing activists across the country. Studying the political activism of Arthur Latham provides not only an enlightening insight into the experience of a committed left-wing politician, but also reveals the contours of much wider political changes in Britain in the second half of the Twentieth Century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download ALT text for all audio clips here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further reading
<\/strong>David Kogan and Maurice Kogan, The Battle for the Labour Party <\/em>second edition (London: Bloomsbury, 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ken Livingstone, If Voting Changed Anything, They\u2019d Abolish It <\/em>(London: Collins, 1987).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh Pemberton and Mark Wickham-Jones, \u2018Labour\u2019s Lost Grassroots: The Rise and Fall of Party Membership\u2019, British Politics <\/em>8:2 (2013), pp.181-206.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nick Randall, \u2018Dissent in the Parliamentary Labour Party, 1945-2015\u2019 in Emannuel Avril and Yann B\u00e9liard (eds.), Labour United and Divided from the 1830s to the Present <\/em>(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2018), pp.193-220.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John E. Schwarz, \u2018Attempting to Assert the Commons\u2019 Power: Labour Members in the House of Commons, 1974-1979\u2019, Comparative Politics <\/em>14:1 (1981), pp.17-29.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhiannon Vickers, \u2018Harold Wilson, the British Labour Party, and the War in Vietnam\u2019, Journal of Cold War Studies <\/em>10:2 (2008), pp.41-70.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

With access to the British Library sound archive still unavailable, a full catalogue of our oral history project and details with how to access interviews is available on our website<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find more blogs from our oral history project here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alfie Steer<\/a> is a historian of modern and contemporary Britain, currently studying for a DPhil at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history of the Labour Left from the end of the miners strike to Jeremy Corbyn\u2019s election as Labour leader in 2015. His most recent article was published in Contemporary British History<\/em><\/a>, and has written book reviews for Twentieth Century British History<\/em> and the English Historical Review<\/em>. Outside of academia he has written for popular publications such as Tribune<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On this day, 1930, Arthur Latham was born. Labour MP for Paddington North (later Paddington) from 1969 to 1979, his career both inside and outside the Commons reflected the ebb and flow of the Labour Party\u2019s \u2018hard left\u2019. Alfie Steer explores the significance of Latham\u2019s career, and what it reveals about the history of left-wing politics in late Twentieth Century Britain. Arthur Latham\u2019s journey to … Continue reading Arthur Latham and the rise of the Labour Left<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":252011230,"featured_media":13668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[774275544,4406049,368880,774275551,774275552,165907480,104839],"tags":[369030405,774275550,774275553,35890,65986,774275590,71772641,42489,1250182,37292060],"class_list":["post-13660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contemporary-history","category-20th-century-history","category-factions","category-harold-wilson","category-james-callaghan","category-post-1945-history","category-oral-history","tag-arthur-latham","tag-campaign-for-labour-party-demcoracy","tag-candidate-selection","tag-featured","tag-house-of-commons","tag-labour-left","tag-labour-party-history","tag-socialism","tag-tony-benn","tag-tribune-group"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/arthur-latham.jpg?fit=513%2C640&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-3yk","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1215,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2016\/05\/03\/free-churches-parliamentary-labour-party\/","url_meta":{"origin":13660,"position":0},"title":"Parliaments, Politics and People Seminar: Peter Catterall, The Free Churches and the Parliamentary Labour Party, c.1918-39","author":"History of Parliament","date":"May 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At our first \u2018Parliaments, Politics and People\u2019 Seminar of the term, Peter Catterall (University of Westminster) spoke on 'The Free Churches and the Parliamentary Labour Party, c.1918-39'. 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