Culture | Labour pains

Lessons for Keir Starmer from Britain’s first Labour government

The Labour Party first took power 100 years ago

Ramsey MacDonald, a former British prime minister, stands at a train station wearing a bowler hat.
Old MacDonald has a charmPhotograph: Getty Images

IT SEEMS all but certain that the Labour Party will win the British election, expected later this year. Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives are lagging in the polls, consumed by in-fighting and division. All this makes for a propitious moment to assess the first-ever Labour government, which took office in January 1924. The leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer, himself christened after Labour’s first leader, Keir Hardie, could learn from the story.

Explore more

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Labour pains”

Killer drones: Pioneered in Ukraine, the weapons of the future

From the February 10th 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola looks pensive with fans blurred in the background.

Pep Guardiola, football’s greatest coach, is in a bind 

A serial winner is learning how to lose 

Someone reading a book upside down

The Economist’s word of the year for 2024

The Greeks knew how to talk about politics and power


This illustration shows a cracked egg, with its yolk and egg white spilled onto a flat surface. Two halves of the brown eggshell are placed on either side of the spill, and the yolk forms a triangle-like shape.

What do feta, cucumbers and cottage cheese have in common?

Social media and the internet are changing how people cook and relate to food


Germany’s former chancellor sets out to restore her reputation

But her new memoir is unlikely to change her critics’ minds

The best books of 2024, as chosen by The Economist

Readers will never think the same way again about games, horses and spies

What to read to understand Elon Musk

The world’s richest man was shaped by science fiction