Popular Front (UK)

Richard Acland was a new Liberal member of parliament who had gained Barnstaple from the Conservatives at the 1935 election. He quickly became an influential figure on the left of the Liberal Party, advocating closer ties with the Labour Party and electoral co-operation with them at constituency level. He also became an outspoken supporter of a Popular Front, and then one of its founders.

Strachey was elected as a Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Aston in 1929, serving until 1931. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Oswald Mosley and resigned from the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1931 to join Mosley's New Party. Following the New Party's drift towards fascism, he resigned to become a supporter of the Communist Party, contesting the Aston constituency as an independent.

As the author of The Coming Struggle for Power (1932), and a series of other works, Strachey was one of the most prolific and widely read British Marxist-Leninist theorists of the 1930s. In 1936 with the publisher Victor Gollancz he founded the Left Book Club.[2]

Cole was an Oxford academic, writer and political theorist who favoured libertarian socialism. He was a notable figure in the Labour Party. In 1936 Cole began calling for a Popular Front movement in Britain, where the Labour Party would ally with other parties against the threat of fascism.[3]

Boothby had been the Scottish Unionist Party Member for Aberdeen and Kincardine East since 1924. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer Winston Churchill from 1926 to 1929.

He was Labour MP for Bristol East and Solicitor General in the last Labour government of 1931. He had not given up on trying to unite the left and saw that supporting the Popular Front would achieve the same aims. In putting the case for a Popular Front, he argued that the Labour Party acting alone would not be able to defeat the National Government.

The Communist Party of Great Britain took its lead from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The view of the CPSU in the mid-to-late 1930s was that Communist parties across Europe should form Popular fronts to work with all other anti-Fascist parties to oppose Fascism. The CPGB was happy to fall in line with this position.

The ILP, who had chosen not to affiliate with the Labour Party during the 1930s, had been supporters of the United Front with Socialists and Communists. However, they did not support the Popular Front as it was to include the Liberal Party. At the 1937 ILP Conference they voted to oppose a Popular Front but to continue to support a United Front.[4] At their 1938 Conference, leader James Maxton re-affirmed his party's opposition to the Popular Front. The ILP remained an opponent of any co-operation with capitalist parties, even after war broke out in 1939. When all the political parties agreed to a wartime electoral truce, the ILP refused to agree.

The Labour Party National Executive published a letter on 13 April 1938, opposing the Popular Front.

The Co-operative Party, which was affiliated to the Labour Party, held its 1938 Conference during April. Party Chairman Alfred Barnes personally endorsed the Popular Front and 2 days later, the conference voted in favour of the Popular Front.[5] However, when the Co-operative Party met in 1939 for its Conference, this position was narrowly overturned.

The attitude of the Liberal Party gradually changed during this period. At the 1935 General Election, former party leader David Lloyd George, through his Council of Action had demonstrated a willingness to support both Liberal and Labour candidates. After the 1935 elections Lloyd George and his parliamentary group returned to the mainstream Liberal Party and continued with the Council of Action. The first time the Liberal Party formally considered the Popular Front was at a meeting of their executive committee on 20 October 1936. They had received the proposal to support the Popular Front from writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley. Their response was to recommend to the Liberal Party Council that the front not be supported. They stated that the executive did not think that an electoral pact with Labour was possible and arguably desirable. At the meeting of the Party Council on 18 January 1937, this position was agreed. In April 1937 the issue was debated at the Union of University Liberal Societies Conference. Once again the front was rejected.[6]

The 1938 Oxford by-election was held on 27 October 1938. The Liberal Party had selected Ivor Davies,[7] a 23-year-old graduate of Edinburgh University, despite the fact that he was the candidate for Central Aberdeenshire at the same time. The Labour Party selected Patrick Gordon Walker, who had contested the seat at the 1935 general election. On 13 September, Davies offered to stand down from the by-election if Labour did the same and backed a Popular Front candidate against the Conservatives.[8] Eventually, Gordon Walker reluctantly stood down and both parties supported Sandy Lindsay, who was the Master of Balliol, as an Independent Progressive.[9] The Conservatives held the seat with a reduced majority of 3,434 or 12.2%.

The 1938 Bridgwater by-election was held on 17 November 1938. Vernon Bartlett was a journalist and broadcaster with extensive experience of foreign affairs. He was approached by Richard Acland, Liberal MP for Barnstaple, a seat bordering Bridgwater, about standing as an anti-appeasement candidate in the by-election.[10] Bartlett agreed to do so providing he had the support of the Liberal and Labour parties. The Bridgwater Liberal Party unanimously backed Bartlett's candidature.[11] Before the by-election vacancy was known, the local Labour Party had already re-adopted Arthur Loveys their previous candidate, to contest a General Election expected to occur in 1939. Loveys withdrew and Labour generally supported Bartlett, although many in the Labour Party were unenthusiastic about co-operation with the Liberals.[12] Some Labour voters were reluctant to support Bartlett, believing he was really a Liberal candidate.[13] However, he did receive a letter of support from 39 Labour MPs just before polling day. Bartlett won the seat with a majority of 2,332 or 6.3%. He hailed the result as a defeat for Chamberlain, saying that it showed people understood the dangers of the Government's foreign policy.[14]

The 1939 Westminster Abbey by-election was held on 17 May 1939. The Labour candidate in 1935, William Kennedy, had been re-selected to contest the next General Election, however, the Labour party decided not to contest the by-election. The Communist party, who had not contested the seat before, chose Dr. Billy Carritt, to stand. In an attempt to revive the Popular Front strategy, Carritt stood as an Independent Progressive. Carritt attracted the highest ever percentage poll of any anti-Conservative candidate in this seat. The performance revived interest nationally in electoral co-operation to defeat National Government candidates at a General Election.

Tiverton had been a Conservative seat since they took it from the Liberals in 1923. No Liberal or Labour candidate had stood since 1929. The Liberals had selected a candidate, A. Turner, back in 1938. There was no Labour candidate in place. The former Liberal MP for Tiverton was the North Cornwall Liberal MP, Sir Francis Acland. He was the father of PF founder, Richard Acland. The Aclands had a strong influence over the Tiverton Liberal Association.[16] The Tiverton Liberals were open to the idea of supporting an Independent Progressive, if such a candidate were supported by the local Labour party. It was thought that another Liberal, Michael Pinney, would appeal more to the local Labour Party. By March 1939 Pinney had agreed to stand as a Popular Front candidate and Turner had agreed to withdraw in his favour.[17] In April 1939 the local Liberals and the local Labour Party both formally endorsed Pinney.[18] In May 1939 the national Labour Party decided to bar the Tiverton division from the party.[19]