General Secretary of the Labour Party

Party structure

The General Secretary heads a staff of around 200 in their two head offices, one in London (formerly Southside, until October 2022) and Labour Central in Newcastle upon Tyne, and in the many local offices around the country. The Scottish and Welsh Labour Parties are headed by their general secretaries, de facto subordinate to the national general secretary.

The General Secretary is responsible for employing staff, developing campaign and media strategies, running the party's organisational, constitutional, and policy committees, organising the Party Conference, liaising with the Socialist International and Party of European Socialists, ensuring legal and constitutional propriety, and preparing literature.

The General Secretary also acts as the Registered Treasurer under the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, responsible for preparing accurate financial statements.

As the Labour Party is an unincorporated association without a separate legal personality, the General Secretary represents the party on behalf of the other members of the Labour Party in any legal matters or actions.

History

The post of Party Secretary was created in 1900 at the birth of the Labour Party. The first holder of that position was Ramsay MacDonald, later Prime Minister. In these early years, the post was very important, effectively leading the party outside Parliament. MacDonald and his successor, Arthur Henderson, were both Members of Parliament and, for a period, were both Chairmen of the Parliamentary Labour Party while Party Secretary.

Upon Henderson's retirement in 1934, after the 1931 debacle which had seen MacDonald expelled from the party, it was decided that the position should be separated from the parliamentary party, and power should not be concentrated in the hands of one person. Therefore, Henderson's successor would not be allowed to become a Member of Parliament. This ruled out the strongest contender, Herbert Morrison, and others with parliamentary ambitions. Finally, Jimmy Middleton, assistant secretary since 1903, was chosen. He was a quiet-spoken man and the job lost much of its previous importance. However, the National Executive Committee grew in influence.

During World War II, Morgan Phillips became General Secretary and went on to oversee two general election victories. A Welshman, he had been a miner but was instrumental in widening Labour's appeal to the middle classes. He also built a professional Party, with key employees working on policy development and electoral organisation.

When Len Williams, the General Secretary of the early Wilson years, retired in 1968, he was expected to be replaced by someone younger who could transform the party and lead it to a third successive victory. However, the party chose Harry Nicholas, a long-serving left-wing T&G union figure who would be unlikely to continue to renew and reinvigorate the party. The party lost the 1970 general election.

The 1970s and early 1980s saw developing confrontations between the left and the right in the party. Jim Mortimer and Larry Whitty worked hard to keep the party together after the formation of the Social Democratic Party and the rise of the Militant tendency. Whitty oversaw the reforms of Neil Kinnock and stayed on until the election of Tony Blair as Leader. It would be Tom Sawyer who would put in place Blair's New Labour reforms, with the creation of the National Policy Forum, the change to Clause IV and the perceived erosion of the power of grassroots members. He opened new offices in Millbank and created a highly professional, media-savvy, youthful staff and Party that worked for Labour's landslide victory in the 1997 general election.

Crucial to this period was the transformation of the party apparatus from an alternative centre of power to the parliamentary leadership (largely a product of the 1970s when the party conference repeatedly disowned government policy), to being more congruent with the leadership's ideas for progress. The roots of the transformation probably date back to the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the party's communication director in 1985, but under Blair (and Sawyer) rapidly accelerated.

Margaret McDonagh became Labour's first Permanent female General Secretary in 1998. She had been a rising star and formidable organiser in the run-up to 1997, seen as the key party official responsible for the record landslide victory, but her fearsome style did not endear her to Party members and the left. Her handling of the candidate selection for the 2000 London mayoral election badly damaged her reputation. However, her formidable organisational skills contributed to a second victory in 2001. McDonagh left after the 2001 general election victory and was succeeded by David Triesman. The party moved in 2004 to appoint Matt Carter as the youngest-ever General Secretary. He resigned after less than two years following the less than convincing 2005 general election victory and was replaced in January 2006 by Peter Watt. Watt became embroiled in the funding scandals of 2007 and resigned soon after.

In early 2008 David Pitt-Watson, a key Gordon Brown ally, was selected for the post under the banner of party finance reform, but never took up the post "for legal and financial reasons". The poor state of the party's finances following the decision by the leadership of the party to finance the General Election campaign in 2005 with loans meant that the auditors of the party had to inform him that his wealth, after a career partly in the City of London, would be at risk if the party did become bankrupt. Ray Collins was appointed in 2008, and was succeeded by Iain McNicol in 2011. McNicol resigned from the post in early 2018, citing a desire to "pursue new challenges". On 20 March 2018, Jennie Formby was appointed as the General Secretary effective from April 2018. She resigned on 4 May 2020, following the election of Keir Starmer as new Labour leader, saying "now we have a new leadership team it is the right time to step down". On 26 May 2020, David Evans was appointed as the General Secretary. This was following an allegedly close run between Evans, Starmer's preferred choice, and Byron Taylor, favoured by the Labour left. On 3 September 2024, Evans announced he would resign in later that month. On 17 September 2024, Hollie Ridley succeeded Evans as General Secretary.

List of General Secretaries (1900–present)

A list of General Secretaries (including acting general secretaries) since 1900.

Timeline

TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late PlotArea = width:90% left:15 top:10 bottom:30 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1900 till: TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal

Colors = id:Labour value:rgb(0.9,0,0) id:liteline value:gray(0.9) id:line value:rgb(0.7,0.7,0.7)

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:10 start:1900 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:liteline unit:year increment:2 start:1900

Define $now =

BarData = bar:MacDonald bar:Henderson bar:Middleton bar:Phillips bar:Williams bar:Barker bar:Nicholas bar:Hayward bar:Mortimer bar:Whitty bar:Sawyer bar:McDonagh bar:Triesman bar:Carter bar:Watt bar:Collins bar:McNicol bar:Formby bar:Evans bar:Ridley

PlotData= width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till

bar:MacDonald from: 1900 till: 1912 color:Labour text:"Ramsay MacDonald" bar:Henderson from: 1912 till: 1935 color:Labour text:"Arthur Henderson" bar:Middleton from: 1935 till: 1944 color:Labour text:"James Middleton" bar:Phillips from: 1944 till: 1962 color:Labour text:"Morgan Phillips" bar:Williams from: 1962 till: 1968 color:Labour text:"Len Williams" bar:Barker from: 1968 till: 1968 color:Labour text:"Sara Barker (acting)" bar:Nicholas from: 1968 till: 1972 color:Labour text:"Harry Nicholas" bar:Hayward from: 1972 till: 1982 color:Labour text:"Ron Hayward" bar:Mortimer from: 1982 till: 1985 color:Labour text:"Jim Mortimer" bar:Whitty from: 1985 till: 1994 color:Labour text:"Larry Whitty" bar:Sawyer from: 1994 till: 1998 color:Labour text:"Tom Sawyer" bar:McDonagh from: 1998 till: 2001 color:Labour text:"Margaret McDonagh" bar:Triesman from: 2001 till: 2003 color:Labour text:"David Triesman" bar:Carter from: 2003 till: 2005 color:Labour text:"Matt Carter" bar:Watt from: 2005 till: 2007 color:Labour text:"Peter Watt" bar:Collins from: 2008 till: 2011 color:Labour text:"Ray Collins" bar:McNicol from: 2011 till: 2018 color:Labour text:"Ian McNicol" bar:Formby from: 2018 till: 2020 color:Labour text:"Jennie Formby" bar:Evans from: 2020 till: 2024 color:Labour text:"David Evans" bar:Ridley from: 2024 till: $now color:Labour text:"Hollie Ridley"

Sources

• A Short History of the Labour Party, Henry Pelling, 2005,

References

References

1. [http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/templates/search/document.cfm/13292 Labour Party The Statement of Accounts for 2004] {{webarchive. link. (17 February 2006)
2. Athelstane Aamodt. (17 September 2015). "Unincorporated associations and elections". Local Government Lawyer.
3. (16–18 July 2007). "Watt (formerly Carter) (sued on his own on behalf of the other members of the Labour Party) (Respondent) v. Ahsan (Appellant)". House of Lords.
4. Hencke, David. (29 May 2008). "Labour cash crisis could bankrupt party leaders". The Guardian.
5. Hélène Mulholland. (2 May 2008). "Labour's general secretary quits before he begins". [[The Guardian]].
6. Erika Brown Ekiel. (6 March 2014). "David Pitt-Watson: Entrepreneurship Is a Basic Freedom".
7. Kentish, Benjamin. (23 February 2018). "Labour's general secretary Iain McNicol resigns".
8. Schofield, Kevin. (20 March 2018). "Jennie Formby appointed Labour general secretary in huge boost for Jeremy Corbyn".
9. Waugh, Paul. (28 March 2018). "Jeremy Corbyn Plans In-House Lawyer In Anti-Semitism Crackdown On 70 Unresolved Claims Of Abuse". Huffington Post.
10. (4 May 2020). "Jennie Formby resigns as Labour party general secretary". The Guardian.
11. Proctor, Kate. (2020-05-26). "David Evans appointed Labour's new general secretary after winning vote". The Guardian.
12. McKeon, Christopher. (2024-09-03). "Labour general secretary to stand down at end of September".
13. Courea, Eleni. (2024-09-17). "Starmer ally Hollie Ridley appointed as Labour general secretary". The Guardian.
14. Akehurst, Luke. (13 May 2020). "The process and politics of picking Labour's general secretaries".
15. Lucy Middleton, ''Women in the Labour Movement: The British Experience'', pp.157, 203
16. (27 November 2007). "Labour boss quits over donations". BBC.