Leaders: J R Clynes 1921-22

John Robert Clynes (1869-1949)

J R Clynes is among the least known of the Labour Party's leaders. Leader for only one year, 1921-2, he had been active as Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (1918-21) under his predecessor William Adamson. He resumed the deputy leader role under Ramsay MacDonald (1922-31). Like Arthur Henderson, he was a major trade union figure in the Parliamentary Labour Party. Unlike Arthur Henderson he had a pre-1914 socialist background. However, he was very much a moderate, a voice of reasonableness and conciliation, in the Labour Party. He was at its fore 1908-31.

Born in Oldham on 27 March 1869, Clynes was the elder boy in Patrick and Bridget Clynes' family of seven. His father was a labourer who had migrated to Lancashire from Ireland in 1851. At the age of ten, J R Clynes became a `little piecer' (a repairer of broken cotton threads), working six hours at Dowry Cotton Mills in mornings and attending school in the afternoon. From the age of twelve he was a full-time piecer. He eagerly further educated himself, buying books and reading in the Oldham Equitable Co-operative Society's library.

Clynes first displayed an interest in politics when attending meetings of the Irish National League. He first made an impact through writing a series of letters to the press about factory conditions, using the pseudonym `Piecer'. He went on to be a founder member of a short-lived Piecers' Union. Although a frail and pale figure, Clynes was an effective speaker. While secretary of the Oldham branch of the National Union of Gasworkers and General Labourer's, he impressed Will Thorne the union's leader, and was appointed Lancashire district organizer of the union in 1891 and five years later also became that area's secretary. A major trade union figure in Oldham, he became president of Oldham Trades Council, 1892-4, and its secretary 1894-1912. Clynes was President of his union from 1912. Clynes was present at the foundation conference of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. He was a delegate at the Second International conference in Zurich later that year and at several other international conferences. He was also present at the foundation meeting of the Labour Representation Committee in February 1900. He served on its National Executive Committee, representing the trades councils 1904-8 and the trade unions, 1909 to 1939. He chaired the annual conference held at Portsmouth, January 1909.

Clynes stood unsuccessfully for Oldham council in 1901, 1902 and 1903. However, in the 1906 general election he was elected for Manchester North-East (later known as Manchester, Platting). He held the seat until 1931, even being returned unopposed in 1918. He won the seat back in the 1935 general election and remained an MP until he retired at the 1945 general election.

After Britain had entered the European war in 1914, Clynes was the leading ILP member in the Parliamentary Labour Party to support the war effort. In this he was in line with the preponderant view of trade union leaders. From early 1915 he served on the Munition Workers' Health Committee. At the time of the formation of the first wartime coalition government, May 1915, Clynes was opposed to the Labour Party participating. At the time of the formation of the second coalition government under Lloyd George, Clynes was in favour of Labour participation in view of what he judged to be a grave military and political situation.

In 1917-8 Clynes became the leading Labour figure in charge of food regulation. After the May 1917 engineering strikes he was appointed to the Commission enquiring into the causes of industrial unrest. When Lloyd George appointed Lord Rhondda to be Food Controller (May 1917) he appointed Clynes to be Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Food. When Rhondda died in July 1918, Clynes succeeded him as Food Controller. Thus he followed Arthur Henderson in being one of Labour's post-war leaders who had ministerial experience. His role at the Ministry of Food enhanced his reputation. At the end of the war Clynes was in favour of Labour remaining in Lloyd George's coalition, but when the Party decided otherwise, Clynes resigned from the government.

After the 1918 general election Clynes was elected Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, in effect deputy leader. Clynes, along with Adamson, J H Thomas and (after a by-election) Arthur Henderson opposed the Lloyd George coalition government and also made clear his commitment to democratic socialism, denouncing communism in Russia and at home. In February 1921 Clynes became Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, with J H Thomas and Stephen Walsh as his Vice-Chairmen. He led the Labour Party into the 1922 general election, in which it gained 67 seats, raising its total to 142. However, in the post-election leadership election, Clynes was defeated by Ramsay MacDonald by 61 votes to 56. He served again as Vice-Chairman, 1922-31.

In January 1924 Clynes moved the vote of censure in the House of Commons which defeated Baldwin and led to the formation of the first Labour government. Clynes became Lord Privy Seal and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. Clynes' main work was acting in the Commons for MacDonald, who was often away in his second role of Foreign Secretary. He occupied No 11 Downing Street. In the second Labour government (1929-31), Clynes was Home Secretary. Clynes' decisions included refusing Trotsky asylum in Britain. He also took much interest in prison reform, improving factory conditions and in health and safety matters.

On his return to Parliament in 1935 Clynes was pressed to stand again as leader but declined. He remained a loyal and reliable elder statesman of the Labour Movement until he retired. His later years were clouded by the injuries his wife sustained from enemy action in the Second World War, which left her an invalid. He and Mary Elizabeth Harper, a textile worker, married in 1893. He died on 23 October 1949 and she soon afterwards.

He published his two volume Memoirs in 1937. Biographies include: Edward George, From Mill-Boy To Minister: The Life of the Rt. Hon J R Clynes MP, (1918); `A Parliamentary Colleague', `Rt. Hon J R Clynes: Deputy Leader of the Labour Party' in Herbert Tracey (ed), The Book of The Labour Party, Vol 3, London, Caxton Publishing Co, (late 1920s) and JS Middleton, `Clynes, John Robertson', DNB, 1950.