Labour History Facts
- Ann Taylor was the youngest Labour MP ever to be appointed to government office, at the age of 29 in 1977.
- Six Labour Cabinet Ministers have died in office – Lord Thomson (1930), Viscount Hartshorn (1931), Ellen Wilkinson (1947), Ernie Bevin (1951), Tony Crosland (1977) and Lord Williams of Mostyn (2003).
- The first minister to resign from a Labour government on policy grounds was Sir Oswald Mosley in 1930.
- More than 25 current Labour MPs are related to former MPs.
- In the 1997 election, Labour won 418 seats, exactly twice as many as the 209 seats won in the 1983 election.
- Denis Healey's margin of victory over Tony Benn in the 1981 Deputy Leadership election was 0.852%.
- The last seat that Labour lost directly to the Conservatives in a by-election was Ilford North in March 1978.
- The first women Labour MPs were Margaret Bondfield and Susan Lawrence, both elected in 1923.
- In 1906 black Labour Party member John Archer was elected to Battersea council – he became mayor in 1913.
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Copyright 2005 Labour History Group