Leaders: Arthur Henderson 1908-10, 1914-17 and 1931-31

Arthur Henderson (1863-1935)

Arthur Henderson's political journey reflected several key influences on the development of the Labour Party: trade unionism, Nonconformist Christianity and Lib-Labbery. Like the Labour Party he progressed from protest to power, holding high office as Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary. In the traumatic years of 1931-2, Henderson was a crucial figure, eventually replacing MacDonald as Leader of the Labour Party when the National Government was formed. Always a popular figure among activists, he was to become known as 'Uncle Arthur', and played a crucial role in developing trade union influence on the Party. Born in Glasgow, on 20 September 1863, Henderson grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he held an apprenticeship in an iron foundry. He was an active trade unionist as a member of the Iron Founders' Union, for which he became a district delegate in 1892. In this role, he was a proponent of the idea of co-operation between employers and employees in joint committees in order to settle industrial disputes. Until the end of the First World War he remained a prominent trade unionist, part of the 1919 National Industrial Conference, and the earlier National Industrial Council of 1919. His past as a trade unionist was to remain a constant influence on his career, and he was a vital bridge between the Labour Party and the unions.

A further influence on Henderson was Christianity. As a Wesleyan Methodist, he was both a widely-known lay preacher in the 1890s, and a speaker in favour of temperance. His first experience of party politics was as a member of the Liberal Party, though his relationship with the party was far from straightforward. A member of the Liberal Party, he was elected onto Newcastle City Council in 1894 under the Labour banner. In 1895, he was the Liberal general election agent for the two-member Barnard Castle constituency (having sought the Liberal nomination himself), and three years later, became a 'Lib-Lab' member of Darlington Council, where he was mayor in 1903.

In the meantime, Henderson had been selected as the Labour Representation Committee candidate for Barnard Castle, and was elected at a by-election in 1903 - in the face of Liberal opposition. He remained very much a Lib-Lab MP, not joining any kind of socialist organisation until he became involved in the Fabian Society in 1912. He held his Barnard Castle seat until 1918, when he stood unsuccessfully in East Ham (South). A chequered election record for the remainder of his career saw him win Widnes in an August 1919 by-election, only to lose it in 1922. A January 1923 by-election win in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (East) kept him in the House no further than a defeat in the general election later in the year. He was therefore forced to fight and win Burnley in a January 1924 by-election, which he managed to hold in both the 1924 and 1929 general elections. Further defeat came in 1931, and his final seat was Derbyshire Clay Cross, won in September 1933, and held until his death. Such electoral vicissitudes do not indicate any particular hostility to Henderson from the voters. Rather, they reflect the roller-coaster ride that was the inter-war Labour Party. One of Henderson's achievements was to stay on the train - and it was a mark of his popularity in the party, where he became known as 'Uncle Arthur', that he was able to carpet-bag from one seat to another so often.

Even greater success was seen when he won high office in the Labour Party. Serving as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party in 1908-10, he became Secretary of the Labour Party in 1912, holding the post until 1934. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he was again Parliamentary Chairman, taking over from Ramsay MacDonald. Henderson then entered Asquith's coalition Cabinet in May 1915 as President of the Board of Education, having already negotiated the Treasury Agreement on behalf of the unions in March of that year. He remained closely involved with the government's Labour relations, becoming Paymaster General in August 1916. Later that year, when Lloyd George became Prime Minister, Henderson was made a member of the five-man War Cabinet.

He had to resign in the summer of 1917 (being replaced as party chairman by William Adamson), after the infamous 'doormat' incident, when he was made to wait outside the War Cabinet for an hour while his colleagues debated and condemned his liaisons with socialists from abroad. Henderson had advocated Labour participation in an international socialist conference in Stockholm, attended by representatives from all countries, including Britain's wartime enemies. Having liaised with Russian Communists over the matter, he gained a reputation as a 'hob-nobber with Bolsheviks', even though he had been an enthusiastic supporter of the Provisional Government in Russia in 1917. His final resignation came a week after the doormat incident, when Lloyd George had suspended him from the Cabinet. Out of office, Henderson devoted his energies to party organisation, especially revising the party's constitution, and securing union acceptance of the political levy. His work ensured that the unions dominated key areas of the party's decision-making for years to come.

When Labour came to power in 1924, Henderson served as Home Secretary, though he also took part in the negotiation of the Geneva Protocol, the doomed attempt to strengthen the League of Nations' Covenant. During this period, he became a fervent supporter of the League of Nations, and a critic of what he called 'the system of Versailles'. He believed that the League, backed by the military might of its members, was a far better mechanism for keeping peace than the situation in the early 1920s, which maintained aspects of the pre-Great War system of 'secret diplomacy', so strongly opposed by many in the Labour Party.

Henderson was not able to put all of his views on the League into practice when he became Foreign Secretary in the Labour government of 1929-31. Henderson certainly played an important role in securing the withdrawal of allied troops from the Rhineland. However, MacDonald's personal interest in foreign affairs reduced Henderson's influence. The Prime Minister took the lead in several areas, notably Anglo-American relations. In others, such as relations with France and Germany, they were actually rivals, with the effect that attempts to agree a loan to Germany in July 1931 fell apart. Difficult relations between MacDonald and Henderson reached a climax in the July-August 1931 financial crisis. Initially, Henderson's views wavered, but his instinctive support for the TUC eventually meant that he supported its opposition to cuts in social benefits, thus ensuring that the ministers opposed to MacDonald had an alternative leader.

With MacDonald forming the National Government in August 1931, Henderson found himself as Party leader. As leader of the opposition to the National Government, the MacDonald-Henderson personal rivalry had been formalised, but Henderson's time as leader was short-lived. Having lost his Burnley seat in the election of October 1931, he was replaced as acting leader of the parliamentary party by George Lansbury, the only remaining Labour ex-cabinet minister both inside Parliament and outside the government. Henderson formally retained his post of party leader until 1932 when he resigned, but it was Lansbury who was really calling the shots.

Having left Parliament briefly (he was to return in 1933), Henderson's ministerial experience and belief in collective security through the League made him an obvious choice to be President of the Geneva Disarmament Conference in 1932. Though the conference ultimately achieved little, his work there earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1934. He died on 20 October 1935. Henderson had married Eleanor Watson in 1889. They had one daughter and three sons.

In addition to articles and pamphlets, Henderson wrote Labour's Way to Peace (1935). Modern biographies are F.M. Leventhal, Arthur Henderson (1989) and Chris Wrigley, Arthur Henderson (1990). Other important studies include: David Carlton, MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government (1970); Ross McKibbin, The Evolution of the Labour Party, 1910-24 (1974); and J.M. Winter, Socialism and the Challenge of War (1974).