Labour Independent Group

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Not to be confused with Independent Labour Group.

The Labour Independent Group was an organisation of five former Labour Party Members of Parliament (MPs) in the United Kingdom.

In April 1948, the MP John Platts-Mills campaigned for Pietro Nenni and the Italian Socialist Party, against the Labour government policy. He was expelled from the party. In May 1949, six Labour MPs voted against signing the North Atlantic Treaty, and of them, Lester Hutchinson, Leslie Solley and Konni Zilliacus were expelled.[1]

All these MPs were known for their communist sympathies, and the four joined with D. N. Pritt, who had been expelled from the Labour Party in 1940 for supporting the Soviet Union in the Russo-Finnish War, to form the Labour Independent Group.[1] Pritt was appointed the group's Chairman.[2]

The group adopted a position of support for Joseph Stalin. Zilliacus developed a negative impression of Stalin when the two met, and so he resigned from the group later in 1949, instead adopting a position of support for Josip Broz Tito, who he had also met.[1]

All four LIG MPs stood as "Independent Labour" candidates in the 1950 UK general election, but all lost their seats, thus dissolving the group.[2]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Spartacus: Konni Zilliacus
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 F. W. S. Craig, Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections
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