The British left, or the Left in Britain, can refer to multiple concepts. It is sometimes used as shorthand for groups aligned with the Labour Party. It can also refer to groups and political parties that have sought egalitarian changes in the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United Kingdom. There are various sub-groups, split between reformist and revolutionary viewpoints. Progressives and social democrats believe that equality can be accommodated into existing capitalist structures, but they differ in their criticism of capitalism and on the extent of reform and the welfare state. Anarchists, communists, and socialists, among others on the far left, on the other hand argue for abolition of the capitalist system.
History
Leftism in the United Kingdom is thought to stretch back to the aftermath of the English Civil War in the 17th century, represented by groups such as the 'True Levellers' or Diggers. Chartism was one of the first post-civil war left-wing movements. Notions of socialism in Britain have taken many different forms from the utopian socialism and philanthropism of Robert Owen through to the reformist electoral project enshrined in the birth of the Labour Party. The Great Unrest of the pre-World War I years and the strikes of 1919 represented surges in left-wing activity. The Attlee ministry's establishment of the welfare-state is often considered a victory for the left. The New Left of 1968 represented another wave of activity. The miners' strike of 1984–85 saw the most recent large-scale working class movement; the anti-Poll Tax campaign of the late 1980s/early 1990s was also a significant left-wing social movement. The alter-globalisation and Occupy movements had a presence in Britain in the early-late 2000s, anti-austerity campaigns made up the bulk of the left's activity in the 2010s, and Black Lives Matter as well as pro-Palestine movements remain the largest movements of the 2020s.
Historical Anti-Poll Tax Federation Anti-Nazi League Awkward squad (trade unionists) Battle of Cable Street Chartism Communist Party of Great Britain Diggers General Strike Great Dock Strike Great Unrest Independent Labour Party Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners Levellers Merthyr Rising Miners' strike (1972) Miners' strike (1984–85) Peasants Revolt Peterloo Massacre Revolutionary Communist Party Social Democratic Federation Socialist League Tolpuddle Martyrs Vietnam Solidarity Campaign Workers' Socialist Federation
Contemporary
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Enough is Enough Extinction Rebellion People's Assembly Against Austerity Squatting Stop the War Coalition Trade unionism
Key figures The following is a list of figures significant for the British left.
Activists
Mark Ashton Bob Crow Jessie Eden Jennie Formby Willie Gallacher Ken Gill Henry Gunter Hefina Headon Betty Heathfield Winifred Horrabin Claudia Jones Dorothy Kuya Jon Lansman Abraham Lazarus Norman Le Brocq Mikaela Loach Mick Lynch Len McCluskey Tom Mann Albert Meltzer Sylvia Pankhurst Betty Papworth Vanessa Redgrave Arthur Scargill Mark Serwotka Thora Silverthorne Norah Smyth Jessie Stephen Matt Wrack
Journalists
Catherine Isabella Barmby Aaron Bastani Beatrix Campbell Paul Foot Owen Hatherley Mabel Hope C. L. R. James Owen Jones Alan McCombes George Monbiot Laurie Penny Charlotte Raven Ash Sarkar Mary Stanley Low Polly Toynbee
Politicians
Diane Abbott Tony Banks, Baron Stratford Tony Benn Aneurin Bevan Harpal Brar Richard Burgon Andy Burnham Barbara Castle Jeremy Corbyn Stafford Cripps Frances Curran Kat Fletcher Michael Foot George Galloway Keir Hardie Eric Heffer Neil Kinnock Ian Lavery Clive Lewis Ken Livingstone Caroline Lucas Rebecca Long-Bailey John McDonnell Dave Nellist Zack Polanski Hannah Sell Dennis Skinner Zarah Sultana Peter Taaffe Emily Thornberry Nadia Whittome Ellen Wilkinson
Thinkers
Tariq Ali Perry Anderson Sam Aaronovitch John Goodwyn Barmby Gurminder K. Bhambra Ian Birchall Enid Charles G.D.H. Cole Terry Eagleton Mark Fisher Paul Gilroy Kathleen Gough Stuart Hall David Harvey Margot Heinemann Christopher Hill Eric Hobsbawm John Holloway Ruth Kinna Ralph Miliband William Morris Rajani Palme Dutt Sheila Rowbotham James Schneider Ambalavaner Sivanandan Cliff Slaughter E. P. Thompson Dona Torr Raymond Williams
Left-wing electoral organisations active in Britain The largest party on the British left is the left-wing Green Party of England and Wales. Following the most recent general election the Greens have 5 MPs.
The second largest party on the British left, by membership, is the centre-left Scottish National Party (SNP), which has 56,000 members despite only being active in Scotland. The SNP has 9 MPs.
The other four political parties on the left and with representation in the British parliament are the centre-left Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) of Northern Ireland, the centre-left Plaid Cymru (only active in Wales), Sinn Féin (only active in Ireland), and Your Party. Plaid has 4 MPs, the SDLP has 2 MPs, Sinn Féin has 7 MPs (albeit it does not sit in Westminster as it refuses to take the parliamentary Oath of Allegiance), and Your Party has 1 MP. The Independent Alliance, with 5 MPs and formed following the 2024 general election, is a parliamentary grouping rather than a political party.
Labour Party
Traditionally, the biggest party on the political left in the United Kingdom in terms of members and representation was the Labour Party, which was founded as the Labour Representation Committee (LRC) in 1900, however it is now generally viewed as a centrist party.
With the party's rebranding as New Labour in the 1990s under the leadership of Tony Blair, the party accepted a number of economic policies associated with the Right, causing it to be identified as centrist (Blair himself stated that his ministry would have governed from the political centre) rather than socialist, despite adding democratic socialism to the party's constitution, and was considered by fewer critics as being a party of the left; Blair described New Labour's ideology as Third Way, like Bill Clinton's Democratic Party in the United States. The Labour Party under Blair's leadership accepted many of the neoliberal economic policies enforced by the previous Conservative Party governments in the 1980s and 1990s, and continued in successive Conservative governments in the 2010s.
When Ed Miliband was elected as Leader of the Labour Party in 2010, he announced the abandonment of the New Labour agenda, and promised to return to socialism,"Ed Miliband: I'm bringing socialism back to Britain", The Daily Telegraph, September 2013. clamp down on tax avoidance, introduce a wealth tax in the form of a mansion tax, raise income tax for high earners, and break up the banks."Labour will restore 50p top rate of income tax, says Ed Balls", The Guardian, January 2014 The party was subsequently criticised by some, including Blair himself, as straying leftwards from the centre ground of British politics, and that Miliband was a more traditional left-wing politician. Others disputed this view, and put Labour's loss at the 2015 United Kingdom general election down to the party being too right-wing.
Labour's status as a socialist party has been disputed by those who do not see the party as being part of the left, although the general consensus under Jeremy Corbyn was that Labour was closer to the Left on the left–right political spectrum. As a result of this, there has always been tension between the Left and the Labour Party. The Corbyn Labour Party leadership campaign, which led to a landslide victory at the 2015 Labour Party leadership election held in the month of September, represented a revival of the Labour left and led to a significant increase in membership; in the shadow cabinet reshuffle that followed, John McDonnell (chairman of the Labour Representation Committee) and Diane Abbott (member of the Socialist Campaign Group) were both appointed to Corbyn's shadow cabinet. While not winning, Labour made significant gains in terms of vote share and modest improvements in terms of seats, enough to deny a Conservative majority and led to a hung parliament, at the 2017 United Kingdom general election, which was taken as a vindication by some of the left turn. The party fell in the 2019 United Kingdom general election to its lowest share of seats since 1935, although it was not the party's worst election in terms of vote share (it did better than in 1931, 1983, 1987, 2010 and 2015 - and secured more actual popular votes than in 2024); many believe this was due to a complicated Labour Party manifesto and Brexit policy, a poor approach to campaigning, the unpopularity of Corbyn's leadership and an electoral system of First Past the Post that does not always reflect the popular vote.
In 2020, Keir Starmer became the Leader of the Labour Party and since then the party has become more "business-friendly" and moved to the political centre.
Internal groups
Campaign for Labour Party Democracy Centre-Left Grassroots Alliance Labour Representation Committee Momentum Open Labour Socialist Campaign Group
Magazine support
Chartist Tribune
Green Party of England and Wales
In 2015, the membership of the Green Party of England and Wales quadrupled, and its support in national opinion polls sextupled. Several factors contributed, including the collapse of the Lib Dem vote, the influence of social media and greater awareness among younger people about the rise of other left-wing parties in Europe such as: Podemos in Spain and Syriza in Greece, as well as a rise in anti-austerity movements across the UK and Europe.See: list of political parties in the United Kingdom opposed to austerity. Other factors included the Scottish independence referendum, which proved to be an inspiration for a new kind of politics. Other key factors had been the contrast in conferences of the Green Party and Labour in September 2014, and the media exclusion of the Greens during and following their successes at the European elections; a petition against the media blackout of the Green Party reached 260,000 signatures.
The party also received a significant spike in membership during January 2015 following David Cameron's demand that the Greens be included in the leaders' debates for the 2015 general election. The Green Party has been included in a seven-way television debate. The Greens' 2015 spring conference had a record 1,300 members attend; the party became the second-largest of the European Greens in this period, as well as increasing significantly in national polls from an average 1% to 7%. It beat the Liberal Democrats to fourth place at the 2014 European Elections with 8%, under a proportional voting system, having a third MEP elected. However the Greens achieved only a 1.6% vote share at the 2017 general election, following a rejection by Labour of an election pact and an increase in vote share by the two major parties.
In the 2019 general election, the Green Party increased their vote share by 65% to 2.7%. In the 2021 United Kingdom local elections, the party made a net gain of 91 council seats, taking its national total to a record 444. In the 2024 general election the Green Party received 6.7% of the total vote, and elected 4 MPs. In the same year they achieved a total of 812 councillors.
Internal groups Greens Organise
Other organisations The Workers Party of Britain was formed in December 2019. It is a socialist and socially conservative party. Its leader George Galloway briefly became the Member of Parliament for Rochdale in 2024, following a by-election.