Minor far-right parties

• British Peoples Party

• British First Party

• England First Party

• National Democrats

• National Front

• Nationalist Alliance (2005– , deregistered in 2008, but website still active)

• New Nationalist Party

• British National Socialist Movement

Minor religious parties

• Christian Peoples Alliance

• The Common Good

• Operation Christian Vote - The Reverend George Hargreaves and David Braid. Now the Christian Party (aka Scottish Christian Party and Welsh Christian Party)

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Labour first surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945 when it formed its first majority government. The Labour Party won the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair with a majority of 179 in the House of Commons, reduced to 167 in 2001 and to 66 in 2005. In 2010, the party lost its majority and with 258 seats became the second largest party in the House of Commons and the Official Opposition. Labour is currently the leading partner in the Welsh Government and the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament. It has 13 members in the European Parliament. The Labour Party is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International.

Party ideology

The party grew out of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19th century seeking representation for workers. It describes itself as a "democratic socialist party".^[4] However, since the "New Labour" project began, a larger proportion of its support has come from middle-class voters and many perceive this support as key to Labour's electoral success since 1997.^[4]

Historically the party was broadly in favour of socialism and advocated socialist policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers, the welfare state, publicly-funded healthcare and education. Beginning in the late-1980s the party moved away from socialist positions and adopted free market policies, leading many observers to describe the Labour Party as Social Democratic or Third Way, rather than democratic socialist.

Party electoral manifestos have not contained the term socialism since 1992.The new version states:

"The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."

Party constitution and structure

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party. The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the National Executive Committee, Labour Party Conference and National Policy Forum—although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on policy. Labour Party conferences now include more "keynote" addresses, guest speakers and question-and-answer sessions, while specific discussion of policy now takes place in the National Policy Forum.

The party had 198,026 members on 31 December 2005 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission, which was down on the previous year. In that year it had an income of about £35 million.

As a party founded by the unions to represent the interests of working-class people, Labour's link with the unions has always been a defining characteristic of the party. Internationally, the Labour Party is a member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists, while the party's MEPs sit in the Socialists & Democrats group.