Catalogue Number
NMLH.1993.69
Object Name
Card
Title
'Vote for Hardie, Keir. The Labour Candidate.'
Place
West Ham South, London, UK
People
Keir Hardie, Labour Party
Events
Elections, 1892 General Election
Description
A brown paper leaflet encouraging voters to elect the Labour Party's Keir Hardie.
This leaflet was most likely produced for the 1892 election when Keir Hardie (15 August 1856-26 September 1915) was elected as MP for West Ham South, in London. He became the country's first socialist MP, and held the seat until 1895, later becoming MP for Merthyr Tydfil in Wales from 1900 until his death. Hardie was the co-founder of the Scottish Labour Party (1888), the Independent Labour Party (1893), and the Labour Representation Committee (1900) which later became the Labour Party. He founded working class focused political parties to address the needs of workers he felt were neglected by upper class politicians.
Hardie began his working life as a child coal miner, later becoming leader of a miners union. He was the first parliamentary leader of the Labour Party from 1906-1908, and resigned the leadership to campaign on issues like women's suffrage, self-rule in colonised India, and opposing British involvement in World War I. Hardie was calling for a pacifist general strike opposing the War shortly before his death in 1915.
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