Event | 1923 General Election centenary commemoration

Discover how the labour movement developed and the impact of the election, which led to Britain’s first Labour government taking office in January 1924.

• 11.00am – 11.45am & 2.00pm – 2.45pm:
  Guided tours of PHM galleries exploring key artefacts from the museum’s collection including the first minutes of the Parliamentary Labour Party from 1906 and an oil lamp belonging to the founder of the Labour Party Keir Hardie.
• 11.00am – 4.00pm:
  Archive open day where you can meet PHM’s Archive Team and get hands-on with the museum’s collection of Labour Party gems, including materials relating to the 1923 General Election.
• 12.00pm – 1.30pm:
  In conversation exploring the roots of the labour movement, the formation of the Labour Party, and the significance of the 1923 General Election, drawing on the museum’s collection.  Bringing contemporary and historical issues together, the conversation will be introduced by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Angela Rayner, with guest panelists including Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham Steven Fielding; Professor of Modern History at Cardiff University Clare Griffiths; and labour historian Professor Keith Laybourn.

Please note there’s one tour per event ticket, and places are limited; pre-book your slot to guarantee your place.

Suitable for 16+ (under 18s must have an accompanying adult).

Book your place now

• Not suitable for groups of more than five people
• If you require British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation for the guided tours of PHM galleries please contact access@phm.org.uk or 0161 838 9190
• BSL interpretation, live captions, and hearing loop provided for the in conversation

Speaker biographies:

Angela Rayner is Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne.  At 16 she left her local comprehensive with no qualifications and a baby on the way, after being told she would ‘never amount to anything’.  She began working life as a care worker for Stockport Council, where she became a UNISON rep and would go on to be UNISON’s most senior elected official in the North West of England.  When she was elected to parliament in 2015 she was the first woman MP in her consistency’s 180 year history.  Following a promotion to the shadow whip’s office she was appointed as Shadow Pensions Minister, before becoming a member of the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Education.  In 2020, Angela was elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.  She is also Shadow Deputy Prime Minister, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.

Steven Fielding is Emeritus Professor of Political History at the University of Nottingham.  He has written widely on the Labour Party and its myths as well as realities as well as co-writing most recently The Churchill Myths (Oxford, 2020).  He is working on a history of the Labour Party since 1976 to be published by Polity during the first year of the first Starmer government.  He has presented a number of documentaries for BBC Radio 4 and sometimes writes for the Financial Times, Guardian and Spectator.

Clare Griffiths is Professor of Modern History at Cardiff University.  She has written on various aspects of the history of the Labour Party and the labour movement, with a particular interest in Labour’s rural and agricultural policies.  Her publications include Labour and the Countryside: the politics of rural Britain 1918-1939 (2007), and articles exploring topics ranging from commemorations of the Tolpuddle Martyrs to the politics of neighbourliness.

Professor Keith Laybourn is Diamond Jubilee Professor Emeritus of the University of Huddersfield and Visiting Professor at York St John University.  He has taught at Huddersfield for over 50 years and published over 50 books, and more than 100 articles on British labour history, gambling, and cultural history.  He jointly wrote a book with author John Shepherd, Britain’s First Labour Government (2006), and is President of the Society for the Study of Labour History (SSLH).  He is currently also Associate Editor of the International Journal Labor History.