Labour Party

Labour Party
Type:	Political party
Bases:	United Kingdom
Leader:	Clement Attlee Harold Wilson James Callaghan
Notable members:	Richard Hadleman Winston Churchill Richard Crossman Tony Benn Shirley Williams

The Labour Party was one of the two dominant political parties (the other being the Conservative Party) in the United Kingdom during the 20th (TV: Victory of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"]) and 21st centuries. (TV: Aliens of London ^[+]Loading...["Aliens of London (TV story)"], The Sound of Drums ^[+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"]) Several of its leaders had held the office of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, including Clement Attlee (AUDIO: Living History ^[+]Loading...["Living History (audio story)"], Churchill Victorious ^[+]Loading...["Churchill Victorious (audio story)"]) Harold Wilson, (AUDIO: State of Emergency ^[+]Loading...["State of Emergency (audio story)"]) and James Callaghan. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure ^[+]Loading...["The Oseidon Adventure (audio story)"]). Attlee also held the office of Deputy Prime Minister during World War II. (TV: Victory of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"])

History

Amy Pond noted that Winston Churchill was a member of the Labour Party, Liberal Party and the Conservative Party during his career. (WC: Amy's History Hunt ^[+]Loading...["Amy's History Hunt (video game)"]) Clement Attlee defeated him in the general election which followed World War II. (AUDIO: Living History ^[+]Loading...["Living History (audio story)"], Churchill Victorious ^[+]Loading...["Churchill Victorious (audio story)"])

In October 1963, the Labour leader Harold Wilson made a speech in favour of science technology at a Scarborough conference of his party. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy ^[+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])

In 1964, Labour won the UK general election and Wilson succeeded Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Prime Minister. James Callaghan was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the immediate aftermath of the election, General Peters led a military coup against Wilson's government. However, it was defeated by the Intrusion Countermeasures Group. (AUDIO: State of Emergency ^[+]Loading...["State of Emergency (audio story)"])

In 1965, Richard Crossman was another member of the Labour government. He served as the Minister for Housing and Local Government. (AUDIO: The Concrete Cage ^[+]Loading...["The Concrete Cage (audio story)"])

In later years, Wilson's position seemed untenable after the failures of the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility in October 1969 and the Inferno Project in February 1970 were publicised by James Stevens in his "Bad Science" series of articles.

Wilson called a general election for June 1970. The Labour Party lost and the Conservative leader Edward Heath became Prime Minister. Political observers speculated that the publication of the book version of "Bad Science" had coincided not-so-incidentally with the election. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy ^[+]Loading...["Who Killed Kennedy (novel)"])

By 1976, Labour was once again in government with Callaghan as Prime Minister. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure ^[+]Loading...["The Oseidon Adventure (audio story)"]) He served in that position until 1979, when he was succeeded by the Conservative Margaret Thatcher. (TV: Tooth and Claw ^[+]Loading...["Tooth and Claw (TV story)"])

On 9 June 1983, Labour lost the general election in a landslide to the ruling Conservative Party. (AUDIO: Rat Trap ^[+]Loading...["Rat Trap (audio story)"]) The party was still out of office in 1990 as Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister. (PROSE: The Assassin's Story ^[+]Loading...["The Assassin's Story (short story)"])

Behind the scenes

New Statesman cover 7-13 November 2014

• Several Prime Ministers who have been mentioned to exist in the DWU, but whose party has not been stated, were Labour in the real world. These include: Ramsay MacDonald, Tony Blair, and Gordon Brown. Other Labour Party leaders have also been mentioned in the DWU, including Keir Hardie, George Brown, Hugh Gaitskell, Michael Foot, and John Smith.
• The Labour Party was represented by the red-coloured Drone Dalek in one of the three alternate covers of the 3-9 April 2010 edition of the Radio Times, promoting the 2010 redesign of the Daleks, known in-universe as the New Dalek Paradigm, which was introduced in Victory of the Daleks ^[+]Loading...["Victory of the Daleks (TV story)"].
• The New Statesman cover for 7-13 November 2014 had the tagline "Is it too late for Ed Miliband to regenerate Labour?". The cover art included Tony Blair, Harold Wilson, Ed Miliband, Neil Kinnock, and Gordon Brown as the Fifth, Third, Eleventh, Ninth, and Fourth Doctors, respectively. Overlooking the Doctors is a blue-coloured Strategist Dalek, which the Radio Times previously used to represent the Conservative Party.
• According to the BBC Classic Doctor Who website, in the early 1970s, the Liberal Jeremy Thorpe formed a coalition government after Tory and Socialist policies towards alien life drew people towards the Liberal and fringe parties.
• While Amy's History Hunt lists Labour as one of the parties Winston Churchill was at one point a member of, in real life he was never a Labour member. He did, however, work with Labour during the wartime coalition.
• In 2019, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was gifted a copy of Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor ^[+]Loading...["Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor (home video)"] by Nabil Shaban, who played the character Sil.
• Actor Tracy Brabin served as the Labour MP for Batley and Spen from 2016 to 2021. She is currently the incumbent Mayor of West Yorkshire, serving in the position since 2021. She performed her DWU role prior to being elected to parliament.
• Actor Cheryl Hall was a Labour parliamentary candidate for Canterbury at the 1997 general election. She also served in Kent County Council as leader of the Labour group. She performed her DWU role prior to her political career.
• Actor Michael Cashman served as a Labour MEP for West Midlands from 1999 to 2014. He sat as a Labour peer in the House of Lords, but is currently suspended from the party as of June 2024. He performed his DWU role prior to his political career.
• Alan Sugar, who portrayed himself in the DWU television stories The Power of Three ^[+]Loading...["The Power of Three (TV story)"] and Looking for Pudsey ^[+]Loading...["Looking for Pudsey (TV story)"], sat as a Labour peer in the House of Lords from 2009 to 2015. He currently sits as an independent.