Mr MacDonald in office to-day: Mr Baldwin to resign at once
22 January 1924
The defeat of the government came shortly after eleven o’clock after the close of the debate, which had been wound up for Labour by Mr MacDonald, the prime minister-to-be. After the defeat, which was greeted with loud opposition cheering, the amended address in reply to the king’s speech, was carried by 328 votes to 251 – a majority of 77 (five more than for the Labour amendment now embodied in it).
Mr Baldwin will tender his resignation to the king this morning after meeting the cabinet. The king will then send for Mr Ramsay MacDonald who, our political correspondent states, will take up office as premier and foreign secretary to-day.
Mr Ramsay MacDonald, in a statement to the press at midnight, said:
It is not a moment for elation. It is a terrible responsibility. We shall have to do our best to face it, fail or succeed. I can only say this – that no government that was ever responsible for the affairs of this country will more honestly try to serve it. I am very proud of the Labour party and it will be a great inspiration to every working man and working woman in the country to work and to sacrifice to do their party honour and to enable it to succeed.
Our London correspondence
22 January 1924
London, Monday night
The event fantastically imagined and described by generations of novelists and dreamt of by enthusiasts throughout the kingdom took place quietly enough to-night, with no excited crowd round the Houses of Parliament and no great meetings in the labouring districts waiting expectantly for the tidings. The coming into power of Labour came quietly, almost apologetically, with most people asleep in bed, and even the enthusiasts disputing whether it had come at the right time and what it could do. England’s distrust of high notes is as deep as ever. “Labour between two policemen” has been one favourite picture of late of the coming government by Labour. No doubt it consoled many people. But Labour does not see it that way.
A pessimist
On such an historic occasion as to-night history expects historical utterances. Here is one made to a friend to-night by a true blue Tory and Protectionist of the old school: “The awful thought is creeping over me that they may form a very efficient government.”
The new premier welcomed
From our parliamentary correspondent
23 January 1924
Westminster, Tuesday night
If it were permissible to apply the wardrobe style of parliamentary commentary to masculine as well as feminine attire, one might be tempted to say that the only external sign of the change of government at to-day’s brief sitting of the Commons was Mr Ramsay MacDonald’s frock-coat – a form of garment rarely seen in these days even at Westminster, except in association with an official visit to Buckingham Palace.
In the old-fashioned phrase the frock-coat spoke volumes, all in terms of the privy council, the kissing of hands, the acceptance of seals, and the circulation of dispatch-boxes. Not a syllable escaped the new premier’s lips throughout the duration of the sitting, but to see him in his significant sartorial trappings, was enough. Both at his coming and his going out his followers cheered their gravely preoccupied leader to the echo.
An untimely thanksgiving
As soon as the preliminary business was over Mr Baldwin rose to announce that as the result of Monday night’s vote “the government have tendered their resignation to the king and his Majesty has been graciously pleased to accept.” Before, however, he could proceed with his statement the Conservative leader was checked by a sudden outburst of enthusiasm from his supporters, some of whom sprang to their feet in order to give more forcible expression to their feelings.
With unimpaired self-control and speaking in his usual matter-of-fact manner, Mr Baldwin then made the announcement of the king’s acceptance of his resignation. “Thank God for that,’’ exclaimed a deep voice from the Labour benches, but despite its apparent piety the thank-offering seemed to be generally resented as equally tactless and untimely. On the whole, it must be owned, Labour behaved with remarkable decorum in its hour of triumph, refraining even from speech, apart from the solitary and inevitable exception of Mr Jack Jones.
Margaret Bondfield appointed parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Labour, the first woman non-cabinet minister
Editorial: Labour’s chance
28 January 1924
Surely there can never have been a more interesting moment in our political history than the present. Plenty, no doubt, there have been more perilous, exciting, or catastrophic, but was there ever one so unlooked for, so full of strange possibilities, so anomalous superficially and, at bottom, so perfectly illustrating at once the genius of our people and the spirit of the constitution? In what other country would it have been possible for a new party representing what abroad would be called the Extreme Left in politics, a large proportion of whose most prominent men are drawn from the humblest rank of society, to enter on the direction of affairs not only without exciting any violent alarm but with the cordial goodwill of the other parties in the State?
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