Ramsay MacDonald

Unemployment Act: introduction of Unemployment Assistance Boards. Special Areas Act: introduced regional assistance to areas of mass unemployment. Born 12 October 1866, James Ramsay MacDonald was the first Labour Prime Minister and came from a working class family. He grew up in Lossiemouth, Scotland. As the Labour Party grew, however, he was criticised as being too moderate. His opposition to the Great War made him more unpopular still, and he was mercilessly attacked by the press. He lost his seat in 1918, but later returned to represent a Welsh mining constituency. In the first-ever Labour government, the survival of MacDonald’s small Commons majority depended on the good will of opposition parties. This difficult situation prompted him to call an election. During the campaign a newspaper published the notorious ‘Zinoviev letter’. Although later accepted to be a fraud, the letter ruined MacDonald’s anti-Communist credentials. His Labour administration was then heavily defeated in the election. In his second minority government in 1929, MacDonald set an historic precedent by appointing Margaret Bondfield as the first female minister. Economic crises, including the doubling of unemployment levels, persuaded him to also include the opposition leaders in a cross-party national government. However, this step lost him the support of his own party and he resigned in 1935. Do not include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.