Roger Smalley has written an interesting biography of one of the Labour members of Parliament of the years 1918 to 1924. While a great deal has been written about the leading figures of Labour in 1906, those elected in 1918 are much less well known. The 1918 Parliamentary Labour Party has been dismissed by many labour historians as a party awaiting the return of Ramsay MacDonald and one largely dominated
by trade unionists of limited ability. Labour historians have often concentrated on the movement for ‘Direct Action’ in the years 1919 to 1921 rather than Parliamentary politics.
Dan Irving was different to the 1918 Labour intake in that he was a socialist rather than a trade unionist. The labour movement in Burnley preferred a socialist rather than a cotton trade unionist as their candidate in the 1918 General Election. Though not born in Burnley, Irving had spent his early life in Birmingham and Bristol. After an industrial accident in Bristol in which he lost his leg in an era when there was little compensation, before the 1896 Act, he moved north, He had already engaged in socialist politics having joined the SDF ( Social Democrat Federation) he became the paid secretary of the Burnley SDF, Burnley having one of the most active branches in the country. Burnley was one of the two largest cotton weaving towns in Lancashire with a tradition of radical causes unlike Blackburn which had a strong tradition
of working class conservatism. Irving was to spend the rest of his life in Burnley where he had a major impact on the town’s politics.
Hyndman was the Parliamentary candidate for the SDF on three occasions before 1914 in Burnley, while Irving was elected on to the Town Council. The main rival for political influence among the weavers was David Holmes, TUC leader and President of the Weavers Amalgamation, as well as a Liberal. Burnley weavers played a prominent part in the labour unrest prior to 1914. Irving followed Hyndman in supporting the Great War, a move that was widely popular among working class Lancashire. This was probably a factor in him being chosen as Labour candidate in 1918 and his subsequent election. The Lancashire weaving towns returned a number of Labour candidates, though not Philip Snowden in Blackburn whose criticism of the war had made him unpopular. Irving had a successful career in Parliament being re-elected in 1922 and 1923 but died in early 1924 as the first Labour government emerged. The account by Roger Smalley is a welcome contribution to our understanding of the growing success of Labour in the 1920s, following the Great War. It also returns a leading provincial socialist back to the political prominence he deserves.
Alan Fowler