Keir Hardie
Keir Hardie was a Labour politician and member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
Contents
History
Hardie was elected to represent his miner union in 1879.
He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1892, although he lost that seat three years later.
He returned to the Commons in 1900. He and Richard Bell were the only members of the LRC to gain a seat in that election, but it nonetheless provided a platform for him to found the Labour Party and serve as the first leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP). In the 1906 general election, largely thanks to the Lib-Lab Pact, the party won 29 seats.
In the party's first annual conference, held in Belfast in 1907, Hardie forced the establishment of a 'conscience clause' in party proceedings by threatening to resign. This meant that members of the PLP are not bound to the standing orders adopted by the party itself, whereas in trade unions these are generally compulsory.
He resigned from party leadership the next year. He remained a member of the Parliament up to his death in 1915.
Policies
Hardie was, of course, an advocate for unions and labour.
He was also a prominent advocate for women's rights and suffrage especially.
He opposed joining World War 1, which ultimately only served to further alienate him from the party