Labour Party
The Labour Party is a political party in the United Kingdom.
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History
Several precursor organizations to the party were formed in the 1890s and 1900s. MacDonald's Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is the organization that formally became the modern party. Hardie's Independent Labour Party (ILP) was technically an affiliated group, until formally merging in 1947, but Hardie himself would serve as the first party leader.
In the 1906 general election, largely thanks to the Lib-Lab Pact negotiated between MacDonald and Liberal Herbert Gladstone, the party won 29 seats. This as the first in a series of electoral collaborations between the two parties.
Compared to the other main parties in the UK, there is a distinction between the 'Labour Party' and the 'Parliamentary Labour Party' (PLP). Generally the latter is subservient to the former. In the party's first annual conference however, Hardie forced the establishment of a 'conscience clause'. This meant that members of the PLP are not bound to the standing orders adopted by the party itself.