13 January 1893
Independent Labour Party founded

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As working people lose faith in the Liberals, socialist movements start to form. Two of the most important are the Marxist-based Social Democratic Federation (SDF) and the Fabian Society.

Labour is also becoming politically organised. In 1892, James Keir Hardie, John Burns and J Wilson are elected as independent labour MPs – Hardie creates a sensation by entering Parliament wearing a cloth cap and tweed suit. The following year at a conference in Bradford, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) is founded.

Its primary aim is to have working-class members returned to Parliament who are unconnected to the Liberal Party. It does not have direct links with trade union organisations (unlike the Labour Party; see below). One of its key goals is collective ownership of the economy, but it is reformist rather than revolutionary. Even so, many of the older trade unions are wary of the new party, preferring to work with the Liberals to field Liberal-Labour candidates.

In the 1895 general election, no new ILP candidate wins a seat and Keir Hardie loses his. However, employer attacks on unionised labour and some new anti-picketing laws result, in 1900, in the formation of the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), comprising the ILP, the SDF, the Fabians and trade union organisations. The LRC's main goal is simply to get working people's interests directly represented in Parliament, and in the 1900 'Khaki Election', two of its members are elected to Parliament (one is Keir Hardie). In 1903, the LRC makes an electoral pact with the Liberals. In the general election in 1906, 29 LRC members are elected. They then form the new Labour Party, with Keir Hardie as its leader.

Meanwhile, the ILP continues to put forward candidates of its own who, if elected, generally follow the Labour Party line. The ILP's last successes are three candidates elected in the 1945 general election.

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