Why was James Ramsay Macdonald called a betrayer by many members of the Labour Party?
MacDonald led a minority Labour government following the general election of 1929, but his administration quickly became overwhelmed by the Great Depression. He agreed to a National Government coalition with “men of all parties” included in 1931, but this split the Labour Party along ideological lines (the National Government included many Conservatives in Cabinet posts).A general election shortly afterwards left MacDonald with only a handful of MPs of his own party, due to the Labour split, and dependent on what had become an overwhelming majority of Conservative MPs in the House of Commons. The official Labour Party had expelled MacDonald for the “betrayal” of forming a coalition which included Conservatives in the first place, before the election in October 1931.
