WI: Clynes remained Labour leader

Techdread

Techdread

J. R. Clynes seems to be someone that doesn't seem to draw a large amount of interest for modern historians, at least when attempting to do more research into him (Which turned out to be quite sparse & limited). However, he served as the leader of the Labour Party going into the 1922 General Election that saw it displace the Liberals as the second party in British politics. Clynes would be replaced as Labour leader by former leader Ramsay MacDonald (MacDonald had resigned during WWI due to his pacifism and refusal to join any National Coalition government, being succeeded by Arthur Henderson for most of the war), but only by a margin of five votes.

After reading the essay on this possibility in Prime Minister Who Never Were, I thought I'd put the question forward to the site here; what do you think would have happened if Clynes had remained Labour leader rather than narrowly losing to MacDonald? It seems likely, if not certain, Clynes would become Prime Minister following the 1923 General Election and Baldwin's failed vote of no-confidence the following January. But how would a Clynes premiership go?

Clynes, unlike MacDonald, was a fervent anti-communist so the 'Campbell Case' and 'Zinoviev Letter' might have had lessened effects on this different leadership going into a 1924 General Election, so how might the results have differed?
 

David T

I really wonder how long the first Labour Government would have lasted anyway, with or without the Campbell case and the Zinoviev letter (incidentally, many historians question whether the "letter" actually hurt Labour very much in the ensuing election--after all, the Labour vote stood up pretty well; it was the Liberals who were shattered). It was a minority government, made possible by the temporary resurgence of the Liberals, which in turn was only made possible by Baldwin's temporary embrace of protectionism.

Moreover, I am not even sure that with Clynes as Leader, Labour would have done as well as they did in the 1923 general election. "David Kirkwood, a fellow Labour MP, commented: "Nature had dealt unevenly with them. She had endowed MacDonald with a magnificent presence, a full resonant voice, and a splendid dignity. Clynes was small, unassuming, of uneven features, and voice without colour." http://spartacus-educational.com/TUclynes.htm

Assuming that Clynes does lead a minority government and that it doesn't last too long, I once wrote,


***

The question is what
happens if Labour returns to power under Clynes' leadership in 1929. In
OTL he was a strong opponent of MacDonald's proposed austerity measures
and of MacDonald's decision to split with Labour and form a National
Government. OTOH, given that as in 1924 Labour did not have a majority
and could not govern without Liberal support, I'm not sure what difference
that would make. The Labour government will probably fall, anyway, and
some sort of Conservative-dominated government (whether or not called
"national government") will take office, but I'm not sure Labour would
suffer quite as catastrophic a defeat as it did in the 1931 election of
OTL where its own Prime Minister had left it. David Marquand has written:

"For good or ill, MacDonald’s role was once again pivotal. Had he stuck to
his original inclinations, and rejected the King's pleadings that it was
his duty to form a National Government, a Conservative-Liberal coalition
would almost certainly have taken office instead. The Labour Party would
have been deeply divided, but it would not have been irrevocably split. We
cannot know what would have happened thereafter. Probably, there would
still have been an early general election; probably, Labour would have
lost. But it is hard to believe that it would have suffered the
catastrophe that in fact overwhelmed it, that the Conservatives would have
dominated the politics of the 1930s as completely as they did or that the
scorn in which MacDonald’s old followers held him would have been as
pitiless." ...

Very likely a Clynes Prime Ministership would have the same effects as the
alternative MacDonald that Marquand writes about here.

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/lYpAoC-U7RE/b4ygwShcC_AJ
 
Techdread

Techdread

Just posting up a brief summary of the 'Prime Minister Clynes' essay by Phil Woolas from The Prime Ministers Who Never Were to see if any more thoughts could be generated from this - I'm only including his premiership until TTL's 1924 UK General Election though, as it all goes a little too far after that i.e. Clynes prevents the Nazis from coming to power.


  • 1923 General Election sees Labour at 211 seats, Conservatives at 239 w/ no mention of Liberal numbers (Presumably as OTL numbers though)
  • Improved unemployment benefits, creating the national electricity grid, a road building program and a boost to social housing under the Wheatley Act
  • Disarmament talks w/ Germany in addition to talks on the rescheduling & pruning German reparation payments
  • Clynes doesn't withdraw legal action against Campbell, nullifying the impact of the Campbell Case
  • Uses relationship with George V to have the Daily Mail withdraw the Zinoviev Letter from print via a retraction which negates any potential impact there as well
  • Sees the party seats increase to 310 in 1924 w/ Liberals holding the balance of power under Lloyd George
 
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