Accompanies the new BBC Radio 4 documentary Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister
CLOCK WISE FROM FAR LEFT: Workers from the North East protest during the 1920s; unemployed marchers at a rally in Trafalgar Square, 1922; a cartoon depicts Ramsay MacDonald leapfrogging HH Asquith and David Lloyd George after becoming leader of the opposition in 1922
GETTY IMAGES/DREAMSTIME/TOPFOTO
Late in the morning of 22 January 1924, Conservative prime minister Stanley Baldwin stepped out of the rear of Downing Street, hailed a passing taxi and headed to Buckingham Palace for an audience with King George V. Baldwin was making the short journey to hand in his resignation – one taken by so many leaders before and since. But there was one key difference to his experience from those of earlier Tory PMs: this time he was to be succeeded not by a leader of the Conservatives’ long-time opponents, the Liberals, but by Ramsay MacDonald – who would shortly be confirmed as the first Labour Party prime minister in British history.