Labour Independent Group

The Labour Independent Group was an organisation of five former Labour Party Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom.

In April 1948, the MP John Platts-Mills campaigned for Pietro Nenni and the Italian Socialist Party, against the Labour government policy. He was expelled from the party. In May 1949, six Labour MPs voted against signing the North Atlantic Treaty, and of them, Lester Hutchinson, Leslie Solley and Konni Zilliacus were expelled. [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/TUzilliacus.htm Spartacus: Konni Zilliacus] ]

All these MPs were known for their communist sympathies, and the four joined with Denis Pritt, who had been expelled from the Labour Party in 1940 for supporting the Soviet Union in the Russo-Finnish War, to form the Labour Independent Group. Pritt was appointed the group's Chairman.F. W. S. Craig, "Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections"]

The group adopted a position of support for Stalin. Zilliacus developed a negative impression of Stalin when the two met, and so he resigned from the group later in 1949, instead adopting a position of support for Tito, who he had also met.

In July 1949, Hugh Hutchinson was also expelled from the Labour Party and joined the group. All five remaining MPs stood as "Independent Labour" candidates in the 1950 UK general election, but all lost their seats, thus dissolving the group.

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