Today, James Ramsay MacDonald, Britain’s first Labour prime minister, is largely remembered within his political tradition as one thing: a traitor.
In 1931, midway through his second term, he was expelled from his party after forming a ‘national government’ with Conservatives and Liberals. But in 1924, his first term as prime minister was brought to an end by Britain's first 'red scare'. After losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons and calling a general election, MacDonald’s chances of securing a popular mandate – and majority – were scuppered when the rightwing Daily Mail newspaper proclaimed a ‘civil war plot by socialists’ masters’, off the back of a document that most historians now accept was falsified.
