Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister

Original version

BBC Radio 4 FM

BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

BBC Radio 4

Radio 4

Radio 4 (FM)

BBC Radio 4 LW

Documentaries

Factual: Politics

BBC Radio 4 - Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister

In 1924, Ramsay MacDonald has to choose between radicalism and respectability.

David Torrance assesses Ramsay MacDonald as the first Labour prime minister in 1924, exploring how he navigates the tensions between radicalism and respectability within the party.

It's a hundred years since Ramsay MacDonald assumed office as Labour’s first Prime Minister. The illegitimate son of a farm labourer and servant girl, he was the lowest born of any PM, and brought with him a Cabinet including miners, railwaymen and steel workers the like of which had never been seen in British government. Would this result in Britain being transformed into a proletarian utopia, as many in the upper classes genuinely feared?  Or would idealism give way to moderation as Labour sought to prove it wasn’t, in Winston Churchill’s words, unfit to govern?

With contributions from former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Ramsay's granddaughter Iona Kielhorn, and historians Richard Toye and Anne Perkins. 

Presenter: David Torrance
Producer: Liza Greig
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Clark
BBC Scotland Productions

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Ramsay MacDonald: Labour’s First Prime Minister

Genres

Formats

BBC Radio 4 FM

About BBC Radio 4