Labour Leader

The Labour Leader was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed New Leader and Socialist Leader, before finally taking the name Labour Leader again.

The origins of the paper lay in The Miner, a monthly paper founded by Keir Hardie in 1887. Its main purpose was to advocate for a federation of Scottish miners. The first issue contained an influential programme for labour, co-authored by Hardie and Chisholm Robertson, marking Hardie's switch from support for the Liberal Party to advocating independent labour candidacies. The paper was used as Hardie's platform in the Mid Lanarkshire by-election, 1888, following which Hardie became a founder member of the Scottish Labour Party and relaunched The Miner as the Labour Leader.

In 1893 the Scottish Labour Party affiliated to the Independent Labour Party (ILP). Hardie became the party's first leader and began using the Labour Leader as a forum for the development of policy for the new party. In 1894 he was able to increase the paper's frequency from monthly to weekly.

Hardie continued to publish and edit the Labour Leader until 1904, when he sold it to the ILP, amid some controversy on the appropriate recompense due to him. The ILP appointed John Bruce Glasier to replace Hardie as editor in January 1905. Glasier was able to take sales from 13,000 at the start of his editorship to 43,000 in 1908, but attracted criticism from some ILP members for consistently endorsing all the actions of the party's leadership. He stood down from the post in April 1909.

In 1909 party members were encouraged to write for the Labour Leader rather than rival publications. For example, Frederick William Jowett's parliamentary column was transferred from The Clarion.

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