George Lansbury - At the heart of Old Labour

John Shepherd; Oxford University Press, 407 pages, hardback, £35.00

Born in 1859, George Lansbury was first elected to parliament as an MP for Bow and Bromley in 1910. Early on he had become aware of the need for socialism.

He was strongly anti-war, and actively engaged in campaigns for women's suffrage but failed to persuade parliament about it and resigned his seat.

In 1913, Lansbury helped to launch the workers' paper, the Daily Herald, and in 1921 he led the Poplar councillors' revolt against the unfair rating system, when he was one of 30 councillors arrested and imprisoned. In 1924 he was re-elected to parliament.