Guilty and proud of it!

Poplar’s rebel councillors and guardians, 1919-25

Janine Booth. Merlin Press. Paperback. 198 pages. £12.95.

In 1921, 30 Labour councillors in Poplar, East London went to prison in protest at an unfair rating system that penalised poor boroughs.

One of their number, Julia Scurr said on being sent down: “We are happy about going to prison for a principle. We expect all working women to carry on the fight for rates equalisation while we are there.”

This is a wonderful book retelling one of the seminal events in municipal labour history. After the First World War, newly-enfranchised working-class voters elected a Labour council in 1919 to tackle housing, unemployment and other social problems. However the scale of deprivation meant that the council could not provide vital services, like relief, from its own resources.

Poplar councillors, including future labour leader George Lansbury, demanded that funds from richer boroughs should be provided. For example Kensington could afford to pay more, with expensive properties and fewer unemployed. So Poplar refused to pay its rates to the London County Council. The crisis came to a head when its councillors were sent to prison in September 1921.

The book is especially good at bringing to light many of the lesser known characters in the struggle. It also reflects critically on the lessons of Poplar, which still resonate today.