Dei an Hop Kin the Membership of the Independent Labour Party, 1904-10: a Spatial and Occupational Analysis

E. P. Thompson expressed succinctly the prevailing orthodoxy about the origins of the Independent Labour Party when he wrote, in his homage to Tom Maguire, that "the ILP grew from bottom up". From what little evidence has been available, it has been argued that the ILP was essentially a provincial party, which was created from the fusion of local political groups concentrated mainly on an axis lying across the North of England. An early report from the General Secretary of the party described Lancashire and Yorkshire as the strongholds of the movement, and subsequent historical accounts have supported this view. The evidence falls into three categories. In the first place labour historians have often relied on the sparse and often imperfect memoirs of early labour and socialist leaders. While the central figures of the movement have been reticent in their memoirs, very little literature of any kind has emerged from among the ordinary members of the party, and as a result this has often been a poor source. The official papers of the ILP have been generally more satisfactory. The inevitable gaps in the annual reports of the party can be filled to some extent from party newspapers, both local and national. There is a formality, nevertheless, about official transactions which reduces their value. Minute books reveal little about the members. Finally, it is possible to cull some information from a miscellany of other sources; newspapers, electoral statistics, parliamentary debates and reports, and sometimes the memoirs of individuals whose connection