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The Labour Party is a centre-left political party and current ruling party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been since the 1920s the principal party of the left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently organised again. Labour surpassed the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Conservatives in the early 1920s. It has had several spells in government, first as minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-31, then as a junior partner in the wartime coalition from 1940-1945, and then as a majority government, under Clement Attlee in 1945-51 and under Harold Wilson in 1964-70. Labour was in government again in 1974-79, under Wilson and then James Callaghan, though with a precarious and declining majority. The current national Labour government won a landslide 179-seat majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair, its first general election victory since October 1974 and the first general election since 1970 in which it had exceeded 40% of the popular vote. The party's large majority in the House of Commons was slightly reduced to 167 in the 2001 general election and more substantially reduced to 66 in 2005. Labour is also the leading partner in the coalition Welsh Assembly Government, is the main opposition party in the Scottish Parliament, and has representation in the European Parliament.

The Party grew out of the trade union movement and socialist political parties of the 19th century, and continues to describe itself as a "democratic socialist party". Labour is the longest surviving political party in Great Britain stating that it stands for the representation of the low paid working class, and it has historically been the working class who were known as the Labour Party grassroots and traditional members and voters. Traditionally, the party was in favour of socialist policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers and trade unions and a belief in the welfare state as well as publicly funded healthcare and education. Since the mid-1980s, under the leadership of Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Tony Blair the party has moved away from its socialist position towards what is often described as the "Third Way" adopting many free market policies. This has led many observers to describe the Labour Party as social democratic or even neo-liberal rather than democratic socialist. The current Labour government has instituted domestic policies such as introducing a minimum wage and increasing the spending on the NHS and education and has introduced new public services such as Sure Start and Train to Gain. However, the party's stated goal of reducing the gap between the rich and poor continues to be pursued. Since 1997 when Labour came to power, 1.8 million children have been lifted out of absolute poverty, and 600,000 children have been lifted out of relative poverty. The 2008 Labour Party Conference, for some, represented closer ties with big business and away from workers as Gordon Brown proclaimed "we are, we always have been and we always will be a pro business government". This conference was also the first at which affiliated trade unions and constituency Labour Parties did not have the right to submit motions on contemporary issues which would previously have been debated on the floor of conference. Labour Party Conference now includes more keynote addresses, guest speakers and question and answer sessions rather than specific discussion of policy which now takes place in the National Policy Forum.