George Lansbury, (born Feb. 21, 1859, near Halesworth, Suffolk, Eng.—died May 7, 1940, London), leader of the British Labour Party (1931–35), a Socialist and poor-law reformer who was forced to resign the party leadership because of his extreme pacifism.
A railway worker at the age of 14 and later a timber merchant, he became a propagandist for Henry Mayers Hyndman’s Social Democratic Federation in 1892 but eventually repudiated its strict Marxism. He helped to found (1912) and for a time edited, the Daily Herald, the first British newspaper devoted to labour subjects. In World War I he defended the rights of conscientious objectors.
A Labour member of the House of Commons (1910–12, 1922–40), he served as first commissioner of works in the Labour government of 1929–31 and then became leader of the parliamentary opposition. Unwilling to join his associates in calling for economic sanctions that might have led to war against Italy for its aggression in Ethiopia, Lansbury resigned in 1935 and was succeeded as party leader by his deputy, Clement Attlee (prime minister, 1945–51). In 1937 Lansbury visited Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in the belief that his personal influence could stop the movement toward war.
The Poplar Rates Rebellion, or Poplar Rates Revolt was a tax protest that took place in Poplar, London, England, in 1921. It was led by George Lansbury, the previous year's Labour Mayor of Poplar, with the support of the Poplar Borough Council, most of whom were industrial workers. The protest defied government, the courts, and the Labour Party leadership. George Lansbury would later go on to be the leader of the Labour Party.
Poplar (now in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets) was one of the poorest districts of London; there was no government support to alleviate the high unemployment, hunger, and poverty in the borough, which had to be funded by the borough itself under the poor law. Poplar's Labour administration elected in 1919 undertook a comprehensive programme of social reform and poor relief, including equal pay for women and a minimum wage for Council workers, far in excess of the market rate. This programme was expensive and had to be funded from the rates.
Because Poplar was a poor borough, property rents were low. With liability for local taxation assessed on the basis of a 'rateable value' deriving from rents, Poplar had to set a much higher rate in order to produce the same amount as produced by low rates in a wealthy borough. In addition Poplar ratepayers were charged a precept to pay for the London County Council, Metropolitan Police, Metropolitan Asylums Board and the Metropolitan Water Board. There was a small fund which attempted to correct for the different rate products but Poplar called for complete equalisation of the rates so that the same rate brought in the same income both to Poplar and to a wealthier West London borough.
In 1921, faced with the prospect of a further large increase in the rates, Poplar Council decided to hold them down by not collecting the precepts which it should have passed on to the four cross-London authorities. The London County Council and Metropolitan Asylum Board responded by taking the matter to the High Court. The council's response was to organise a procession of 2,000 supporters from Bow, led by the borough's official mace-bearer, to the accompaniment of a band and a banner proclaiming, "Poplar Borough Council marching to the High Court and possibly to prison". Thirty councillors, including six women, one of whom, Nellie Cressall, was pregnant, were sent to prison indefinitely for contempt of court for refusing a court order to remit the monies. The men were put up in Brixton Prison, and the women in Holloway. The latter were taken by cab to Brixton where council meetings were held.
The revolt received wide public support. Lansbury addressed crowds that regularly gathered outside, through the prison bars. Neighbouring councils threatened to take similar action. Trade unions passed resolutions of support and collected funds for the councillors' families. "Poplarism" became a political term associated with large-scale municipal relief for the poor and needy, and also with local defiance of central government. Eventually, after six weeks' imprisonment, the court responded to public opinion and ordered the councillors released, which occasioned great celebrations in Poplar. Meanwhile, a bill, the Local Authorities (Financial Provisions) Act 1921, was rushed through Parliament more or less equalising tax burdens between rich and poor boroughs.
Despite the equalisation of rates, the dispute regarding the moneys paid for outdoor relief would continue for some years until the abolition of the Poor Law Unions, and therefore Poplar's requirement to provide outdoor relief, under the Local Government Act 1929.