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It developed gradually in the late 19th Century as being a Socialist party committed to social reform and meeting the needs of the urban working classes, but in it's early years the beginnings of what ultimately became the Labour Party was dependent upon the support of the Liberals, with whom it signed a number of coalition agreements to support each other's representation in Parliament. It had the support of the trade unions, who became interested in moving into the political field and who contributed to the development of the party both financially and by putting forward political candidates for it. Other Left-leaning political groups, such as the Fabian Society, the Independent Labour Party, the Marxist Social Democratic Federation, and the Scottish Labour Party, also were sympathetic to it and all gradually coalesced into a single Party unit. The Labour Party proper was officially established in 1900 and won it's first two Parliamentary seats in the October elections of that year, with Party co-founder Keir Hardie elected to represent the Welsh constituency of Merthyr Tyfil and Richard Bell in Derby. It had overseas support from the Australian Labour Party and also from Socialist groups and trade unions in the USA. In the 1906 elections, it's number of MPs rose to 26, and it thenceforth began to be established as a mainstream nationwide political party.

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7y ago

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