Sir Oswald Leaves the Labour Party, March 1931

Abstract

Sir Oswald Mosley's political career has recently formed the basis of a full-length study of British Fascism; in addition there are signs that his undoubted abilities, particularly in regard to his activities prior to the formation of the British Union of Fascists in 1932, are being recognised.1 Colin Cross, the author of the study in question, regards the decision to leave the Labour Party as crucial in Mosley's career; thereafter his record has been one of virtually unbroken failure, involving him in, among other things, racist controversy and in detention as a potential traitor in time of war. He is now the leader of a tiny fringe group with no prospects of power, his influence negligible. It has been at once a tragic and a nasty story. Why did Mosley leave the Labour Party and throw away, as Cross persuasively argues, the chances of high, possibly the highest, office within it? Cross puts the decision down to impatience and a sense of destiny, and deals only cursorily with the matter. Fuller study shows the story to be revelatory of features of British political life of the time, notably the fluid state of politics and the widespread contemporary criticism of economic and political orthodoxy. It also shows how, and to an extent why, Mosley changed from a brilliant rebel left-wing economist to a frustrated, semi mystical authoritarian prophet. It is the purpose of this article to throw light on both these aspects, primarily on a decisive phase in Mosley's extraordinary political Odyssey; but also on the issues and concerns of the politics of 1930-31.