30 years ago Wigan flew to Brisbane to play the “Chicago Bulls” of world rugby

The Aussies thought they were there on a stag do, but with $400,000 at stake, Wigan had two teenage aces up their sleeve...

A thread on the "winner takes all contest" that ushered in the modern era👇 The first WCC was contested in 1987 as Wigan tapped into the rising influence of Australia on the UK game

It was followed up by a stunning Widnes victory over the Canberra Raiders at Old Trafford in 1989....

theroar.com.au/2023/07/11/why…

What happened the last time a Prime Minister lost three by-elections in one day….

Economic collapse, punch-ups, protests and Wilson's "Crisis of March 1968"

A mini thread 👇#Byelections There were 4 by-elections held on 28th March 1968

In Meriden, Dudley and Acton (Labour) and Warwick and Lemington Spa (Tory)

#OTD 1983. The Labour Party fall to its heaviest defeat since the 1930s.

Micheal Foot says it is a "tragedy for the nation" but "what I have said in this election will prove to be true".

🧵 Forty years on – a thread on the 1983 election campaign After the 1979 election, the Labour Party descended into a ‘civil war’ as the SDP formed and Tony Benn fought Denis Healey for the Deputy

https://twitter.com/labour_history/status/1310116497193340928?s=20

#OTD 1983. Peter Tatchell loses the Bermondsey by-election for Labour on a record 44% swing.

🧵 Forty years on, the story of the most controversial by-election in British political history. Labour’s defeat in 1979 had prompted a deep split within the party about its future direction.

The SDP broke away in 1980 as Tony Benn mounted a campaign to become Deputy Leader

https://twitter.com/labour_history/status/1310116497193340928?s=20

Thirty years ago this month the Conservative Government hit the self-destruct button as the markets crashed, the pound fell and they picked the wrong battle with an “old enemy”...

A thread on the events of October 1992 - which put the Tories on course for electoral wilderness 👇 In April 1992 the Tories won a surprise election victory - despite a recession - against the expectations of the pollsters and the bookmakers

thecritic.co.uk/how-labour-los…

Thirty years ago the Government proposed the introduction of 17.5% VAT on consumer energy bills.

With millions of people unable to pay, a campaign began to stop it from being introduced

A thread on the energy bill protests of 1993/94👇 The 1992 Conservative election victory had been won, in part, on the idea of “Labour’s Tax Bombshell”...

thecritic.co.uk/how-labour-los…

#OTD 1994. Death of John Smith

"The most important message of all is that no society, no country can ever survive without a profound sense of social justice – and unless we bring social justice back to this country, this country cannot be healthy and cannot be successful” Thread on his final speech

https://twitter.com/labour_history/status/1392000442771644416

#OTD 1997. Election. Landslide. Labour win 418 seats giving Tony Blair a majority of 179.

In their worst election defeat since 1906, the Conservatives retain just 165 MPs, with their smallest share of the vote since 1832.

Thread on the end of the Conservative Era 👇 Labour lost the 1992 election despite the pollsters and the bookmakers calculating that they would win

thecritic.co.uk/how-labour-los…

“Austerity is repealed for a day as Britons swarm to the pubs”

Wilson, economic collapse, austerity and a “once in a lifetime” football match....

A thread on the events of July 30th 1966 - the last time England were in a major final 👇 Harold Wilson launched the tournament at a meeting of FIFA in London and claimed England had a good chance of winning.

“England are playing together as a team. They will face the best you can put against us with great confidence.”

#OTD 1994. John Smith delivers a speech at Labour's European Gala Dinner

Leading by 20pts in the polls, he tells the audience: “There is a great hunger amongst our people for a return to the politics of conviction and idealism”

The speech would prove to be his final act. 👇 “Britain’s future depends on investment in the skills of our able people, investment in our industry, particularly our manufacturing industry”

#OTD 1950. General Election. Labour add over one million votes – but reduce their majority from 146 to an unworkable five. 84% turn out to vote.

Despite winning big in the party’s industrial heartlands there is a major swing to the Tories in Middle England

Full Thread 👇 In 1945, Labour had become the party of whole nation – bringing middle class voters with it for the first time.

thecritic.co.uk/1945-at-75-lab…

The Special Relationship: President's and Labour Prime Minister's

From MacDonald and Hoover to Brown and Obama (and the one that got away @JoeBiden ) Ramsay MacDonald became the first British Prime Minister to visit the United States as a guest of the President

US media were excited by his daughter Ishbel - as people "lined the streets of broadway" to observe her fashion taste

#OTD 1959. General Election. Shock as Labour suffer third defeat in a row and 'SuperMac' triumphs

Despite Suez - and eight years of Conservative rule - voters agree that 'they've never had it so good'....

A thread on the result that triggered the question: ‘Must Labour Lose?’ Gaitskell and Bevin were in Leningrad when news was announced that Harold MacMillan had called a General Election.

#OTD 1959. In Hampstead, Labour's Dr David Pitt has election hustings interrupted by a White Defence League protest

They shout ‘Keep England White’ and ‘We don’t want England a dumping ground for n******s’ for over 20 minutes before a brawl breaks out

Thread 👇 In 1959 Pitt became the first person of African descent to stand for Parliament for Labour in Hampstead

When he was selected as the candidate in 1957 he received threatening letters telling him not to stand.

#OTD 1981. Denis Healey beats Tony Benn to the Deputy Leadership of the Labour Party

Healey secures the victory by 50.426% to 49.547% after a bitter six month battle

A thread on the contest that was decided by ‘half the hair of an eyebrow’ In the 1976 Labour leadership contest, Denis Healey and Tony Benn both put themselves forward to succeed Callaghan as Prime Minister.

Benn secured more votes than Healey on the first round but both failed to make the final two.

#OTD 1981. Labour unemployment rally in Birmingham as the Benn Healey nears its conclusion

Foot intervenes as Healey is heckled with chants of "Tory, Tory, Tory"

Roy Hattersley writes of "the orgy of intolerance" witnessed on TV which "must have cost Labour a million votes" Tony Benn began the rally with an 'enthusiastic' reception at Aston Hall Park:

“The Labour Party speaks for Britain and the working class. It’s a broad part appealing to millions and millions of people. Which is why we are under attack by the press”

#OTD 1992. Britain exits the ERM on ‘Black Wednesday’.

John Smith claims that John Major is “the devalued Prime Minister of a devalued Government”

The Sun goes with “Now we’ve ALL been screwed by the Cabinet”

A thread on how Smith and Brown went on the attack: Labour called for an emergency debate on the ERM and the recalling of Parliament

On his debut as leader in the Commons Smith argued it was becoming a “not me Government”

#OTD 1964. The Herald becomes The Sun newspaper

It declares support for Labour: ‘How could a new and radical newspaper back a party headed by the 14th Earl of Home’

It's defined as a 'newspaper with a social conscience, ready to praise or criticise without preconceived bias’ But it warned that it would be ‘independent’ and ‘designed to serve and inform all those whose lives are changing, improving, expanding’.

#OTD 2001. In Brighton, Blair is to give a speech to the TUC to define Labour's second term:

"There is nothing more damaging or destructive to the true national interest than the anti-European isolationism of today’s Conservative party"

But he never got the chance to deliver it The media trailed it as a huge confrontation between the Government and the trade unions over reforms to the public sector.

"TUC lions' den awaits Blair"

#OTD 1948. Death of the Labour MP Evan Durbin as he drowns saving his family

One of the bright stars of Labour’s 1945 intake, Durbin had been PPS to Gaitskell and tipped to enter Cabinet

Attlee tells the nation of ‘deep distress’ at the loss of a ‘personal friend'. A thread👇 Evan Durbin emerged as one of the brightest talents from Labour’s 1945 intake.

He revitalised Labour thinking in the early 1940s with his book The Politics of Democratic Socialism.

#OTD 1939. As Britain edges towards War, Labour's Arthur Greenwood is told to ‘Speak for England’ as Chamberlain hints at another Peace Conference

‘How long we are prepared to vacillate at a time when Britain and all Britain stands for - and human civilisation - are in peril?' Chamberlain entered the Commons to loud cheers as MPs expected him to make a final ultimatum to Germany. It turned to jeers as he spoke of a hope for a peace conference.

On a Saturday sitting of the Commons – with Attlee side-lined through illness – Greenwood rose as to speak