Manx Labour Party

The Manx Labour Party was formed in 1918, making it the first organised political party on the island. Its formation was prompted by the high level of indirect taxation as a proportion of the Isle of Man Government's income. The founders of the party saw that as being unfair to the poorest in society and wanted to increase the reliance on income taxation instead.[5]

Between 1919, when Labour Party candidates stood in every constituency on the island bar one, and 1946, the party won between four and seven seats in the House of Keys. At the 1946 election the party had high hopes of emulating the British Labour Party's success in the 1945 UK general election and contested the election on a staunchly socialist manifesto. The party contested every seat in the House of Keys except the Speaker's seat, but won only two. During the 1950s and 1960s the party made a limited recovery, but it has never been able to achieve the level of representation it had before 1946.

In the 2001 election, the party polled the highest percentage of votes (17.3%) among the parties standing, and two of its three candidates won seats. However, independent candidates won the vast bulk of the votes and seats at the election, and the political pressure group, Alliance for Progressive Government, won more seats (three), despite getting a smaller share of the vote (14.6%).

The Liberal Vannin Party, was founded by Peter Karran who was, until 2004, a Member of the House of Keys for the Manx Labour Party.

David Cretney was the only Manx Labour Party candidate to successfully stand in the 2011 general election.

In March 2013 Michael Ronald Coleman, who had previously failed in his bid to be popularly elected to the House of Keys in the 2006 general election (16.3% of the poll), was made a member of the Legislative Council.

Since 2015 former MHK David Cretney was a member of the Legislative council, giving the party its second seat, until his tenure ended in February 2020.[6]

Michael Coleman's tenure ended in March 2018, leaving David Cretney as the party's sole representative, until his tenure ended in February 2020.

Joney Faragher was elected as new leader of the Manx Labour Party on Saturday 27th June 2020. [7]

In October 2020 the party won both available seats in the Douglas Borough Council Derby Ward by-election, bringing the total number of Manx Labour Party representatives on the council to three, with Devon Watson and Samuel Hamer joining Natalie Byron.[8]