LABOUR PARTY'S RISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 5, 6 January 1920, Page 5

LABOUR PARTY'S RISE.

GROWTH OF THE PARTY. WOT READY FOR POWER YET. FUTURE OF THE ÜBEEALS. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyrlsht.j (Received 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, January 5. The Spen Valley election, which resulted in the return of the Labour candidate, coupled with the fact that at the last nine by-electi#ns the Labour vote increased from 38,722 to 97,473, whereas; the Coalition vote fell from 80,477 to 70,090, raises the question in several newspapers of whether Labour is ready to assume the responsibility of government. Mr. Winston Churchill maintained at Sunderland that the party was now in a period of development, and was quite unfitted for the task of government, and would come hopelessly to grief. Several prominent Labour leaders recently admitted that the party was not yet ready for the Treasury benches, and did not desire office following next election. The moderate men of the party think that a preliminary period in strong opposition would better fit them for power. The general result of the by-elections seems to indicate the weakening of the I Liberal party as a political force, coupled with the eventual coalescing of the present coalition into a Centre party, atj tracting all grades of political thought, 1 except Labour and perhaps extreme Tory, which might form a party of the j Right under Lord Robert Cecil.—(A. and 1 N.Z. Cable.)

BIOW TO COALITION.

LONDON, January 5. The newspapers regard the result of the Spen Valley poll as the severest blow to the Coalition since the general election. They explain the remarkable growth of the Labour vote at recent by-elections as due to the lower section of the middle classes, squeezed by taxation and the cost of living, transferring their votes to Labour, not being alarmed at its policy for the nationalisation of the coal mines and public services and the levy on capital.—(A. and N.Z.)