LANSBURY, GEORGE (1859— ), British labour leader, was born on Feb. 21, 1859, in Suffolk. He worked as a checker on the Great Eastern railway, emigrated to Queensland in returned in 1885, and eventually went into the timber business in London. Until 1892 he was an ardent Liberal, assisting greatly in the return of J. Murray MacDonald as M.P. for Bow in that year, but he then joined the Social Democratic Party of which he was one of the earliest propagandists. As a member of the royal commission on the poor law he signed the minority report in 1909. He was elected M.P. for Bow in 1910, and was a strong supporter of women's suffrage. He resigned his seat in 1912 to test opinions on this subject and failed to carry it again. He became editor of the Daily Herald in 1912 which he carried on as a weekly during the war and again as a daily until 1922, when it was taken over by the whole labour movement. In 1920 he visited Soviet Russia, being the first newspaper editor to get direct wireless messages through from that country (see his book What I saw in Russia, 1920). In 1922 he was elected M.P. for
Bow, a seat which he has since held continuously. He refused a seat in the Labour Government of 1924, criticizing its "right wing" policy and in I w5-27 edited an independent journal, Lans bury's Labour Weekly. He is, however, best known for his direc tion of the municipal affairs of the Poplar borough council of which he was mayor 1919-20 and on which he since has had a dominating influence. His policy of generous relief to the unem ployed received the name of Poplarism and, in 1921, together with the majority of the council he served a short term of imprison ment rather than modify it. He was First Commissioner of Works from 1929 to 1931 and leader of the opposition, 1931-35.
See his book My Life (1928).