The Independent Labour Party was founded in Bradford in 1893. The LSE have now digitised the minute book of the ILP’s National Administrative Council (NAC) and these are available free to read and search on-line.
Above is an extract from the NAC meeting of November 1893 where the benchmark for whether it was appropriate to stand an election candidate is laid out.
Points of interest include the welcome for the Social Democratic Federation candidacy in Burnley. The SDF had declined to be part of the ILP at the founding conference in January 1893 after a federal structure was rejected. In addition at the bottom of the statement is a clear guide that if upwards of 500 voters signed a requisition for a candidate to stand in specific seats then an effort should be made to do so.
The minutes are in impeccably clear hand writing (although previous research on ILP branch minutes suggests they may not include quite all that took place..). Also of note is a tendency for meetings of the NAC to adjourn for luncheon
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