783 Thomas Burt

Constituency : Morpeth  1874-1918

Thomas  took  over  from  the  former  Whig  Home  Secretary,  Sir  George  Grey.

Thomas is  the  first  MP  here  who  served  through  the First  World  War. He's  also  the  first  one  to  be  tagged  as  "Lib-Lab"  as  the  democratising  effects  of  the  1868  Reform  Act  started  to  affect  Liberal  selection  procedures.

Thomas  was  a  Methodist   miner's  son from  Northumberland  and  became  a  miner  himself.  The  family  were  evicted  from  one  cottage  for  his  father's  union  activities . Thomas  had  some  basic  education  but  was  largely  self-taught  from  books  he  acquired. In  1865  he  became  Executive  Secretary of  the  Northumberland  Miners  Mutual  Confident  Association. He  came  to  prominence  at  a  march  through  Newcastle  demanding  universal  suffrage in  1873. He  stood  as  a  working  class  Radical  with  Liberal  support  calling  for  universal  suffrage, payment  of  MPs  and  equal  electoral  districts. He  won  by  a  landslide  and  was  unopposed  in  1880.

Thomas's  maiden  speech   in  1874  was  supporting  George  Trevelyan's  plans  for  equalising  the  county  and  borough  franchises. He  supported  Henry  George's  land  reform  ideas, Home  Rule, disestablishment  of  the  church, temperance  and  international  peace  movements.

After  his  election  Thomas  still  gave  priority  to  union  business  and  wouldn't  miss  an  important  union  meeting. He  was  active  in  furthering  international  ties  among  unions. He  preferred  conciliation  over  confrontation  and  would  only  use  the  strike  as  a  weapon  of  last  resort.

Thomas  was  a  friend  of  Charles  Bradlaugh  and  strongly  defended  his  right  to  sit  in  the Commons.

In  1886  Thomas  complimented  Cross's  Coal  Mines  Bill  but  objected  to  taking  the  issue  "in  a  piecemeal  and  fragmentary  manner".

Thomas  was  president  at  the  Trade  Union  Congress  in  Newcastle  in  1891.

Thomas  valued  his  independence  of  the  two  main  parties  but  in  1892  accepted  Gladstone's  offer  of  Parliamentary  Secretary  to  the  Board  of  Trade  which  post  he  held  until  1895  which  meant  declining  an  invitation  to  join  the  ILP  in  1893. He  led  plans  for  celebrating  Gladstone's 79th  birthday.

Thomas  strongly  denounced  the  Boer  War  and  as  a  consequence  saw  his  majority  reduced  to  410  in  1900.

In  1909  Thomas  was  disowned  by  his  union  when  he  refused  the  order  to  shake  off  his  Liberal  allegiance  and  represent  the  Labour  Representation  Committee. He  believed  that working  men  should  not  choose  their  representatives  purely  on  class  grounds  but  look  for  men  who  would  take  broad, comprehensive  and  patriotic  views  of  the  great  questions".

From  1910  Thomas  was  Father  of  the  House . By  1918  he  was  in  poor  health  and  decided  to  retire. A  Labour  man  won  the  seat. By  1919  Thomas  was  bed-ridden. He  died  in  1922 aged  84.