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The Zinoviev letter and the fall of the first Labour government 100 years on
The infamous forged missive exposed how the Establishment worked to discredit Labour despite its loudly declared anti-communist stance, writes MARY DAVIS, analysing the 1924 government’s destruction
A cartoon in the satirical magazine Punch after the letter was released depicts a caricatured Bolshevik calling for a Labour vote

THE first Labour government was a minority government and lasted just nine months. Was it the product of a cunning Tory-Liberal plot or a wise decision by Labour to prove that it was “fit to govern?”

Against a background of post-war political and economic dislocation, Stanley Baldwin, the Tory prime minister, decided to call a snap election in December 1923.

The crisis facing Britain’s staple industries (coal, cotton and engineering), the impact of the Russian Revolution and a massive strike wave presented major problems for the ruling class and its political representatives (Tories and Liberals) in Parliament.

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