The article covers the formation and development of the labour youth movement within the framework of the British Labour Party. After the electoral reforms of 1918 and 1928, when young Britons, both men and women, were given the right to vote, the struggle for this category of the electorate gained particular relevance. The author of the article examines the key milestones associated with the birth of the labour youth movement in the first half of the 1920s, as well as the discussion that unfolded at the annual party conference in 1924 regarding the approval of a special scheme for the creation of labour youth sections. From the very beginning, the activists’ greatest doubts were caused by the fact that the party leaders tried to focus the activities of young people on sports and entertainment, and, if possible, prevent them from directly participating in the discussion of the party policy. The article analyzes the positive dynamics of the growth of youth sections in the 1920s, and discusses the launch of the annual conferences of the Labour League of Youth. At the same time, the author notes that at the turn of the 1920s - 1930s there was a slight slowdown in the growth of the sections. In 1933, the party made an important decision to organize a larger-scale administrative and propaganda work in the area of building youth support. The efforts proved to be successful. This was manifested both in the quantitative growth of the sections, and in the fact that in the 1930s the party began to practice new forms of work with young electorate, such as organizing special schools for propagandists, “youth days” and “youth weeks”. The downside of the activation of youth sections was their noticeable leftward drift and the attempts to establish cooperation with the Communist Party in the framework of the struggle for the creation of the United Anti-Fascist Front in the late 1930s. As a result, the Labour Party had to impose a ban on the convening of the annual youth conference in 1937 and 1939, as well as to temporarily dissolve the governing bodies of the youth movement.

The author focuses on a one-of-a-kind debate “On Socialism”, which took place in the House of Lords of the British Parliament in the spring of 1935. For a long time, the upper chamber served as a barrier to the implementation of bold social and political legislation. Until the beginning of the 20th century socialists had never been represented in the Parliament. As the Labor Party came into political spotlight and gradually strengthened its positions in the 1920s– 1930s, the House of Lords was forced to adapt its composition to changing realities. In 1924, the Labor faction was formed here for the first time. A decade later, the Lords were prepared to seriously discuss the merits and demerits of the socialist system. The article analyzes both the main arguments of the Laborites, who promoted transition to a new social system, and the theses put forward by Conservatives and Liberals, supporters of the capitalist system. Particular emphasis is placed on the coverage and feedback which the discussion held in Westminster received on the pages of the British press of various political stances. The author comes to the conclusion that the arguments put forward by both supporters and opponents of socialism were in many respects similar to the theses that appeared in the course of the discussion in the Lower house of the UK Parliament in 1923. Th is discussion had a similar nature and was the first of this kind in the British history. At the same time, the analyzed debate which took place in the House of Lords more than a decade later, bore an unmistakable imprint of a new era. The “Great Depression” of 1929–1933 had an important impact on the worldview of the generation, as it strengthened the conviction of left -wing politicians that capitalism was not the subject to improvement. Opponents of socialism, on the contrary, argued that a socialist future for Britain was not only economically untenable, but also dangerous, and incompatible with the unique English national character, based on individualism.