Ramsay MacDonald was one of three founders of the British Labour party. Before going into politics, he studied for a scientific career at Birkbeck, but ill health interrupted his examinations and changed the course of his life. He remained a lifelong advocate of Birkbeck’s mission to educate working people.  

In 1894 he became a member of the Independent Labour Party and, later, Secretary of the Labour Representation Committee. When the Labour party formed, he was elected Labour MP for Leicester and became party leader. He took on the prime ministerial position after a vote of no confidence in the Conservative government in 1924 led King George V to call on MacDonald to form a minority government. This was short-lived but he again became prime minister five years later.  

He presided over some of the most turbulent years in British history, including the Great Depression and the rise of German Nazism. He was criticised for abandoning the Labour government to lead a National Government formed mostly of Conservatives in 1931 and for his pacifism in the face of the Hitler regime, but more recently scholars have praised his astute decision-making and socialist policies.