Labour MPs Against the Poll Tax

Official Labour Party policy on the Poll Tax was that they could not support non-payment as 'law-makers can't be law-breakers'. Perhaps what was meant by this was 'law-breakers can't be law-makers' and they feared that openly backing the non-payment campaign would alienate potential swing-voters. Whatever the reason, party-line was to campaign against the Poll Tax's implementation, and once it was implemented this changed to a promise to abolish it once they were in power. For many this was not good enough. Indeed, Geoff Eley describes movements such as the Anti-Poll Tax Campaign as 'new outlets for working class grievances increasingly disenfranchised by the available Left Party'.


However, there were Labour MPs who did support non-payment. They were largely part of Labour's Campaign group, chaired by Tony Benn. This was a group of MPs on the left of the Party. These MPs signed a petition supporting non-payment. Below is a photo of the petition and a list of signatories, some of whom are still in politics today.