| Country: | Barbados |
| Barbados Labour Party | |
| Founder: | Sir Grantley Adams |
| Leader: | Mia Mottley MP |
| Foundation: | 31 March 1938 |
| Ideology: | Social democracy Republicanism |
| Position: | Centre-left |
| Youth Wing: | League of Young Socialists |
| Colours: | Red and Gold |
| Seats1 Title: | House of Assembly |
| Seats2 Title: | Senate |
| Headquarters: | Grantley Adams House, 111 Roebuck Street, Bridgetown |
| Website: | www.blp.org.bb |
The Barbados Labour Party (BLP), colloquially known as the "Bees", is a social democratic political party in Barbados established in 1938. It has been in power in 1954–1961, 1976–1986, 1994–2008, and 2018–present. Its leaders have included Grantley Adams and Owen Arthur.
Now led by Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, it is the governing party of Barbados, holding 29 out of 30 seats.
In common with Barbados' other major party, the Democratic Labour Party or the "Dems", the BLP has been broadly described as a centre-left social-democratic party, with local politics being largely personality-driven and responsive to contemporary issues and the state of the economy. However, the party distinguishes itself by being rooted in Asquithian Liberal policies, including a focus on trade as a way of bolstering economic growth over the creation of social services.[1]
The BLP is a former observer member of the Socialist International.[2]
Originally called the Barbados Progressive League until 1944, the party was founded on 31 March 1938 at the home of James Martineau. During the first meeting, Chrissie Brathwaite and Grantley Adams were elected as chairman and vice-chairman, respectively. Adams had entered the House of Assembly in 1934 partly through his deconstruction of the labour-focused efforts of the Charles Duncan O'Neal's Democratic League,[3] but this new party turned to organizing the political movement brought on by the unrest of 1937 that he had earlier opposed. As such, their objectives included many of the league's original goals, such as adult suffrage, free education, and better housing and health care.[4]
The BLP first participated in general elections in 1940. In 1994, Owen Arthur became the prime minister as leader of the Barbados Labour Party. In the 2003 elections the BLP won 23 out of the 30 seats. The number increased to 24 in 2006, when in an almost unprecedented development the leader of the opposition, after a bitter and tumultuous internal battle within his own party, resigned the post and joined the governing party.
The Barbados Labour Party governed from 1994 to 2008, which was commonly called the "Owen Arthur Administration". Prime Minister Arthur was chosen from among leaders around the globe to deliver the William Wilberforce lecture on the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade Act.
The party lost power in the 2008 general election, winning 10 seats against 20 for the Democratic Labour Party (DLP).[5] After the election, Arthur stepped down as BLP leader and was replaced by former deputy prime minister Mia Mottley in a leadership election against Attorney-General of Barbados Dale Marshall. Mottley also became opposition leader.[6]
In the summer of 2008 Hamilton Lashley, MP for St. Michael South East, resigned from the party to become an independent candidate in the House of Assembly. He was thereafter given a job by the DLP, the party he had belonged before crossing the floor to the BLP, as a consultant on poverty. This move by the member reduced to nine the number of seats the Barbados Labour Party had in the House.
After a decade in opposition, the BLP returned to power on 25 May 2018 under Mia Mottley, who became Barbados's first female prime minister.[7] The party originally won all of the seats in the House of Assembly, but Bishop Joseph Atherley, the MP for St. Michael West, became an independent MP (later founder and leader of the People's Party for Democracy and Development[8]) and the leader of the opposition on 2 June 2018.[9]
In January 2022, Prime Minister Mia Mottley's Labor Party (BLP) obtained a landslide victory, winning all 30 legislative seats, in the first general election since Barbados became a republic in 2021.[10]
| Election | Party leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Position | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Grantley Herbert Adams | 53,321 | 54.5% | 15 | 1st | ||
| 1956 | 48,667 | 49.3% | 1st | ||||
| 1961 | Hugh Gordon Cummins | 40,096 | 36.8% | 11 | 2nd | ||
| 1966 | Grantley Herbert Adams | 47,610 | 32.6% | 4 | 2nd | ||
| 1971 | Harold Bernard St. John | 39,376 | 42.4% | 2 | 2nd | ||
| 1976 | Tom Adams | 51,948 | 52.7% | 11 | 1st | ||
| 1981 | 61,883 | 52.2% | 1st | ||||
| 1986 | Bernard St. John | 54,367 | 40.4% | 14 | 2nd | ||
| 1991 | Henry Forde | 51,789 | 43.0% | 7 | 2nd | ||
| 1994 | Owen Arthur | 60,504 | 48.3% | 9 | 1st | ||
| 1999 | 83,445 | 64.9% | 7 | 1st | |||
| 2003 | 69,294 | 55.9% | 3 | 1st | |||
| 2008 | 61,316 | 46.5% | 13 | 2nd | |||
| 2013 | 74,121 | 48.2% | 4 | 2nd | |||
| 2018 | Mia Mottley | 112,955 | 73.5% | 16 | 1st | ||
| 2022 | 78,720 | 69.03% | 1st | ||||
See also: West Indies Federal Labour Party, 1958 West Indies federal elections, West Indies Federation and Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation.
The women's branch of the Barbados Labour Party is called the Women's League. The youth branch is called the League of Young Socialists.