Laurence Turner

Laurence Turner

Labour — Birmingham Northfield

Speaking in the House of Commons on 3 June 2026

Debate

General Strike Centenary Commemorations

Contribution

It is a great honour to bring this Adjournment debate before the House to mark the centenary of the general strike of 1926. Twelve years after the general strike, the Welsh miners’ poet, Idris Davies, asked, “Do you remember 1926? That summer of soups and speeches,” which was a reference to the bitter months endured by the miners and their families after the general strike ended. He also referred to the strike itself, which he called “The great dream and the swift disaster”. I am really grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to Mr Speaker for granting parliamentary time so that we can answer that question in this place and do so in the affirmative, just as it has been answered at events across the country during the past month. The general strike remains the most extensive confrontation in our national history between organised labour on the one side and employers and Government on the other, and it remains contested history.

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