Margaret's career in Politics

In 1923, the same year as Margaret was chairman of the Trade Union Congress, she became one of the first women to be elected to the House of Commons. She was elected Labour MP for Northampton. When Ramsey McDonald became Prime Minister in 1924 he appointed her as parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Labour, but she lost her seat at the next election.

She was returned to Parliament as MP for Wallsend in 1926.  When Ramsey McDonald became Prime Minister for the second time in 1929,

she was appointed as his Minister of Labour. Margaret Bondfield became the first women to gain a place in a British Cabinet.

By this time her left-wing views had tempered to a more conservative stance and she conducted her ministry with a good deal of caution in a time of rising unemployment. During a time of great unease, she upset many Labour Party members when she supported the government policy of depriving some married women of their unemployment benefit.