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The Democratic Labour Party had its origins in the internal disputes which occurred during the first Labour Party government, which lasted from 1935 to 1949 . The division was primarily between moderates, such as Michael Joseph Savage , Peter Fraser , and Walter Nash , and radicals, such as Lee. Lee and his allies criticised the "cautious" approach taken by the party's leadership, and advocated a considerably stronger policy line. Lee's views were a mixture of conventional Socialist theory and the Social Credit theory of Monetary Reform . He was also strongly critical of the Labour Party's internal structures, calling its leadership Unaccountable and Autocratic . In 1940 , after a long period of rebellion against the Labour Party leadership, Lee was finally expelled from the party. He quickly moved to establish a new party, named the Democratic Labour Party. One other MP, Bill Barnard , joined him, and at least one other, Rex Mason , gave serious consideration to joining. Before long, however, internal tensions developed in the new party, with Lee being accused of behaving in an Egotist ical and autocratic manner — this was ironic, considering his criticism of the old Labour Party leadership on the same grounds. In the 1943 Elections , Barnard chose to stand for re-election as an independent rather than a DLP candidate, and Lee himself was defeated. The Democratic Labour Party received only 4.3% of the total vote, and ceased to exist not long afterwards. |
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