The Ceylon Labour Party was formed in October 1928, with A. E. Gunasinha as president and Proctor Marshall Perera as secretary.
Its executive committee included C. H. Z. Fernando, A. Mahadeva, C. W. W. Kannangara, Victor Corea, George E. de Silva and Satiyawageswera Iyer and women members were included for the first time in Ceylon.
[1] Its foundation followed contact between Gunasinha and the British Labour Party; when Ramsay MacDonald, the British Labour Party leader and Prime Minister visited Ceylon in 1926, Gunasinha had received him on behalf of the Ceylonese labour movement.
[2] Gunasinha had also appeared on behalf of the labour movement at the Donoughmore Commission for universal suffrage and represented Ceylon at the British Empire Labour Conference held in London in 1928.
[5] Gunasinha was re-elected in the 1952 parliamentary elections as the party's sole MP.