Labour Independent Group

[1] In May 1949, six Labour MPs voted against signing the North Atlantic Treaty, and of them, Lester Hutchinson, Leslie Solley and Konni Zilliacus were expelled.

[2] All these MPs were known for their communist sympathies, and the four joined with another independent MP, Denis Pritt, who had been expelled from the Labour Party in 1940 for supporting the Soviet Union in the Winter War, to form the Labour Independent Group.

[3] The group regarded Soviet foreign policy as essentially defensive, and criticized the United States and the United Kingdom as bearing the greatest responsibility for the Cold War.

Zilliacus developed a negative impression of Stalin when the two met, and so he resigned from the group later in 1949, instead adopting a position of support for Josip Broz Tito, who he had also met.

[2] All four remaining members stood as "Independent Labour" candidates in the 1950 general election, but all lost their seats, thus dissolving the group.