Morality and politics: the free churches and the Labour Party between the wars

England's Labour party was influenced by the free church when the church's traditional party, the Liberals, experienced a decline in power between the two world wars. Many Labour members of Parliament rose from the ranks of the free church but did not sustain any majority within the Party. The individual nonconformists produced by the church had a more lasting effect on the party, stressing individual responsibility and aligning socialism with a moral imperative. Their numbers waned as the church and local politics became less influential, but their impression on the Labour Party was a lasting one.