Comment: Who was āRed Ellenā, whose portrait is now in 11 Downing St? Published on: 7 November 2024 Writing for The Conversation, Professor Matt Perry discusses Ellen Wilkinson, the radical Labour MP of the 1920s, whose portrait is now hanging in 11 Downing Street. , Before announcing changes to Britainās tax system in her first budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves redecorated her own digs. The headline change was swapping a portrait of Nigel Lawson, Margaret Thatcherās chancellor, with one of Ellen Wilkinson ā a trailblazing politician known as āRed Ellenā. Wilkinson was one of British politicsā most politicians, and most remarkable campaigners against injustice. From a humble background, she was first elected to parliament as the Labour MP for Middlesbrough East in 1924 and served until she lost her seat 1931. After four years out of parliament, she became the MP for Jarrow in South Tyneside in 1935, ascending to the rank of minister in the 1945 Labour government. Wilkinson was than a conventional Labour politician. She wrote journalism, political theory and novels. She was both a socialist and a feminist. At times, she described herself as a revolutionary. She was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, though kept her membership of the Labour party throughout her political career. She met with Lenin and Trotsky, and visited Gandhi during his imprisonment. She attended the General Motors sit-down in Michigan as well as republican Spain during the civil war on three occasions. As a journalist, she also to the world Hitlerās intention to march into the Rhineland in 1936. Given this history, some papers took an alarmist āreds under the bedā approach to the news that Wilkinsonās portrait was now hanging in Number 11. The Daily Mail : āItās Red Rachel!ā While the Daily Express āRachel Reeves puts communist on wallā. Neither the Mail nor Express articles acknowledged that said dangerous leftist wrote in their own newspapers. Indeed, it was in the Daily Express on April 18 1932 that Wilkinson admitted to coveting one of the ābig boysā jobsā in cabinet, but believed them to be unfairly out of a womanās reach. Journalism was a sideline to Wilkinsonās political career. For the rightwing press, she wrote as a celebrity parliamentary correspondent on the personality and the conventions of the Commons. For leftwing publications, she engaged in economic and foreign policy, as well as the great social movements of the day from anti-imperialism to the equalisation of the franchise. She trenchantly commented on Winston Churchill during his time as chancellor of the exchequer, applying a class and gendered critique of his ārich manās budgetsā. She described his decision to return to the gold standard as the ācross of goldā for working-class people. And she denounced his cavalier indifference to the plight of mining families during the general strike and lockout. She vividly recounted the effects of Churchillās economic policy on housewives, trade unionists, the unemployed and malnourished children. On taking office, Reeves pledged that all the paintings and photos hung in Number 11 would be by or of women. The choice of Wilkinson, who defied the male cosiness of Westminster and was the most audacious of the pioneering generation of women MPs is telling. Reeves also to have the private urinal in the chancellorās office removed. Red Ellenās life, in pictures of Wilkinson was filled with disproportionate commentary about her appearance and a great number of cartoon and photographic representations. The cartoon prevailed in the 1920s but with the rise of photojournalism that was set to change. A renowned photographic portrait agency took the image now hanging in 11 Downing Street on June 25 1924, just months before Wilkinson entered the Commons. Its afterlife says something of her politics. Wilkinson had contested Ashton-under-Lyne the previous year and was selected for Middlesborough East in April, winning a byelection there in October. She had left the Communist party that year. The Daily Express used the image on her election in Middlesborough East on October 30 1924. The image continued to appear (though less frequently) up to the reception of her first novel, The Clash, published in 1929. Rachel Reeves in her office, the photo of Wilkinson visible on the wall behind her. , An Evening Standard article bearing the same image on March 11 1927 quoted Wilkinson on the difficulty of being a female parliamentarian. In the article, she objected to being asked what she did with her Ā£400 salary, what she cooked and ate, about which clothes she wore and not her ideas. It appeared in an article about Wilkinson speaking to thousands at the Labour Womenās rally in Sunderland AFCās Roker Park stadium in June 1927. To resounding cheers, she condemned Conservative prime minister Stanley Baldwinās anti-union Trades Disputes Act. And it adorned an article in which Wilkinson denounced womenās unpaid labour in the home as slavery. Ultimately, it became part of the National Portrait Gallery collection to add to several other more widespread images of Red Ellen. Notably, these include images of her as education minister in 1945 (not a ābig boysā jobā) and on the , a march of 200 unemployed shipyard workers from her constituency to London, over 282 miles. If Wilkinson was among the , most photographed, most caricatured politicians of her day, conventional representations do not do justice to the complexity, radicalism and richness over her politics. , Professor in Labour History, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . 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