Democratic Labour Party
Leader	Ralph Thorne
President	Ronnie Yearwood
Founded	27 April 1955
Split from	Barbados Labour Party
Headquarters	St. George Street
Ideology	Social democracy Republicanism
Political position	Centre-left
International affiliation	West Indies Democratic Labour Party (1957–1961)
House of Assembly	1 / 30
Senate	2 / 21
Website
www.dlpbds.org
Politics of Barbados Political parties Elections

The Democratic Labour Party (DLP), colloquially known as the "Dems", is a political party in Barbados, established in 1955. It was the ruling party from 15 January 2008 to 24 May 2018 but faced an electoral wipeout in the 2018 general election which left it with no MPs.

In common with Barbados' other major party, the Barbados Labour Party, the DLP has been broadly described as centre-left social-democratic party, with local politics being largely personality-driven and responsive to contemporary issues and the state of the economy. Historically, the BLP claims a heritage from British liberalism,^[1] while the DLP was founded 11 years afterwards as a more left-leaning breakaway group.

History

The DLP was founded in 1955 by Errol Barrow, James Cameron Tudor, Frederick "Sleepy" Smith and 26 others.^[2][3] Once members of the Barbados Labour Party (BLP), these 29 broke away to form this more left-leaning alternative. However, as a result of their common origin, the two parties have been and remain ideologically similar. In the 1956 general election the DLP received 19.9% of the vote and won four seats.^[4] In the following election in 1961 it received fewer votes than the BLP, but won a majority of the seats in Parliament, with Barrow becoming Premier.

After the party retained power in the 1966 election (this time with a plurality of the vote),^[5] Barrow became the country's first Prime Minister. The party won a third successive election in 1971, but lost power to the BLP in 1976.^[6] It remained in opposition until victory in the 1986 election, in which it won 24 of the 27 seats.^[6] The DLP remained in power following the 1991 election, but was defeated by the BLP in 1994. It returned to power again in the 2008 election, when DLP leader David Thompson became Prime Minister. Following his death in 2010, Freundel Stuart succeeded to the office, and led the party to a narrow election victory in 2013.

The 2018 election saw the DLP lose all of its MPs. Stuart stepped down as leader, and Verla De Peiza, unopposed in a leadership election held by the party on 1 August 2018, became his successor in the role of DLP leader and president.^[7]

After losing the 2022 election which resulted in the DLP not regaining any seats in the House of Assembly, De Peiza resigned on 21 January 2022.^[8] Ronnie Yearwood was then later elected DLP president after DLP elections took place on 1 May 2022.^[9]

Barbados Labour Party MP Ralph Thorne left the BLP in February 2024, becoming Leader of the Opposition. He joined the DLP shortly thereafter, becoming the party's leader. Ronnie Yearwood remains as president of the party.^[10] Thorne became the first DLP MP since 2018.

Electoral history

House of Assembly elections

Election	Party leader	Votes	%	Seats	+/–	Position	Result
1956	Errol Barrow	19,650	19.9%	4 / 24	4	2nd	Opposition
1961		39,534	36.3%	15 / 24	11	1st	Majority government
1966		72,384	49.6%	14 / 24	1	1st	Majority government
1971		53,295	57.4%	18 / 24	4	1st	Supermajority government
1976		45,786	46.4%	7 / 24	11	2nd	Opposition
1981		55,845	47.1%	10 / 27	3	2nd	Opposition
1986		80,050	59.4%	24 / 27	14	1st	Supermajority government
1991	Erskine Sandiford	59,900	49.8%	18 / 28	6	1st	Majority government
1994	David Thompson	47,979	38.8%	8 / 28	10	2nd	Opposition
1999		45,118	35.1%	2 / 28	6	2nd	Opposition
2003	Clyde Mascoll	54,746	44.2%	7 / 30	5	2nd	Opposition
2008	David Thompson	70,135	53.2%	20 / 30	13	1st	Supermajority government
2013	Freundel Stuart	78,851	51.3%	16 / 30	4	1st	Majority government
2018		33,551	21.8%	0 / 30	16	2nd	Extra-parliamentary
2022	Verla De Peiza	30,273	26.55%	0 / 30		2nd	Extra-parliamentary

West Indies election