The party was founded in 2011 by three veteran pro-democracy legislators to consolidate centre-left, pro-labour, pro-democracy voices in the legislature. Led by Lee Cheuk-yan, the long-time general secretary of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), the party won four seats in the 2012 Legislative Council election, with about six per cent of the popular vote, making it the third-largest political party in the pro-democracy camp and sixth largest in the legislature.
It suffered a big loss in the 2016 election with veterans Lee Cheuk-yan and Cyd Ho losing their seats, leaving the party only one representative in the legislature, Fernando Cheung in New Territories East. Cheung resigned in November 2020 together with 14 legislators of the pro-democratic camp, in protest over the disqualification of four other members of that camp by the Hong Kong government.[1]
The Labour Party was officially founded on 18 December 2011. The New World First Bus Company Staff Union, the KMB Staff Union and the Hong Kong Buildings Management And Security Workers General Union under the CTU and Civic Act-up joined the party as affiliated groups. The NWSC vetoed the motion of joining the Labour Party. A 20-strong Executive Committee was elected with CTU General Secretary Lee Cheuk-yan was elected unopposed by 131 founding members, while Cyd Ho, Fernando Cheung and Yeung Ho-yan became the Vice-Chairmen, Cheung Kwok-che the Senate chairman, and Tam Chun-yin the General Secretary.
The party gained its first seat at the district level in the San Fu by-election in 2015. In the 2015 District Council election, the party filled in 12 candidates, of which three were elected. On 13 December 2015, the Labour chairman Lee Cheuk-yan stepped down and three candidates, Kwok Wing-kin, Cheng Sze-lut and Suzanne Wu ran for the chairmanship. Suzanne Wu of the Association for the Advancement of Feminism won the election in the end and became the new chairwoman.[4]
The Labour suffered a major defeat in the 2016 Legislative Council election by losing two veteran legislators Lee Cheuk-yan and Cyd Ho. With the retiring Social Welfare legislator Cheung Kwok-che, the party dropped their seats in the legislature from four to only one. Chairwoman Suzanne Wu, who was running in Kowloon East and pulled out from the race in the last days resigned for the election results.
In August 2017, chairwoman Suzanne Wu resigned and quit the party over an internal rift with veteran member Cyd Ho, who also resigned from all party offices as a result.[5] Vice-chairman Kwok Wing-kin was elected the new chairman in an intra-party election in November 2017.[6]
