The Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (formerly the Antigua Labour Party or ALP), which grew out of the labour movement in the 1940s, first ran candidates in the 1946 elections and became the majority party in 1951.  It was formed by trades unionists and led by Vere Cornwall (V.C) Bird, who had been president of the Antigua Trades and Labour Union since 1943.  Bird in 1951-2 led a strike of sugar plantation workers to obtain better wages and conditions.  The success of this strike underwrote Bird’s prominence and popularity. 

The ALP under V.C. Bird was the majority party in Antigua from 1951 to 1971 and again from 1976 to 1981.  (Between 1971 and 1976, the Progressive Labour Movement, a predecessor to the UPP, governed.) After independence in 1981, the Antigua Labour Party, under the leadership of V.C.  Bird, who was succeeded in 1993 by his son Lester Bird, continued to win every election until 2004.

The United Progressive Party, led by Baldwin Spencer, won the 2014 general election; and retained the government in the 2009 election. In 2014, the re branded Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) led by Gaston Browne was able to recapture the government with 56.6% of the valid votes and 14 of 17 seats in the House of Representatives.