The lodge was consecrated in 1929, shortly before the formation in 1929 of the
second Labour Government. Its founding was reported in a number of national newspapers including
The Daily Telegraph, and
Sporting Life. It was created at the suggestion of the then
Prince of Wales, afterwards
King Edward VIII, who was concerned by the antagonism between Freemasonry and the British left, and the fact that a number of Labour MPs were blackballed when applying to join Masonic lodges. The New Welcome Lodge was intended to form a link between Freemasonry and the new governing party, and was open to Labour MPs and for employees of trade unions and the Labour party; its members included Labour's deputy leader
Arthur Greenwood.
Hugh Dalton alleged that he had been approached to join the lodge, being told that the association was useful and that Greenwood (then deputy leader) was a member. When the
Parliamentary Labour Party was reduced in strength after its split at the
1931 general election over
Ramsay MacDonald's formation of the
National Government, numbers were reduced, and in 1934 membership was opened to all men working in the
Palace of Westminster. Sir
Walter Liddall was the first Conservative MP to be initiated in the lodge in 1937. By 1940, MPs from the three main parties were in the lodge and, since the Second World War, the membership of the lodge has been chiefly drawn from the staff of the Palace of Westminster.
Herbert Dunnico was Master of the New Welcome Lodge in 1931. In 1989, the lodge was the subject of a House of Commons motion put down by the Labour member
Max Madden, who stated that it was then meeting five times a year at
Freemasons' Hall in London. In 1992 it was mentioned in parliament by
Chris Mullin, who claimed that the members included
Tony Baldry and
Sir Gerard Vaughan. ==Alleged influence on 1935 Labour Party leadership elections==