171. Tories on the rocks

The divisions among Unionists – the Conservative Party and the Liberal Unionists, then in government together – over tariff reform massively damaged their electoral chances and came as a real gift to the Liberals. That was on top of Balfour’s Education Act of 1902, which had allowed the Liberals to heal their rifts over the Boer War and come together in attacking the government.

It looked as though the Unionists were heading for a drubbing at the polls in the next general election. But the Liberals weren’t complacent. One of the things they did was come to an agreement with the new Labour Representation Committee led by Keir Hardie, now with four MPs, not to stand a Liberal candidate against theirs in constituencies where they had a real chance of beating the Tory. This may have been a smart move by the Liberals, maximising Tory losses at the subsequent general election. Then again, it may have been a terrible self-inflicted wound, letting in a party that would soon eclipse them as the main party of opposition to the Tories.

When the election came, it was a disaster for the Conservatives and a tremendous win for the Liberals, which took 397 seats in a House of Commons f 670. Labour too surged, wining 29 seats, 24 of them in constituencies covered by the agreement with the Liberals.

The Liberal majority meant that the doors had opened for the leader Henry Campbell-Bannerman to make some real changes in Britain. Sadly for the Liberals, however, though they didn’t yet know it, they had just had their last landslide election win and would soon have their last elections wins of any kind. They were also starting on their last term in government on their own, rather than part of a coalition.

They might be celebrating the present, but the future would turn out much bleaker.

Illustration: Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Liberal leader who led the Liberals into their election landslide in 1906. The picture is from 1907, by London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, National Portrait Gallery P1700(86b)

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.