Changing Party Fortunes, 1918-1931 (T1)

Question 1

What did the Liberal Government believe in?

Answer 1

• Free Trade
• Limited role for government

Question 2

What were the Liberal’s a party of?

Answer 2

Social reform

Question 3

What had the Liberal’s implemented from 1906 onwards?

Answer 3

State pensions, unemployment relief and the beginnings of state-provided healthcare.

Question 4

What problems did the Liberal party face?

Answer 4

The appeal of the Liberal party to the middle classes and artisan working class began to decline.

Question 5

Which party became the perceived party of social reform?

Answer 5

The Labour Party

Question 6

What caused a divide in the Liberal party in the sense of the state?

Answer 6

• Many opposed the growth in the power of the state, particularly on the issue of conscription.

Question 7

What caused a divide in the Liberal party with DLG?

Answer 7

• After their 1915 coalition with the Conservatives, DLG becomes PM and many Liberal MPs believed DLG became too close to the Conservatives.

Question 8

How did the Liberal party split?

Answer 8

• DLG campaigned against many members of the Liberal party, this split the party’s vote and they never recovered.

Question 9

Where had the Labour Party evolved from?

Answer 9

Evolved from the Labour Representation Committee of the Trades Union Congress.

Question 10

What was the TUC?

Answer 10

Set up in 1900 as the main organising body of trade union movement.

Question 11

Who were the Labour Party closely tied with?

Answer 11

Closely tied to the unions.

Question 12

What did this close tie with the unions mean?

Answer 12

Saw it as a useful tool in advancing working men’s pay and conditions through getting union-backed MPs into Parliament.

Question 13

How big was the Labour Party in 1906?

Answer 13

Had nearly 1 million affiliated members, and returned 29 MPs to Parliament.

Question 14

What happened in 1911 which benefited the Labour Party?

Answer 14

It became much easier for working-class politicians to be elected to Parliament when the Liberal government allowed wages for MPs.

Question 15

How did this create a shift in politics?

Answer 15

Meant politics was no longer solely an activity for people who were independently wealthy.

Question 16

How much did the British electorate grow in size due to ROPA (1918)?

Answer 16

Grew from 7.7 million to 21.4 million.

Question 17

How did the Conservatives present themselves after WW1?

Answer 17

Presented themselves as a party of the middle classes and those members of the working classes who aspired to ‘better’ themselves.

Question 18

What groups voted for the Conservatives?

Answer 18

Large proportion came from newly enfranchised property-owning women.

Question 19

What were important events when it came to the decline of the Liberal party?

Answer 19

The two elections in 1918 and 1922.

Question 20

What had happened to the Liberal party by 1918?

Answer 20

Lloyd George had effectively split the party.

Question 21

What happened in the 1918 election?

Answer 21

The Liberal-Conservative coalition won a landslide victory.

Question 22

What was the downside to this victory for the Liberals?

Answer 22

The Conservatives had three times as many votes than the Liberals, clearly the favourite party.

Question 23

What happened to the opposition Liberals after the 1918 election?

Answer 23

They experienced a collapse in their vote, partly caused by the popularity of Lloyd George’s coalition and the growth of the Labour Party.

Question 24

What was the immediate cause of the Liberal’s decline?

Answer 24

The actions of Lloyd-George

Question 25

What made Lloyd George likeable?

Answer 25

• Credited as the ‘man who won the war’
• Of humble origins from North Wales
• He was an enemy of privilege and no friend to the House of Lords.

Question 26

What happened in June 1922?

Answer 26

Discovered that Lloyd George had been involved in a scandal selling knighthoods and peerages.

Question 27

How many knighthoods did Lloyd George sell while in power?

Answer 27

1,500 between 1916-1922

Question 28

What else further denied Lloyd George’s credibility?

Answer 28

His decision to go to war with Turkey, which his Conservative coalition partners disagreed with.

Question 29

How many MPs did Lloyd George’s Liberals end up with in the end?

Answer 29

Reduced to 53 MPs

Question 30

What were the two causes of the Liberals decline?

Answer 30

• Lloyd George’s personal unpopularity
• Growth in popularity of Labour Party

Question 31

When was the first Labour Government?

Answer 31

1924

Question 32

Who led the first Labour government?

Answer 32

Led by Ramsey MacDonald, it was a minority government

Question 33

What was the Labour Party committed to in its first government?

Answer 33

Parliamentary democracy and went to great lengths to demonstrate how moderate it was.

Question 34

What was the Labour Party compared to by the Conservatives?

Answer 34

Compared it to the regressive regime in Soviet Russia and suggested there were Soviet sympathisers among the cabinet.

Question 35

What was the main problem MacDonald and his Labour Party faced?

Answer 35

Strained relations with the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.

Question 36

What was MacDonald forced to do?

Answer 36

• Forced to make harsh economic choices that affected the poorest voters.
• Had to manage industrial action.

Question 37

What were MacDonald’s struggles as Prime Minister?

Answer 37

He had to compromise, but the party was critical of him for not being radical.

Question 38

Why couldn’t MacDonald become more radical?

Answer 38

• He was the head of a minority government, dependent on Liberal support.
• Any radical moves could result in their withdrawal of support and collapse of government.

Question 39

What measure was passed in 1924?

Answer 39

The Housing (Financial Provisions) Act 1924

Question 40

What did the Housing Act 1924 do?

Answer 40

Increased the amount of money available to local authorities to build homes for low-income workers.

Question 41

When did MacDonald’s government collapse?

Answer 41

In the autumn of 1924.

Question 42

How did MacDonald’s government collapse?

Answer 42

Following a motion of no confidence which MacDonald narrowly won.

Question 43

How did this motion of no confidence come about?

Answer 43

Following the decision of Attorney General Sir Patrick Hastings to drop charges of incitement to mutiny against a socialist newspaper.

Question 44

How did the Labour Party lose more credibility in the General Election of 1924?

Answer 44

The Daily Mail claimed that a letter from Grigori Zinoviev (A communist) to the British Communist Party had been intercepted.
- Hoped it would persuade people to not vote for any left wing party.

Question 45

What was the outcome of the General Election of 1924?

Answer 45

The Conservative Party under Stanley Baldwin won and was able to form a majority.

Question 46

What was the Liberal Party’s result in the General Election of 1924?

Answer 46

12% decline in its share of the vote and a loss of 118 seats.

Question 47

How did the Conservative Party gain more voters?

Answer 47

• First-time Labour voters who were disappointed with RM switched to Conservatives.
• Liberal voters who had lost faith in the ability of the party to revive itself.

Question 48

What was the new Conservative government formed by Stanley Baldwin like?

Answer 48

• Presented itself as an alternative to the Labour Party and the ‘threat’ of socialism in Britain.

Question 49

How did Baldwin want to be seen as?

Answer 49

As a moderate politician who could appeal to all social classes.

Question 50

What did Baldwin discourage?

Answer 50

Discouraged the Conservative Party from attacking Labour as secret agents go the USSR.