preview

Why Did The Liberal Party Lose The 1906 Election

Decent Essays

Liberal Party's Victory in the 1906 General Election

In the 1906 general election, the Liberal party dramatically increased their number of seats from 184, in 1900 to 400. In contrast, the Conservative party, who had dominated British politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries lost nearly half their seats in 1906, decreasing from 402 to 157. A combination of Liberal strengths and Conservative weaknesses, as well as other circumstances at this time meant that this sudden change occurred.

The Conservative party introduced two new acts just before this General Election which greatly decreased their popularity. The Education Act of 1902 was an attempt by the conservatives to …show more content…

This act, nicknamed ‘The Brewers Bill’ was another attempt by the Conservatives to introduce reform, which ended in their popularity decreasing in the 1906 election. These acts were important, not only because they weakened Conservative support but also because they gave the Liberal party new policies to increase popularity: they promised to reverse the Education and Licensing Acts, which made them more attractive to Non-Conformists. The reforms gave the Liberal party strength: whereas in 1900, they had been split over the issue of home rule and had suffered from ‘faddism’, the party now had something they could all campaign against.

Despite these two attempts at change, the Conservative leader, Balfour, who was elected in 1902 was criticised at this time for not introducing enough social reforms. As a wealthy aristocrat, he appeared to be put of touch with the working class men, many of whom had just been awarded the vote in 1884 and were beginning to take an interest in politics. Although, the unemployed workmen act of 1905 helped the unemployed find work through labour exchanges, set up by distress committees, Balfour refused to give these committees any government funding and they had to rely on charities: to many of the working class, he seemed uninterested in the welfare of the people. Austen Chamberlain even stated that

Get Access