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Why Did The Liberal Party Win In 1906

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In 1906, the liberal party, Led by Henry Campbell–Bannerman, won the general election. This was seen as a landslide victory for the liberals, who had been out of government for 17 years.
The Liberal Party won 397 seats as opposed to the 156 seats won by the Conservatives. However, in terms of votes, it was closer with the Liberals winning 2,565,644 votes against 2,278,076 for the Conservatives. This wasn't as much a Liberal win but an election that the Conservatives threw away.
In this essay, I will explain the different events that caused the landslide victory for the Liberal Party and the major personalities involved.
Henry Campbell-Bannerman led the Liberal Party from 1898 to 1908, and was Prime Minister of the Liberal Party from …show more content…

The pact was a strategic move from both the Liberal and the Labour parties. The two agreed to work together to ensure that the conservatives lost out in areas where the vote was split between the Liberal and Labour parties.
Another major event in 1903 that split the voters, was a campaign, launched by Joseph Chamberlain, for tariff reform. Chamberlain wanted to abandon the traditional British policy of free trade and replace it with a system of tariffs (taxes) on imports. Britain would charge tariffs on all imports except those from within the empire. To most English men and women, free trade meant cheap food, and so, were understandably reluctant to let it go in favor of imposed tariffs. The Liberal Party took advantage of the situation and started campaigning against the tariffs and defending cheap food and and free trade.
Arthur J. Balfour, the conservative leader, although highly intelligent, lacked political skill. Balfour took over the position as Conservative prime minister after his uncle, Lord Salisbury in 1902, this change did not help the Conservative cause. He was a solitary individual and a poor public speaker. He resigned as leader in 1911 after a 'Balfour must go' …show more content…

The company took the trade union to court, demanding compensation for the strikes. The house of Lords ruled that the company was well within its rights to sue the trade union. Only an act of parliament could over rule the judgment and the conservatives refused to do so. This encouraged the trade unions to campaign against the Conservatives in the election.
Another case in which the Conservative Party did not anticipate such resentment from a large number of their supporters, was the 1902 Education Act. An Act that stipulated that primary and secondary schools would be founded by local rates and was designed to increase funding to schools on a local basis. This caused a lot of resentment from the nonconformists and caused many of them to revert to the Liberals. Before 1902, catholic schools had been funded by their churches. Nonconformists were outraged that their taxes would be spent towards funding schools to which they strongly objected. The liberal Party opposed the Act, and, as a result, there was a significant increase of support for the Liberals after the act was

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